Hiding in Plain Sight

Kierra’s chest suddenly felt too tight to take a breath. She desperately wanted to tell him to stop talking, to run away. She

wished she had never come to town, and that she was anywhere but here listening to Bryan’s calm, soothing voice.

“I can also tell you the thing that’s going to be the hardest to hear. The explosion was ruled an accident. It appears that they only did a cursory investigation, but there was no reason to suspect foul play. It was ruled an accidental gas leak. Most importantly, in that investigation they didn’t find a fourth body in the house. The only victims of that explosion were your grandparents, and your mother.”

Somewhere in the distance a bird chirped and parents cheered at the Peewee football game. Kierra heard it all as though it were a million miles away. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think.

Her stepfather was alive somewhere.

No one believed her ten years ago, no one was going to believe her now, but she knew for certain that somehow he was

responsible for the explosion that killed her family.

And he was still out there somewhere.