Finding Isabella

by Vy Kava

About the Author: Vy Kava, a the 2016 winner of the Derringer Award for Best Flash Story "Hero." Her stories have appeared in various anthologies and in Mystery Weekly Magazine and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. Flash Bang Mysteries picked "Date Night" as Editor's Choice in their Autumn 2018 issue. Her novella "Seeing the Truth" was published on Amazon's e-book. She was also a finalists in the Police Academy Donut Award for her story "Exit Plan."

Excerpt

I was on the trail of a woman and her kid.

All clues pointed to them being holed up in Madawaska, Maine—a town located at the northern tip of Maine. I was on I-95 northbound, making good time and expecting to arrive by mid-afternoon. But all that changed when the sky darkened, taking the sun with it, and snowflakes began falling aimlessly. Light and delicate at first, but their ferocity grew, bringing with them a fierce wind that howled and barked like hungry wolves out on the open prairie and slowed my progress to a crawl.

The wiper blades on my late-model red two-door Ford pickup squeaked and rattled as they streaked across the windshield, moving the fat, heavy snowflakes from side to side, giving me only seconds of visibility. The heater was set to high-plus, blasting all the hot air onto the windshield, trying, but to no avail, from fogging over, but it was doing a fine job of burning and drying my eyes.

Around ten that night, my headlights illuminated the snow-encrusted green sign welcoming me to Madawaska. I had driven straight through from the Massachusetts border, stopping only twice to get gas. Hungry, exhausted, and wanting a hot meal, I took the first exit off the highway, turned left, and in no time found Main Street. The stores were all decked out with snow-covered wreaths and a dazzling display of red and green Christmas lights that shimmered like icicles. But all the storefronts and restaurants were locked tighter than a bull rider’s grip. In a way, I didn’t blame them; it was Christmas Eve.

Story Comments