A Familiar Sight (Dr. Gretchen White, #1)

by Brianna Labuskes

The three of them had been inseparable since birth practically, had lived in each other’s pockets always,

“Conspiracy theories play into humans’ worst

“And he’s like the sun, you know?” Claire’s voice had gone a little dreamy, nostalgic. “When he shines on you, it’s the most beautiful summer day.” “And when the clouds come?” Lena prodded, clearly knowing the answer. “It’s so cold it hurts,” Claire said.

Viola had a way of picking the weakest members from the herd. He used to watch her sometimes, before it made him too sick to his stomach to do so, when they were at the playground or a birthday party. Any social gathering was ripe with promise for his little psychopath.

“Well.” This was far from Gretchen’s first case dealing with children who displayed antisocial personality disorders. When the behavior escalated to the point of violence on the level of the Kent case, the parents, almost without exception, tried to hide it first. She’d asked a colleague about it once—confused as to why the parents wouldn’t be the first to hand over a child who must have been nothing but, at best, a headache, at worst, a nightmare. The colleague had shaken her head. “Loving children defies logic,” she’d said, and had left it at that like it was an explanation.

She glanced at the clock on her phone: 4:17 a.m. Too late to bother sleeping, too early to be productive. There were years in Gretchen’s early twenties that she’d loved this time of day. The in-between hours. Like any good sociopath, she’d tried mindless sex, she’d worked her way through most drugs imaginable—though had drawn the line firmly at meth as she liked