Excerpt from Deadly Image

                                                                   CHAPTER ONE

“I didn’t do anything to my daughter!” Lexi Yates glared across the gray rectangular table separating her from the sharp-suited FBI agent in the interrogation room of the Gator Bayou Police Department. She gritted her teeth and silently counted to ten. If this man accused her of harming Anna one more time, she would deck him.

       Seriously.

       A full-fledged right hook across his smug, angled jaw.

      Of course, she should be grateful the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment agency sent a team to her small Louisiana town so quickly to lead the investigation in her  daughter’s disappearance, but this particular CARD agent seemed to be wasting precious time interrogating her instead of looking for her child. Why wasn’t he out there gathering evidence instead of asking her the same questions over and over again? Anna could already be…

       Tears stung her eyes. Lexi blinked and steeled her mind against the flood of horrific thoughts. She couldn’t help Anna if she fell to pieces.

       She had to stay strong.

       No matter what horrible crime she was accused of.

       “Ma’am, you could make this so much easier for both of us if you would just tell me what really happened to your daughter.” Agent Ace Valdez expelled a weary sigh and leaned forward, elbows resting on the chipped gray table.

       Cold, almost-black eyes pierced hers.

       Waiting.

       Lexi gripped the Gucci handbag in her lap. A wave of nausea surged toward her throat. She shoved it down. The stench of mold and stale cigarette smoke in the room didn’t help her churning stomach. With its cold, impassive atmosphere and dark gray brick walls, the interrogation room mirrored the agent’s frosty demeanor. The room, just like the entire sparsely populated town of Gator Bayou, seemed to be accusing her of this unspeakable crime.

      Panic seized her throat; blood pounded in her temples. Her hand tightened around her purse. She should have taken her anxiety meds before she came to the precinct, but she had been in such a hurry to get here hoping they had some news about Anna she had forgotten. Now, a full-blown panic attack taunted her sanity. But there was no way she was going to pop a pill in front of this man. Even though her prescription was perfectly legal. For some reason, everyone from the local sheriff to this fancy-shmancy FBI agent – from who knows where – seemed to think she had hurt her own daughter and made up this elaborate story of a kidnapping.

       Popping a pill probably wouldn’t help her case right now.

       “I’ve already told you what happened. Just like I told the sheriff yesterday and every other Tom, Dick and Harry who has asked in the past twenty-plus hours. Why isn’t anyone listening to me? Someone picked up my daughter from daycare around two o’clock yesterday afternoon. Someone who wasn’t on the authorized list.” Lexi narrowed her eyes and focused on the agent rather than her body’s imminent panic attack. “Agent Valdez, why aren’t you out looking for my daughter?”

        “We have several law enforcements combing the area as we speak. My job right now is to find out anything that might help us find Anna. Since you were the last person to see–”

        “I was not the last person to see my daughter. Mrs. Jenkins at Lil’ Gators Daycare was the last person to see Anna.” Lexi slammed her palm on the table.