Free Stories (aka Day Trips)

F.B.I. Special Agent Karen Sims draws the high-profile case of a kidnapped billionaire. It serves to remind her of her first kidnapping case as an F.B.I. agent fourteen years ago, a case where the young victim is never recovered. Still haunted by that case, Karen can only hope the current abducted person has his freedom successfully achieved, despite the kind of person Roger Edgewell is perceived to be. As his case unfolds with a ransom demand made, the similarities with another kidnapping a few years ago has Karen and her team on the hunt for the same kidnappers who abducted Susan Wilson. With Susan recovered when the ransom was paid by her parents, expectations of Edgewell’s release were high. When Karen realizes the motives for the two kidnappings couldn’t be more different, the matter of Roger Edgewell’s abduction moves far past a ransom demand.

Discovering another woman with her fiancé when Kaleigh arrives home a day early, Kaleigh hurries from the apartment. Shocked and hurt, Kaleigh soon finds a stranger’s kindness helping her through the ordeal. With the courage the woman named Gwen has given her, Kaleigh is able to quickly face her unfaithful fiancé as well as the other woman, who is still in the apartment. In doing so, with Gwen having encouraged Kaleigh to believe that the matter might have a different explanation, Kaleigh learns the harsh truth of just how wrong Gwen is regarding the pain Kaleigh faces.

Six years have passed for Daniel Laughlin since he lost his parents in a car accident. Still dealing with the pain of that tragedy, the one thing that has eluded him is closure. A nurse who rendered compassion to his mother at the scene was never identified. As much as Daniel and his family wanted to thank the person, the closure he sought might only be gained by learning what his mother’s final words were, which were apparently said to only the nurse. With his life suddenly taking on new hope when his new accountant, Amanda Harper, becomes an integral part of his personal life, he seems able to finally put the pain of his parents’ death behind him. He learns in the most difficult manner that such a hope might not be possible after eventually learning what the unidentified nurse knew about that night.