White Space Season 1

MISSING poster onto the weatherbeaten telephone pole.
    “I liked that show,” she said. “I thought Henry was so handsome, though he was a bit old for me then.” She suddenly lit up like New Year’s. “He’s perfect for me now, though!” Then she frowned. “Unless of course he’s dead.”
    Mrs. Lindley had lived next door to Vivian forever, ever since she moved to the island from Aberdeen after her husband passed in a logging accident. She took the life insurance and decided to live on an island like she’d always wanted to do. Island living turned out nothing at all like she expected, she often said. Jon had found her amusing more often than not when he was a kid, but the odd bird had definitely grown odder since he’d left.
    Mrs. Lindley’s company wouldn’t have bothered Jon so much, except that he needed to get Cassidy alone so he could find out more about his family’s involvement in keeping Emma secret and breaking he and Sarah up. Cassidy had said he wouldn’t want to know, and that she couldn’t tell him. Little did she know that he wouldn’t leave the island without getting to the truth.
    As they searched and knocked on doors, asking questions, Jon kept flashing back to talking to Emma at the funeral as she stuffed cookies into her tiny purse. She was so adorable. So much like her mother. That was, of course, when he got the first hint that she was his daughter.
    Why had Sarah kept her a secret?
    What could his family have done to prevent her from telling him?
    And who in his family had done the deed?
    He suspected Warren, but he couldn’t rule out his father. The old man had become a recluse of late, but that wasn’t the case so much a decade ago, when he had a firmer hand on the company … and the family. His father had often scolded Jon for associating with the Hughes girls, saying they were nothing but trouble. “That whole family is bad news,” his father had once said, suggesting that there must of been some bad blood between his dad and Vivian, perhaps.
    Jon wasn’t sure how, but he was certain that he’d make whoever was responsible for the deception pay.
    Looking at Cassidy, Jon wondered how much he’d be able to get out of her today even if Mrs. Lindley wasn’t there. She seemed distracted, far off. Probably because her niece had gone missing, that was certainly understandable, but it seemed like there was something else, too. Something beneath the surface.
    He wondered if she was using again.
    From everything he’d heard, Cassidy had gone clean, and she looked fine at the memorial, albeit beat to hell. If you were anywhere near the edge of the wagon, though, losing your twin could give you a helluva nudge off it. Especially if your twin was someone like Sarah.
    Jon had known stronger people than Cassidy relapse over far less than that, though it did seem as though Cassidy had kicked it the hard way, rather than checking into some bullshit facility like Crossroads, Betty Ford, Promises Kept , or any of the other posh thousand dollar a day or more revolving door “treatment” centers most of the people he knew had gone to, where they focused more on meditation and yoga than shoving a pillow on the face of addiction.
    Mrs. Lindley said, “Did you know I had a dog once? His name was Bobby and everyone said he was half giraffe.”
    Neither Jon or Cassidy responded. He couldn’t see her face, but Jon wondered if Cassidy ever answered Mrs. Lindley’s more obvious crazy with a smile. He would have liked to see, just to satisfy his curiosity, but he was mostly happy to stare at her back.
    No matter how different Cassidy and Sarah were on the inside, and outside to those who knew them best, Cassidy was still close enough in appearance to Sarah to make him feel as if he were walking with a ghost. It wasn’t just the way she looked, it was the way she moved, too, as though the shadow of impossible was given every shade of reality.
    Good thing they sounded nothing alike. While there were similarities in their tone, Sarah’s voice was sweet – French to Cassidy’s German. Cassidy’s language was gruffer, far more profane, though maybe it was just because she hated him. There had been a time, years ago when they were all kids, that he actually liked playing with Cassidy more. Cassidy was the fun sister, one of the guys, who wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Sarah was the more reserved, cautious, shy sister. The one who won Jon’s heart.
    Mrs. Lindley drew her shawl