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Blake Pierce

ONCE LOST

Blake Pierce is author of the bestselling RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes eleven books (and counting). Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising six books (and counting); of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising five books; and of the new KERI LOCKE mystery series, comprising four books (and counting).

PROLOGUE

Katy Philbin was giggling as she stepped carefully down the stairs,

Stop it! she told herself.

What was so funny, anyway?

What was she doing, giggling like a little girl – not like the seventeen-year-old she actually was?

She wanted more than anything in the world to act like a serious adult.

After all, he was treating her like an adult. He’d been talking to her like an adult all evening long, making her feel special and respected.

He’d even been calling her Katherine instead of Katy.

She really liked it when he called her Katherine.

She also liked the adult drinks he’d been making for her all evening – “Mai Tais,” he called them, and they were so sweet that she could barely taste the alcohol.

And now she couldn’t even remember how many she’d had.

Was she drunk?

Oh, that would be awful! she thought.

What would he think of her if she couldn’t even handle a few icy, sweet-tasting drinks?

And now she was feeling extremely light-headed.

What if she fell down these stairs?

She looked down at her feet, wondering why they weren’t moving as they should be.

To her embarrassment, she couldn’t even remember exactly why she was here on this flight of wooden steps that seemed to get longer by the moment.

“Where’re we going?” she asked.

Her words came out all fuzzy and sloppy but at least she’d managed to stop giggling.

“I told you,” he said in reply. “I want to show you something. ”

She looked around for him. He was somewhere at the bottom of the stairs, but she couldn’t see him. Just one lamp spilled a small pool of light in a corner far away.

But that light was enough to remind her where she was.

“Oh, yeah,” she murmured. “Down’n your basement. ”

“Are you all right?”