The Lie - Debra Webb Page 0,1

transition some of the keepsakes from her childhood home and then sell the place.

Except that last part hadn’t happened. Instead, she had fallen in love with this little cottage and its cozy bohemian theme, and she’d left her mom’s house exactly as it was except for a few things she had brought here to her cottage. Eventually she’d have to sort through things with an eye toward downsizing and sell the place, but not now.

Maybe next year.

Right now, she sat down at her desk, stared out the window at the darkness beyond. The view from nearly every window was the same—the lake. It was so calming, it made her want to be still, to just be.

The excitement and endless possibilities of the city had kept her jumping and moving, her mind humming. She’d prowled Manhattan and the other boroughs for ten years. She’d traveled all over the country interviewing survivors of the worst sorts of monsters—cold blooded murderers. One of these days she might even finish the book she had started ages ago. She had been approached with the idea of publishing more than once. Recently, she’d started work on the project again. Maybe it was time she saw it all the way through.

“Maybe one day I’ll actually have something completed to submit,” she muttered before sipping her wine once more. The truth was, she’d been mentally toying with the project for months before actually opening the file on her laptop. Not that she’d told anyone. Well, she might have mentioned it to her closest friend. She smiled as she read the sender of the new email she’d received. Nate Decker. Her friend and FBI agent.

How was it possible that so much time had passed without a face-to-face meeting with the man she unconditionally considered her best friend? Five years. Unbelievable. Never enough time, she decided as she opened his email.

Great analysis as always. Time will tell if you’ve solved the crime before the police can.

Lara laughed but it had happened. Over the years she’d figured out the killer before the police once or twice. The local authorities—wherever the heinous crime occurred—were always grateful for the assist but rarely appreciated her telling the world by blogging about it.

She hit reply and selected a wine glass emoji to send to her longtime friend.

Despite the fact that they’d never met in person, she and this handsome FBI agent were as close as possible in a long distance, online way. Five years ago when she’d just started making a name for herself as a blogger in the world of true crime, she’d needed information available only through the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After submitting her request, she had received an email through her site from a Special Agent Nathaniel “Nate” Decker. They’d become fast friends. Obviously as a member of law enforcement, he loved solving crimes just as much as she did. He was intrigued by her depth of research and innate ability to assess a homicide. She had often teasingly suggested he probably thought her to be a closet serial killer and wanted to keep tabs on her. Either way, he was her go-to guy for all things FBI.

Lara leaned back in her chair and sipped her wine. Their online conversations had evolved into text messaging and quite often phone calls. The idea that they’d never met in person was nothing more than proof of how busy they both were. It would have been so easy before she’d come to Tennessee to take care of her mother’s final arrangements. She’d lived in New York all those years and he was in D.C.—a mere train ride away.

Just another downside to city living. Time slipped away so quickly. The next thing you knew five years had gone by.

He’d wanted so badly to come to her mom’s funeral, but he’d had that terrible flu that was going around over the summer. By the time he was fit for travel, Lara just needed to be alone for a while. It was a difficult time for her, and she’d wanted their first in-person meeting to be happy.

Pushing back her chair and standing once more, she considered that she and Nate would have to change that sad fact one of these days. Maybe over the Christmas holidays. She finished off her wine and returned to the kitchen for more. This time she would take it to the front porch. It was cold outside but there was a nice moon shining over the water. She could curl up in