Page 3 of Just Hide

Cami took a look.

"Missing Person Case: Jenna Lark."

She felt a chill as she saw the file's full title. She opened it feeling cold and sick inside, as if this would mean coming face to face with a level of evil that up until now, she'd only imagined.

Then Cami stared, frowning.

As she read through the case notes on his laptop, it seemed that Liam had started everything off by the book.

He'd interviewed her parents. There was her father's testimony, and she could almost imagine his heavy face set in hard lines, his domineering frown as he gave the official verdict that according to him, Jenna was a runaway who'd been a rebel and a difficult child. No wonder she’d rebelled against his heavy handed, authoritarian manner and his unwillingness to give anyone else a voice.

But Liam had done everything right, at first. So Cami thought. She was surprised. In fact, a lot of what he'd done had not found its way into the case file she'd accessed on the FBI database.

He'd interviewed a number of her school friends. He'd interviewed her teachers. He'd gone to the neighbors and spoken to them. He'd requested camera footage from the cameras that were on the two closest corners in the neighborhood. He'd looked up other missing person cases in the area over the past couple of years to identify similarities. It seemed he’d been working hard on it.

Cami now felt totally confused. At what point had this case veered off course?

And why had track-and-destroy software been put on the case file in the FBI online archives?

Staring down at these long-ago case notes, now more than six years old, Cami felt totally unprepared for what she’d discovered. There were more sub folders here to be explored, but her focus was interrupted by a knock on the door.

She got up from her desk and walked the four steps to the door. That was all it took to reach it in her small student accommodation.

Cami had been so preoccupied by the case file that she hadn't even wondered who might be knocking. She was used to fellow students and even professors dropping in to discuss work or talk about projects. There wasn't a high expectation of privacy or alone time in the sociable environment of the student digs.

She opened the door and gasped, shock flooding through her.

She was face to face with a ghost.

CHAPTER TWO

For one astounded moment, Cami thought it was Ethan standing there. The similarity was eerie: same bone structure, same sparkling, hazel eyes, same height and breadth of shoulders, even the same strong shape to his mouth and jaw. That same open look to him, as if he was a really cute, determined, grown up Boy Scout.

She felt as if she'd literally been punched in the gut.

"Cami Lark?" he said.

Same voice. She stared at him, eyes prickling with tears.

"I'm sorry," he said, now frowning. "I guess I should have warned you. I'm Kieran, Ethan's younger brother."

Cami couldn't help it. The tears were streaming from her eyes as she stared at him. Memories surged, ripping open painful places within her.

Shaking her head, she found herself still unable to speak. The only thought that seemed to be operating in her mind was the fact that she had caused his brother's death.

Kieran stepped forward, offering her a tissue from his pocket. She nodded and took it, wiping her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she said, her voice shaking. She stepped back, gesturing for Kieran to come in.

She closed the door behind him.

There was only one chair in the room, and that was the one wedged in the corner behind her desk. Cami gestured to the bed, and Kieran sat down. She sat, too, as if her legs couldn't hold her up anymore.

She was thinking back to the conversations she and Ethan had had on their couple of dates. He'd mentioned his baby brother, just two years younger than him, with a smile.

"He's an engineering student at Boston University. Great guy. Far smarter than me!"

Now, here she was, sitting on her bed with this great guy, who didn't have a brother anymore, bawling her eyes out in sorrow and regret.

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