Places That Are Gone

“A dark, twisted tale of sex, drugs, and murder, all woven into the zeitgeist of our nation’s capital.” —Edgar Award–winning author I.S. Berry

1986, Virginia. Bennett Wilder is just going through the motions, scraping by in a dead-end job and numb to his wife’s latest affair. Then he sees the hitchhiker, an attractive young woman who needs a ride to Washington, DC. Flirty and spontaneous, she’s just what Bennett needs to snap him out of his dull routine.

Liz Messina hitchhiked from Florida, leaving her three-year-old son in the care of her mother. The child’s father is Jaime Rodriguez, a drug dealer in the capital city. He’s threatened to take their son if he doesn’t get the money she owes him. Liz will do anything to protect her son, even if it means seducing a nice guy like Bennett into helping her as a drug mule.

But when the delivery goes wrong, Bennett and Liz go on the run, pursued by criminals and cops. Liz knows Jaime wants her and Bennett dead. But what she doesn’t know is that Bennett harbors a dark secret that makes him unpredictable and dangerous to their enemies—and himself . . .