Persistence

One out of three missing persons is Black even though the African-American population is 14%. Experts analyze the discrepancy, but the bigger question is why does law enforcement focus more on missing white people?
Nia Johnson is a Black CNA at St. Luke's Hospital. She lost her husband to sickle cell anemia three years ago and her 16-year-old son died in a car crash two years later. Her father deserted her mother and she grew up as an only child. After burying her mother, her husband, and now her son, she is struggling to pay the bills.
Asha is her life now. She was a good student, bound for college, but she opts to spend a year working at a convenience store to help her mother. The story opens with Asha vanishing after a late shift. She attempts to walk home when Wolf takes her, he has taken other girls and their graves are all out back.
The tale is told in three voices, Nia's, Detective Greg Baker's and Wolf's. Asha attempts to stay alive throughout the story by empathizing with Wolf's dreadful childhood and plotting her escape while her mother and Detective Baker frantically search for her. Too many missing minorities are considered cold cases or criminals who are simply not worth the effort. Nia Johnson has one weapon, her persistence, which is rooted in the love a mother and daughter share.