When People Leave by Leslie Rasmussen (EXCERPT)

We have another terrific excerpt for you today, dear readers, with an absorbing, dual viewpoint look at one of the most traumatic experiences of a person’s life, and the mysterious circumstances that precipitated it.

Leslie Rasmussen’s When People Leave is subtitled A Story Of Love, Lies And Finding The Truth. It follows the three Weiss sisters as they grapple with the aftermath of their mother Carla’s shocking suicide. She left behind no explanation and no note, leaving the women reeling.

The close knit sisters take a break from their everyday lives, their men and their personal issues to move into their mother’s Los Angeles home, searching for answers even as they plan Carla’s funeral. What they discover will lead them on a cross-country trip in pursuit of a mysterious stranger who may have clues as to their mother’s hidden past. But are the women ready for what they’ll discover, especially when it could change everything they ever believed to be true?

Exploring familial relationships, grief, anger and resolutions, this is a tender, heart-filled contemporary novel. Read on for an illuminating excerpt!

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This excerpt is from Leslie A. Rasmussen’s new book, “When People Leave: A Story of Love, Lies and Finding the Truth. Reprinted with permission from Leslie A. Rasmussen and Excitable Boy/Middle Child, Inc.

Morgan

When Morgan found out that her sisters Charlie and Abby had left messages for their mom for two days and still hadn’t heard back from her, she became concerned—so much so that she couldn’t concentrate on anything else. If she hadn’t lived nine hundred and fifty miles away, she would have gone over there herself.

Morgan called Sylvia, Carla’s housekeeper. Sylvia had cleaned her mother’s house every other week since the girls were little. However, Sylvia told Morgan she had been sick with the flu and had not been to Carla’s in over a week.

Morgan tried to convince herself there was nothing to worry about, but her instincts were screaming for her to do something, so she called Carla’s best friend, Ginny. Ginny hadn’t talked to Carla in a few days either but said if Morgan couldn’t get a hold of her in the next few hours, she’d drive to Carla’s house.

Work had been hectic that day, so when Morgan got home, she was more tired than usual. She hung her jacket in the closet and put her slightly dripping umbrella in the stand. It rained so often in Oregon that her umbrella rarely stayed completely dry.

She heard a knock on her door. Through the peephole, she saw two police officers standing on her doorstep, one male and one female. The look on their faces made her stomach lurch, and she suddenly felt the temperature in the room drop twenty degrees. Hundreds of thought balloons were above her head screaming, ‘Don’t open the door,’ but she opened it anyway.

“Hi, I’m Officer Gardner,” the policeman said, “and this is Officer O’Reilly,” he gestured to the policewoman, who nodded. “Are you Morgan Weiss?” he asked.

“Yes…”

“The LAPD called us after doing a wellness check on your mother,” Officer O’Reilly said. “Her friend called when she didn’t answer the door.”

“Is she okay?” Morgan asked.

Officer Gardner and Officer O’Reilly looked at Morgan somberly.

“No. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but your mother has died,” Office O’Reilly said.

“You have the wrong person,” Morgan said.

“Carla Weiss was your mother, correct?” Officer Gardner asked.

“She is my mother. Are you sure it was my Carla Weiss?”

Morgan knew the answer; she just needed to hear it again, yet that was the last thing she wanted. She wished she could put her hands over her ears and drown out anything they were about to tell her.

Officer Gardner nodded. “Yes, they got a positive ID.”

Morgan felt so light-headed that she had to grab the door jamb.

“Maybe we should go inside so you can sit down,” Officer O’Reilly said.

In a haze, Morgan moved away from the door so they could enter. Officer O’Reilly led Morgan to a chair in the living room.

“What happened?” Morgan began to breathe heavily.

“The LAPD will tell you the details,” Officer O’Reilly said gently.

“Please just tell me.”

“They said it was an overdose,” Officer Gardner said.

“That doesn’t make any sense; she barely even drank.” Morgan swallowed hard against the lump in her throat.

“They said there was an empty bottle of Xanax on the floor. The prescription had been refilled recently,” Officer Gardner said. The word “suicide” hung in the silence between them.

The sob that Morgan had been trying to hold back overtook her, and she let out a wail that seemed to come out of her entire being. Officer Gardner stood there looking uncomfortable while Officer O’Reilly put her hand on Morgan’s back.

“Why would she do that?” Morgan squeaked out. She could barely speak; her tongue had gone numb.

“We don’t know, ma’am,” Officer O’Reilly said. “Can we call someone for you?”

“No, I’ll…I’ll…” Morgan’s voice cracked. “I’ll call my sisters.”

As Morgan walked the officers toward the door, she wished their exit meant this nightmare would end, but she knew it was only beginning.

“Your mom’s neighbor Esther has her dog,” Officer Gardner said. “The responding officer found him by your mom’s side.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Officer O’Reilly asked.

Morgan nodded; she couldn’t make any words come out of her mouth. She closed the door and slid down against it. This doesn’t make any sense. Mom was one of the happiest people I know.

Chapter 2
Carla

Carla loved being alive until she wasn’t.

Carla tossed and turned in bed, rolling from her stomach to her left side, then to her right side, then back to her stomach. Her legs became wrapped in satin sheets and her duvet lay crumpled on the carpet. She dreamed that she was lying on her bedroom floor while flying horses danced above her in a Cirque du Soleil ballet sequence. She could smell the hay on their breath as they whinnied and snorted. Carla bicycled her legs toward the ceiling as she tried to grab hold of one of them. It pained her not to be able to ride; she wasn’t fast enough to catch the horses. They rotated around her head like part of a merry-go-round, one that squeaked so loudly it needed oil.

Carla emerged from the dream enough to feel her mattress swaying gently back and forth. Even semi-conscious she assumed they were having a small earthquake. Probably only a 3.5, maybe less, she thought. As a longtime Los Angeles resident, she wasn’t a stranger to the ground moving beneath her, so she barely opened her eyes to see that the day hadn’t even dawned. Carla pulled her sheet over her shoulders, turned from her stomach to her side, and tried to fall back to sleep. But just as she relaxed into it, the shaking started again.

Oh no, it’s the big one! She jumped out of bed, pushing her feet into the ground to steady herself. She raised her hands as if she were about to fight off an attacker instead of Mother Nature. She waited in the dark anticipating what would come next, but the only sound in the room was the whoosh of heat fleeing through the vent.

Albert, part bulldog, part dachshund, part wrinkled loaf of bread, stared at her solemnly. After a moment, he put his paws up on the mattress and pushed on it, causing it to shake again.

“That was you? You scared me, young man.” Carla said to Albert.

She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and glanced at the clock on the dresser. It was only 5:30 a.m.

“It’s Sunday. You have to let me sleep for at least one more hour.” She sighed, kissed him on his furry head, and laid back down. She stretched her legs out, feeling the cool, silken sheets surrounding her body.

As she felt herself drifting off, Albert let out a loud bark. Carla jerked upright, staring at him with raised eyebrows. Albert never barked.

He barked again, even louder and more insistent this time.

“What are you trying to tell me?” She wrinkled her forehead and whispered, “Is someone breaking in?” He put his tail between his legs and ran out of the room. Something inside Carla told her she needed to follow him.

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From When People Leave by Leslie Rasmussen. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission.

When People Leave by Leslie Rasmussen was publish May 6 2025 by Van Royen Press and is available from all good booksellers, including