kayaks and sea

© TJ Paris

Their equipment sat quietly on the beach next to a placid sea. There was no sign of danger, no storm clouds, no menacing fog, nothing to say that Brad’s and Cheryl’s disappearance was the result of foul play or misadventure.

The two kayaks, life jackets, and oars were left abandoned when they should have been the fruition of a vacation they’d planned together for years.

Carolina Beach Detective Philip Lewis was baffled. How the hell did the Conklins just vanish?

“I don’t get it, Lewis. Broad daylight. Calm seas. No signs of struggle. What happened here?”

“Who knows, Davis. Alien abduction maybe?”

Junior Detective Estella Davis blurt out a short laugh. “I wouldn’t put that in a police report. What now?”

“Do our due diligence. Maybe someone saw something. Assign some uniforms to canvas the area and start asking questions.”

By nightfall, Brad and Cheryl Conklin were thousands of miles away traveling separately under different identities. The money Cheryl embezzled would let them live like royalty when they met again in Belize.

I wrote this for the FFfAW Challenge for the week of 8-01-2017 hosted by Priceless Joy. The idea is to write a piece of flash fiction based on the photo prompt above of between 100 and 175 words, with 150 being the ideal. My word count is 172.

To read more stories based on the prompt, go to InLinkz.com.


26 thoughts on “Missing

  1. Have you read the canoe mans wife? I am not sure if you are in the uk, but a guy tried to fake his death and was known as the “canoe man” in the media. I can find the link if you are interested.



  2. Good story. So long as they’ve covered up the money trail they stand a chance. ~I hope they embezzled the money from a greedy corporate bank or company and not some pension fund or charity!


  3. The prompt and your story reminded me about the U.K. case of Lord Lucan… I so nearly wrote about Lord Lucan for this prompt.


  4. They are probably sitting back enjoying the use of all that money, but the bank will certainly be pushing for a thorough investigation and with luck, the case will be solved…hopefully, before they spend all of the money! I always think of the extended family they may have. Sooner or later they may contact them and perhaps a trail will be established leading to them. Great story and this kind of thing has been tried…who knows , how many times with some success I’m sure.


    • Actually, the quote from 1 Timothy 6:10 (NASB) says: “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

      The other question is whether this couple embezzled just to get rich and live it up, or did they need the money to escape something else?


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