Forgotten

Chapter One

Chapter One

   "Why couldn't I have been made a morning person?" 24 year old, Detective, Jenna Berkman groaned to herself as the sun peaked through the curtains. Rolling out of bed with her short brunette hair a mess and eyes still half closed, she dragged her feet across the wooden floor to the kitchen. She ate her traditional breakfast of toast and orange juice and got ready for yet another day at work, doing the same old thing.

***

   As Jenna walked into the Anderson, Texas police department, she remembered it was Tuesday. Dave Bernfield, another detective at the department, came up to her with a hot cup of coffee. As usual, grinning at the sight of her made her flush. Dave had been trying to get her to go out with him on a date for three years now; with his bright blue eyes and perfect smile. His blond wavy hair was always clean cut. But Jenna never saw herself going out with him. He was such a good friend and if things didn't work out, it would just complicate things in the department and in their friendship. 

   "One sugar and one creamer right?" Dave asked as if he didn't get her coffee every morning. Jenna ignored the question.

   Today a new guy coming from a police department in California is joining them to find the missing links of five missing people. There is only one factor connecting these victims. They are all from Anderson, Texas. The department is about to lose all hope of finding out what is going on here. It's been one year and three months since the first victim had gone missing. There have been five victims, all close in ages; One as old as 42 years old. The man coming from California is with computer forensics and is said to be the best there is.

   "So where's the geek?" Jenna asked after taking her coffee from him.

   Dave raised his eyebrows, looked behind her and walked away. It took Jenna a second to realize the "geek" was behind her. She flipped around with a nervous grin.

   Not impressed, he said, "Brandon Donavan. The geek's name is Brandon." 

   Jenna tried to hide it. She tried to act as if she had never seen Brandon. She took a silent breath as the memories came back. She forced a smile to her lips. He didn't seem to remember her. "Jenna." She said, trying to keep her voice level. 

***

   Brandon looked at Jenna with one brow raised. He saw the shuffle of her feet and the slight pink that rose to her cheeks. Embarrassed as she was, Brandon decided to cut her a break. Brandon sighed and asked with a smile "You think you could direct me to wherever you got that coffee?"

   With a glance up from her feet, she gave a slight chuckle and a thankful smile. With that, she turned and headed down the hall.

   As Brandon followed close behind, his eyes wondered around the station; watching as detectives had their faces focused on a screen, and their fingers flying over the keyboard. He watched as a drunken man got brought in through the front doors. As Brandon turned to look in front of him, he almost collided into Jenna as she stopped in the room with a table spanning one wall and a sink, counter, and fridge were across the opposite wall. In between were four tables with chairs, waiting for exhausted workers to sit and relax for a minute before getting back to what seemed to be unsolvable cases.

   "The coffee maker is right over there. The creamer is in the fridge."

   Brandon walked over and started filling up the coffee pot.

   A man walked into the room and greeted Jenna. Brandon recognized the man as the chief of the department. The heavy set man slapped a hand on Brandon’s shoulder and greeted him with a wide grin. “Hey there Brandon, haven’t seen you in years!”