Happy Monday! As it’s getting closer to an actual release date for TRUST (shooting for mid-end of December), I thought I’d post a little teaser. The prologue is set twenty years before the story begins….thanks for reading!
How well do you really know your significant other? If they were accused of a crime would you trust in their innocence unconditionally? That’s the premise of TRUST, where 30 somethings Lauren and David are about to get married, until one of Lauren’s students goes missing and she becomes a person of interest.
Prologue
Twenty years earlier….
Melissa Hopkins wanted more than anything to be home in her warm bed, securely tucked
under her thick down comforter. Instead, for what seemed like an eternity, she’d been sitting in a small, windowless room at the local police headquarters, being interrogated non-stop. It made her head ache, although she supposed the drinks she’d had earlier could be a contributor to that as well. Most of her friends had started drinking a few years ago, around age 14. It was common in Waverly, a beachfront community that was busy in the Summer and deadly deserted in the Winter months. Her friends considered her a lightweight as she had always said no, until a few months ago on her sixteenth birthday. Melissa closed her eyes and tried yet again to focus, and to remember what really happened, but her memory was a confusing blur. She suspected that she may have blacked out for a bit. That had happened once before when she’d been drinking vodka, and this time they had been playing quarters on the beach and doing shots. Her stomach did an unhappy flip just thinking about it.
“Melissa, your Mom is waiting outside to take you home. As soon as you tell us what we need to hear, you’ll be on your way. You want to go home Melissa, don’t you?”
The policemen seemed to taunt her. One was a tough Irish looking guy who looked to be in his mid-thirties and was clearly frustrated. The other cop was younger and equally irritated. They started in again, saying the things they’d already said to her, but this time she was hearing them differently. Her mind was too tired to protest.
“Melissa, the other two boys saw you run after Nancy with the murder weapon. Your prints are all over it, along with her blood. You were mad at Nancy, you admitted that already. You obviously did this Melissa.”
Her head started to throb and she pressed a hand against her forehead, willing the pain to go away. “They saw me run after Nancy? Holding something?” It was so hard to focus.
“Yes, Melissa. Just admit you killed her, all the evidence makes it very clear. If you confess things will go much easier for you. We don’t think you meant to do this. You didn’t mean to kill her, right Melissa?”
“No, I didn’t mean to kill her.” Melissa felt bewildered, like she was being pulled underwater or in some kind of surreal dream.
“Say you killed her and you can go home. We can all go home.” Their voices were kinder, and softer and Melissa really, really wanted to go home. She’d lost track of how many hours she’d been in this room, but it was much too long.
“I guess maybe I did it, I’m not really sure. I must have though, right?”
“Yes. Good girl, Melissa. We’ll go get your mother.”