The Lost Equation - Chapter 3 snippet

3 THE MCKINZIE CASE REFLECTION

Taking a break, I rise and move to the window, my mind drifting

to the case that changed everything - the McKinzie abduction. Even

now, years later, the details are as sharp as ever, etched indelibly into my memory.

I close my eyes, and suddenly, I'm transported back to that fateful

day in France, standing outside the sprawling McKinzie compound.

The air is thick with tension and fear, almost palpable. Little Gemini

Dawn, just two years old, a cherubic child with eyes that sparkled like emeralds, had been taken from what should have been the sanctuary of a private beach. I can still see the desperation etched on Wyndworth McKinzie's face, the raw pain of a father whose world had been shattered in an instant. And Tori Schouler McKinzie, Gemini's mother and Wyndworth's wife, a woman who seemed as if her very soul had been ripped away along with her daughter.

She sat in the study of the main house, Villa Roja, and stared blankly into space, seemingly incapable of comprehending any question asked of her.

She would simply repeat "Gemmie" over and over as if calling her daughter to come home.