She Once Vanished, page 1
SHE ONCE VANISHED
ZACHARY GOLDMAN MYSTERIES
BOOK NINETEEN
P.D. WORKMAN
ABOUT SHE ONCE VANISHED
PD Workman's a genius at getting; under the character's skin and. making you feel you know exactly what Zachary and Kenzie are up against, as the action and tension rise and they repeatedly find themselves in danger.
ROSEMARY, GOODREADS REVIEWER
Once again an outstanding story full of mystery and suspense. A popular social media influencer disappears, was she kidnapped or just hiding. Full of suspense and secrets to keep you wondering what could possibly happen next.
JACKIE, GOODREADS REVIEWER
The Elysse Enigma
Step into a world of mystery and intrigue
When Elysse vanishes without a trace after a heated argument on a romantic getaway, Dain never thought he'd see her again.
But now she's back, telling a story that doesn't add up. How did she disappear into thin air only to reappear days later, thousands of miles away in the Grand Canyon?
Enter Zachary Goldman, a seasoned PI with a knack for solving the most puzzling cases. He is on the case to unravel the mystery behind Elysse's disappearance and to find out the truth of what happened during those five days.
As he delves deeper into the investigation, the stakes rise higher and higher. Will Zachary uncover the truth before it's too late? Find out in this gripping PI mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
Praise for the series:
What a great story. Fabulous plot with interesting and complex characters. I was totally involved into the wee hours. Many twists and left waiting until the end. Highly recommended
Wow! I just finished it. In one day! I could not stop reading it! This book grabs hold of you from the start. It’s a very well written detective novel. It pulls you not the story and is very emotional. You feel for the characters. This is the first novel I have read by this author but it will not be my last. I highly recommend this book.
Zachary Goldman, Private Investigator, is flawed with a capital F. Shattered by the tragedies of his own life, he will somehow still manage to pick himself up and dig just a little bit deeper than anyone else to piece together the vital clues and solve the mystery.
Maybe being broken makes it easier for others who have faced tragedy to trust him. Walk with Zachary as he solves cases that will stretch his abilities to the limit.
Even with his own life in shambles, Zachary Goldman is still the one you want on the case.
Looking for a suspenseful read that will keep you up all night and stay with you long after the last page?
Investigate this P.I. Mystery now!
Dive into this riveting PI mystery today and discover the truth behind Elysse's disappearance. Are you ready for a suspenseful journey filled with intrigue and suspense? Don't miss out on this captivating read!
Copyright © 2025 by P.D. Workman
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 9781774687345 (KDP Paperback)
ISBN: 9781774687352 (KDP Hardcover)
ISBN: 9781774687369 (Large Print)
ISBN: 9781774687376 (Lulu Paperback)
ISBN: 9781774687383 (ePub)
ISBN: 9781774687390 (Accessible Audio)
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To those trying to start their lives
again
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Epilogue
Currying Death
Preview Chapter 1
Preview Chapter 2
Also by P.D. Workman
About the Author
1
Although Zachary was a private investigator, there wasn’t usually any cloak-and-dagger involved. That was for spies, not private investigators, and even the spies he knew didn’t use that sort of thing. But his new client had insisted on absolute privacy, and Zachary understood why.
His client had checked in at a motel under a name that was not his own, probably paying cash. Even so, the motel manager had probably taken down his license plate number so he would have a way to trace him if he trashed the room or ran up long-distance charges. If the car was a rental, that was one more hurdle to overcome to find out who the man who had asked to meet Zachary really was.
Zachary knew who he was supposed to meet. They exchanged several emails before graduating to a phone call so that Zachary could talk to him in real-time and try to get his questions answered.
But Zachary would not take on the case until he knew for sure that the man was who he purported to be. It would not do for a private investigator to be hoodwinked by accepting a retainer from someone who was not who he said he was. A public scandal would not be good for business. People liked to think the person they were hiring knew what he was talking about.
Zachary parked down the street from the motel and walked in. If the new client had any shadows—reporters, law enforcement types, or rabid fans—Zachary did not want his car to be identified or targeted.
No one seeing Zachary would give him a second look. In fact, most would avoid taking even a first look. He was on the short side and skinny, having to work to keep his weight up to the low-healthy zone. His hair was dark and buzz-cut short, the epitome of easy to care for. He usually had several days’ growth of beard, making him look scruffy and unkempt.
People did not like being approached by a scruffy, possibly homeless man. They would cross to the other side of the street to avoid him. They would not look at him very closely and if asked to describe him, they probably wouldn’t be able to. That was how he kept his anonymity. Not with dark glasses, a hat, and a trench coat. Just social stigma.
He watched for anyone suspicious on the street. People hanging around who didn’t belong. Sitting in their cars for more than a minute or two. Anyone who was obviously watching the motel.
Everyone seemed to be minding their own business. No one watched Zachary’s progress as he made his way down the street, pausing occasionally by garbage cans as if he might be looking for bottles or discarded food.
Eventually, he had reached the motel. He looked at each car in the parking lot. No one was sitting in any of them. No one smoking and studiously looking in the other direction. Nothing of any note.
Zachary knocked on the door he had been told to, though there was no car in the parking spot assigned to that room. He’d been told to knock loudly, which seemed to contradict the client’s wish to remain unnoticed, but Zachary followed his instructions anyway.
A curtain twitched two motel rooms down. Zachary stood still, watching it, waiting for the door in front of him to open. Instead, the door two rooms down opened, and a young man stuck his head out the door.
“Mr. Goldman. Come down here.”
Zachary joined him. The man shut, locked, and chained the door. He closed the blinds and pulled the curtain straight so that there was no way for anyone outside to see in. The stale air inside the motel room was tinged with a faint scent of bleach and cigarette smoke.
