I don’t know why when I opened up this blog I was shocked to see in the flyer the word “unknown” in multiple places. The typos stood out. How, I wondered, would I be able to get those fixed? It has been probably nine years since I got a graphic designer to create the flyer. How had I missed all those mistakes all those years ago?
I’d like to think I’m in the final stages of getting this book finished and dread the idea that an equal number of errors slipping by. But, alas, it will undoubtedly be the case.
I think I entered this project with guarded optimism. Call it hubris. I believed it possible that the person responsible for killing Patty Vance would see some form of justice. I was more confident about that than I was about getting a book written. And yet the first draft is done. And there has been zero movement on the case.
One piece of feedback the editor I hired gave me was to rewrite the ending — to make it more upbeat. And yet what could that high note possible be? Sure, there were moments during this journey when I got a glimpse of the humanity in people: Harold Vance, her older brother, for one. The detective that invited me over to his table during the AISOCC conference. Okay, really everyone at the AISOCC conference was generous with their time and empathetic. I know I should not become attached to outcomes, that I should live in the present, embrace the uncertainty, blah, blah, blah. I can almost clear those hurdles on good days. It’s the last bit that comes along with that advice “trust that everything will work out in the end” that stops me short. Nothing has “worked out.” No real progress was made on the cold case.
What happened to Patty Vance exactly now must be dropped in the box marked The Great Unknown.
