Book: Finding
Jayda
Author:
Samantha Johns
Genre: Romantic
Suspense
Jayda Parrish was a St. Louis girl
through and through, raised on gooey butter cake and Ted Drewes frozen custard.
She came from humble working-class beginnings and was employed in a fuse
factory in a lower-class part of town, despite her natural talents that could
have afforded her a much better future.
Fed up with her life, she plans a
calculated escape from her abusive, alcoholic boyfriend, which includes faking
her own death. Her escape works, but with unforeseen results. A series of
life-threatening situations, and near-death challenges befall her as she flees
her old life. The police now hot on her trail.
Along the way Jayda encounters an array of
colorful and unforgettable characters that transform her view of life and her
expectations of happiness. During her journey Jayda finds a wonderful man and
learns about true love, while facing the fight of her life to hang on to it
all.
Jayda’s character develops as one twist and
turn confronts her after another in a fast-paced all-encompassing love story of
deepest proportions. She finds strengths she didn’t know she possessed and
learns to love more profoundly than she ever could have imagined possible.
A romantic suspense story that includes
mystery, ancient myths and long-held secrets.
The sound of police sirens pierced
the chilly Halloween night. It was 3 a.m., but the early hour did not
deter onlookers from leaving their beds to shout angry accusations safely from
their side of the rickety fence. If this simple wire and wood
structure failed to protect them, surely the cops pacing to and from the shabby
little house would. These two sisters did not appear to like this man
who had lived next door to them for years. He had managed to violate
every known courtesy of neighborly conduct. St. Louis
Homicide Detective Ben Foxx carefully observed every
detail.
“Murderer!” they screamed at
officers walking near the shabby cottage. “That creep killed
her. Everyone knew he would do it someday. Ask
anybody. Arrest him. Give him the electric chair,” they
ranted and raved, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes taking
turns. It was almost as if they had agreed upon a plan to keep their
noisy protests constant.
A frightened and confused Carson
Liddell sat in a grimy plastic backyard patio chair awaiting
questioning. Carson’s wild and shaggy red hair covered his eyes, as
it usually did, but he could still throw his evil stare at the two ranting
women with his yellow-hued pupils. They smiled back at him confidently,
as if they could not imagine the possibility that they would be deprived the
joy of watching him being hauled away in handcuffs.
“I'm telling you she's been
abducted,” Carson fumed as Foxx approached, dragging another patio chair over
for their conversation. “I came home and found everything just as you
see it now—the blood, the knocked-over furniture—and Jayda's gone. I
had nothing to do with this. Someone came here and took her
away.” He was rambling, trying to convince everyone who had ears to
hear that he was innocent. Carson Liddell was visibly shaken. Not
with concern for his girlfriend, but for fear of his own
situation.
“And why would anyone want to
abduct Jayda Parrish,” Ben asked incredulously. “There is no motive
for that—no ransom money. Why do you think this, Mr.
Liddell?”
“How the hell do I know?” he answered angrily.
“There are lots of weirdoes out there. Maybe someone did it to get at
me somehow. Lots of people hate
me.”
“You say you had been at an AA
meeting all evening,” asked Detective Ben Foxx, soberly and calmly, while
typing information into his notebook computer. “Do you have any
witnesses who can verify your alibi for those hours? Isn't it rather
late for that type of thing?”
“It's Halloween. There
was a party after the meeting, and I hooked up with some new people—okay, a new
woman. The conversation ran pretty long,” he
said.
“So, can you give me the names of these people you were
with?” he pressed.
“Well, none of us use last names,”
he said with apparent concern about this predicament. His pockmarked face
contorted to form deep creases over his brow. “Anonymity is taken
very seriously in AA. I can give permission for someone to reveal my
identity, but I could get in real trouble telling you about anyone else in the
group.”
“You're already in trouble,” stated
Ben Foxx without emotion. His deeply serious tone seemed to stun
Carson into an even deeper sense of panic. The whites of his eyes
expanded and bulged, showing streaks of red blood
vessels.
On hearing the word
trouble, Carson clearly saw himself facing jail—a place
where both inmates and guards would find reasons to mistreat him. Ben
Foxx watched as the man reacted like someone who had lived it all before and
had emotional scars to show for it. He could see all of this by
reading Carson’s face and watching his gestures. Suddenly, this man
no longer cared about respecting some ridiculous principle such as
anonymity. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a worn and
folded piece of paper.
Born in rural Texas, Samantha has traveled extensively in
her formative years. When she was small her parents traveled to England where
she started pubic school as a young girl. Later her family moved to France, New
York, Missouri and now she resides in Los Angeles. She's held jobs as diverse
as law librarian to college professor to government worker. She has a BA and
Writer's certificate from UM-St. Louis and a Master's degree in Communications
from Webster University. She's co-authored books for Publications, Intl. as
well as having many numerous published magazine articles. She enjoys attending
Women's Literature and Fiction Writing groups to review current books and to discuss
writing with her peers.
She enjoys the freedom she experiences with creative
writing, especially a good story with plenty of twists and turns and
suspense.
