Upon completion, Dave pulled out his phone and glanced at it, checking the time. “I’m
afraid I have plans for the rest of the day,” he said. “Will you be returning to check the footage?”
Ella was a little taken aback by the sudden formality. “Uh, yeah,” she responded. Dave
nodded and accompanied her back to the car park.
“Just text me when you plan to return,” Dave said.
“Okay,” Ella acknowledged, unlocking the door to Lon’s car.
Dave turned as though to leave, but stopped himself. He leaned down so his face was
level with the car window. “Try not to miss me too much,” he said huskily. Ella’s cheeks burned,
but she was quick to snap back at him.
“As if,” she said, quickly reversing the car. Dave watched her pull away.
Ella decided to wait a few days before checking the footage, to give the thief time to
strike again. She sat in her room at the Tremaine house, pouring over newspaper articles on her
mother’s disappearance. She had them all memorized by this point, but she always wondered
what she could possibly be missing. Who stood to gain by my mother disappearing? She
wondered. The crime seemed both sophisticated and sophomoric; the perpetrator had not left any
fingerprints, markings, or shoe prints, had hidden the body well enough that it was never found,
even eleven years later--but they also had not cleaned up the crime scene very well, had not
thought to take any money to disguise it as a burglary-gone-wrong and had chosen to kidnap and
murder a woman with no political or individual significance publicly.
Ella had looked through photos and records of Hailey’s friends and former co-workers,
and had phoned them all as well, and none seemed to have any reason to hold a grudge against
Hailey. Hailey’s ex-boyfriends were nearly impossible to track down, as she did not keep a
record of them and Hailey did not have any surviving parents. Ella found a photograph of Hailey
with a young man at prom, but there was no other trace of him to be found, and she came to the
conclusion that he was, overall, unimportant in her life. There was no logical, up-front reason
anyone would have wanted to eliminate Hailey, whether for corporeal or emotional gain.
Ella knew there had to be something she was missing. There was something either Hailey
didn’t want anyone to know, or the killer, or both, and that thing had ultimately led to her demise.
Something was missing from the story of Hailey’s life--something she did not wish to have
exposed to the people around her--and that thing, that was the missing link in the story. It had to
be. The only alternative was a meaningless, random crime, but there were no serial killers in the
area at the time of Hailey’s disappearance, and it did appear as though the killer had known
Hailey would be home alone at that time, which would require a level of preparation Ella wasn’t
sure a random perpetrator would indulge. Plus, if it had been some sort of roving rapist or killer,
wouldn’t they have simply let the corpse lie where it fell?
Attempting to uncover the true story of what happened to her mother had turned out to be
the most soul-crushing, frustrating and exhausting endeavor Ella could ever seek to partake in.
She knew she was woefully underqualified and unprepared for the venture, as she lacked the
advanced technology and equipment the police would have access to. She was essentially
Sherlock Holmes-ing her way around, trying, without the use of what she considered to be
necessary gadgetry, to uncover the grand truth of what had happened to Hailey Tremaine to make
her disappear from the face of the earth eleven years prior. Still, she wasn’t giving up. I have to
figure out what the hell happened to my mom, Ella thought, so that I may finally die.
Meet Ella Tremaine, who is hell-bent on discovering what happened to her mother, who disappeared nine years ago on Ella's tenth birthday. She lives with her wicked stepmother, Lacey Tremaine, her two stepsisters, and her cat, dog and mice. She is supported by her best friend, Jack, an enthusiastic but oblivious baseball player; her boss, Lorenzo "Lon" Accardi, a private eye whose enthusiasm outstrips his talent; and Dave, the intriguing and infuriating sunglasses-donning man who captures Ella's heart.
Grace takes place in a fictional, western country called Yaralta. On Ella's tenth birthday, her mother, Hailey Tremaine, disappeared, never to be seen again. The police believe she left of her own accord, and don't do much to find her, but Ella is not convinced. After her father, Marcus "Marc" Tremaine, remarries Lacey, Ella is quickly thrust into an unwelcoming and unloving household when Marc dies in a violent car crash. Ella, at nineteen, works as an assistant for Lon Accardi, a private investigator who mainly works cheating spouses and insurance fraud cases, in an effort to learn the skills necessary to find her mother, who she is convinced is likely dead.
Ella meets a young man originally known only to her as "Dave" when he runs into Lon's car in a gas station parking lot. Ella is furious, and Dave's arrogance and aloof attitude don't help. However, as Ella and Dave start spending more time together when Dave's father asks her to look into the garden supplies being stolen from his shed, they become much closer. Ella may be falling in love with Dave, and Jack may be doing everything he can to keep her away from him, but nothing can distract her from her ultimate goal: solving the mystery of what happened to her mother. Ella eventually realizes that nothing is as it seems, but by then, is it too late?
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