The Missing Ones

Chapter 1

That year, three residents of Crestmore disappeared.

Here one day, gone the next. For some, like Roxanne Kendal, their disappearance was immediately noticed.

Police were called, search parties sent out, investigations conducted.

For others, like David Batcher, it started with whispers, followed by questions, suspicions, then outright accusations.

Country club memberships were rescinded and friendships broken.

With all three, we never got an answer. Bodies were never found, the crimes unanswered for. That summer was a bloodstain on our perfect community, one that eventually faded, the spot scrubbed clean until it was as if it had never happened at all.

But for the three of us, we didn’t forget that stain. We couldn’t. That history was a part of our lives, the stench of it heavy in our households, the air tainted with the ghosts of the missing.