The man turned to look at Zachary. He removed dark glasses, which had probably made him half-blind in the dim motel room.
“Well, you wanted to see me face-to-face,” he told Z
Zachary was mildly surprised that the man was who he said he was. That he had told the truth about moving to Vermont and wanting to hire an obscure private investigator and have him investigate a case that, as far as the police were concerned, was not a crime. The file had been closed and life went on for the rest of the world. For everyone except Dain Porter and Elysse Allan.
Zachary held his hand out to Dain Porter to shake.
“Good to meet you, Mr. Porter.”
“Dain. And may I call you Zachary?”
He nodded. He always preferred that his clients call him by his first name. Mr. Goldman was just too formal.
“Have a seat.”
The motel room was provisioned with a small table and two straight wooden chairs, and Dain and Zachary both sat down. Dain stood again to fill a cup of coffee from the small motel room carafe. “Can I get you one?”
“Sure.” Zachary could always use another cup of coffee.
Dain brought both cups over to the table and sat down again. He looked around as if he thought he might have forgotten to do something else. Traffic hummed in the distance and there were occasional voices or the sounds of footsteps from the other motel rooms. Then he brought his gaze back to Zachary, studying him for a moment as if he weren’t sure he could trust him.
“I’m not much to look at,” Zachary told him. “But you wouldn’t want me attracting attention.”
“No,” Dain agreed. He looked at the window, confirming that no one could look in at them. This was what he had become. Someone who was hunted everywhere he went. He always had to be on the alert. Always looking over his shoulder, and in front of him, and on his flanks. He could never be sure that he hadn’t been seen and recognized.
“I didn’t see anyone suspicious,” Zachary confirmed. “I don’t think you were followed.”
“No. Of course not. That’s good.”
“I appreciate you meeting with me in person. I know this is probably not what you had in mind when you first emailed me.”
“No, that’s true. I figured I’d just be able to email you, and you would take the case.” He gave a crooked smile. “But I appreciate that you didn’t. I appreciate that you respected my privacy enough to ensure that it was actually me and not someone else using my name.”
“I suppose I could just have verified it was you via a video chat, but with all of the technology available these days… it wouldn’t be that hard to fake a video.”
Dain nodded. “I’ve seen some pretty convincing deepfakes. I appreciate your caution.”
“Good. Now that I know it is you, and you know my rates…”
Dain pulled out his phone. He tapped the screen a few times, and then Zachary’s vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to see the notification that the e-transfer from Dain had been auto-deposited into his account.
That was the second matter taken care of.
“Thank you. So… why don’t you tell me exactly what you hope to get from this investigation?”
Dain rolled his eyes. He had, of course, already told Zachary what he wanted him to investigate. He didn’t see why he should go through it all again. But Zachary wanted to be clear on exactly what Dain wanted him to find out. What he wanted Zachary to do was no small undertaking. Zachary needed to know the exact parameters and when Dain would consider the job complete. What if what Zachary discovered wasn’t what Dain had hoped to find? What if the truth were something quite different?
“I want you to find out what happened to Elysse when she disappeared,” Dain said firmly. “What really happened, not the story she told the world.”
“What do you think happened?”
Dain looked away. “I don’t know. I wish I did. But the story Elysse told when she got back didn’t make any sense. It didn’t fit. She would never do something like that.”
Zachary nodded slowly. It was easy for one partner in a relationship to be wrong about who their partner was. It happened all the time. People who thought they knew each other found themselves incompatible. Or they discovered that their partner had been pretending and wasn’t who they said they were. People kept secrets, some of them buried deep until, one day, they wouldn’t stay buried any longer.
“Why don’t you tell me what you know?” he told Dain. “The full story from your point of view.”
“You already know my story; it was all over the media.”
“The media adds or omits things, gets things wrong. I want to hear it directly from you. Everything.”
2
“It’s not that complicated,” Dain sighed, raking a hand through his hair as frustration flickered across his face. “We had an argument. Elysse stomped off. It wasn’t the first time she’d done that. I knew that she would cool down, and then she would come back, we would make up, and… happily ever after.”
“Or at least until the next fight.”
Dain shrugged. “No relationship is perfect. People argue. Couples have different opinions. Personalities. Elysse and I are both… passionate people. We love each other. We have arguments. Sometimes yell at each other. And then it blows over. We make up… just as passionately.”
He actually blushed.
Zachary chuckled. “So that’s the summary, the short story. I’d like to hear more. If you want me to be able to figure out what happened, I need all the nuances, the little things that happened along the way. More about your relationship, your plans, and how they went off the rails.”
Dain rubbed a hand over his face. “That seems like a waste of time. I know what happened when we were together; I want to know what happened when she left.”
“How far have you gotten on that in the last six months?”
“I’m not a private investigator,” Dain snapped. “If I was, I wouldn’t have needed to hire you. I would have just figured it all out on my own.”
“Well, I am a private investigator and I need more information than you have given me. How did the two of you meet?”
“Why do we need to go back that far?”
“I need background. I need more details about your relationship. I need to start building a profile of Elysse that is not just based on her Instagram feed.”
Dain sighed. “Remember before Instagram was a big thing? We knew each other in school. Grew up together. Small community in Oregon. She was this cute girl who attended some of the same classes as me. Back when we were both awkward and gawky, before she was a social media influencer.”
“And you liked each other back then?”
“Sometimes yes and sometimes no.” Dane laughed. “You know kids… boys and girls fight, don’t want anything to do with each other in the younger grades. And then you start to grow up and the hormones and social pressure take over. Then suddenly, you’re looking at each other in a totally different light.”
