What Cassie Saw

Cassie saw the van. She saw the driver's face. And he saw hers. It was supposed to be two minutes. Wait outside the diner while Leo's mom finished her shift. Leo, eight years old, gap-toothed grin, his one-eared stuffed rabbit tucked under his arm. Then the thud. The cut-off scream. The white van with its side door yawning open. A flash of Superman blue. A small sneaker kicking. And the man behind the wheel, lean-faced, gold hoop earring, a crow tattooed across his throat, looking straight at her as he drove away. Now Leo is gone, and Cassie is the only witness. The problem is her dad is the police chief, the town is a fishbowl, and the adults have already decided what happened. No van. No tattoo. No crime worth chasing. Just an overactive imagination and a girl who should go home. "You can't just walk in," her best friend Maya warns. "This town's a fishbowl, Cassie. You know how it is." But Cassie notices things other people miss. The bumper sticker she can't unsee. The locket that doesn't belong. The shoe print nobody measured. While the grown-ups look away, she follows the clues into the dunes, the shipyard, and a marsh that hides everything. Each answer drags her closer to the man with the crow tattoo, and to a secret someone in town has already killed to keep. There is a copycat leaving messages she wasn't meant to find. A roadblock that wasn't there an hour ago. A phone call she should never have answered. A confession, when it finally comes, that she never wanted to hear. Leo is still out there. The clock is running down. Every adult who could help her has a reason to keep quiet. And the only person left who believes what she saw is the one the kidnapper has already marked. What Cassie Saw is a breathless, twist-packed YA mystery thriller about a child abduction, a witness no one believes, small-town cover-ups, a deadly reunion, and the courage it takes to chase a truth that could get you killed. Perfect for readers who love race-against-time teen thrillers, amateur-sleuth heroines, twisty whodunits, coastal noir atmosphere, and books like One of Us Is Lying and Truly Devious. A gripping standalone YA mystery.