Two a.m. Normal people are in bed sleeping, or whatever. Not me. I’m meeting a prospective client at the White Castle. Did I mention it was two a.m.? Oh, and it’s mid-December? In Chicago? Long story short, it’s cold. Not a little nippy, not rosy cheek cold, but lose-a-toe cold, sting-your-lungs cold . . . and I made the mistake of dressing light — short jacket, jeans, no gloves, a beanie — daring Jack Frost to do his worst. Who did I think I was?

My name’s Cassandra Raines. Cass. I’m a private investigator, not normal people, so hours don’t mean all that much to me. I follow the business. I work the case, hanging in as long as I need to hang in, day or night, winter or summer. I may be a little obsessive, a little bent, but that’s how I’m wired. All in. No stone unturned. Yada, yada, yada. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I got a call yesterday from a panicked woman named Leesa Evans whose 15-year-old daughter had run away from her foster home. Ramona Titus is the kid’s name. The cops aren’t exactly ripping the city apart looking for Ramona, Evans told me, so she was hoping I could do something to help find her.

I didn’t fault the police . . . much. They had a lot on their plate, more cases than time in the day. I know, I used to be a cop. You could have choked a horse with my caseload.

So, missing kid. Runaway. That’s all I have at this point. Frankly, Evans had me at missing 15-year-old. Chicago streets can be hard and unforgiving, offering zero margin of error for grown folks, let alone a kid. Plus, again, WINTER. 

Then, of course, the brain starts working overtime, doesn’t it? Why did Ramona run away? Why was Ramona in foster care? What was going on in that house that made it so inhospitable? And where do I start looking for a runaway in a city with a population of almost three million? Needle meet haystack.

If I agreed to take the case, and who’re we fooling, I was for all intents and purposes already on it, my days from here on out, until I found Ramona, would be spent scouring the city, asking questions, kicking up snow, risking frostbite. There had to be a reason she ran away.

I’d sleep and eat, but not well or often. Again, it’s just the way I tend to do it. My peeps, my friends, well, more like family—Ben, Barb, Whip, Eli, Mrs. Vincent, Muna, even Pouch, that funny little pickpocket—will be on my back about that. I’ll fight them on it, but it’s good to know I have people who give a flip if I live or die.
But first things first. Ramona Titus. Fifteen. Missing.

If anyone has done anything to that kid, I swear. . .

I’m pulling up to the White Castle now. Cass Raines signing off.

Runner, A Chicago Mystery #4
Genre: Private Investigator
Release: June 2021
Purchase Link

Former homicide cop turned private investigator Cass Raines gets the job done in this page-turning Chicago-set novel from award-winning author Tracy Clark. For mystery/suspense fans as well as fans of Laura Lippman.

Chicago in the dead of winter can be brutal, especially when you’re scouring the frigid streets for a missing girl. Fifteen-year-old Ramona Titus has run away from her foster home. Her biological mother, Leesa Evans, is a recovering addict who admits she failed Ramona often in the past. But now she’s clean. And she’s determined to make up for her mistakes–if Cass can only help her find her daughter.

Cass visits Ramona’s foster mother, Deloris Poole, who is also desperate to bring the girl home. Ramona came to Deloris six months ago, angry and distrustful, but was slowly opening up. The police are on the search, but Cass has sources closer to the streets, and a network of savvy allies. Yet it seems Ramona doesn’t want to be found. And Cass soon begins to understand why.

Ramona is holding secrets dark enough to kill for, and anyone who helps her may be fair game. And if Ramona can’t run fast enough and hide well enough to keep the truth safe, she and Cass may both be out of time.

About the author
Tracy Clark is the Sue Grafton Memorial Award-winning author of the highly acclaimed Chicago Mystery Series featuring ex-homicide cop turned PI Cassandra Raines, a hard-driving, African-American protagonist who works the mean streets of the Windy City dodging cops, cons, killers, and thugs. She received Anthony Award and Lefty Award nominations for her series debut, Broken Places, which was also shortlisted for the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List, named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Books of the Year. Her second installment in the series, Borrowed Time, was a Lefty Award and Anthony Award finalist as well as the winner of the Sue Grafton Memorial Award at the Edgars. In addition to her Cass Raines novels, Tracy’s short story “For Services Rendered,” appears in the anthology Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African‑American Authors. A native of Chicago, she works as an editor in the newspaper industry and roots for the Cubs, Sox, Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks equally. She is a board member-at large of Sisters in Crime, Chicagoland, a member of International Thriller Writers, and a Mystery Writers of America Midwest board member. Visit her website at TracyClarkBooks.com.

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