The Cold Case (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781989698709)

Detective Mark Friessen uncovers a disturbing mystery: A little girl was taken, but when evidence disappeared, the case was closed.

While cleaning out closed cases, Mark discovers a file on a missing toddler, Gabby Martin. After reading the two pages within, he realizes evidence is missing. The only interviews, by the detective who previously had Mark's job, was conducted with a bitter ex-wife and a former business partner, both of whom pointed at the father.

It appears to have been an open and shut case. The father took Gabby in retaliation for a bitter custody dispute with her mother, and then he killed her. Although no body was found, the father was charged and convicted, and the case was closed.

However, an old woman the town has dubbed Crazy Carla disagrees. She says she saw everything, and she contradicts the investigating detective's notes, yet the local cops pursued only one lead, the father.

As Mark secretly delves into the closed case and realizes that nothing adds up, he reaches out to social worker Billy Jo McCabe. Did social services receive any suspicious reports about the girl or her parents? What Billy Jo soon discovers is a family of secrets, a volatile marriage, and a forbidden relationship-and the mystery of the missing girl, whose body has never been found, becomes a case that should never have been closed.