White Space Season 1

me. And when he hugged me, I lost it.”
    “I’ll bet,” Cassidy said.
    “So, yeah, that’s how I came to partner up with Ted E. Bear. He’s quiet, but on the plus side, he doesn’t eat all my snacks on stakeouts. I wish I could say that for some of my human partners.”
    Cassidy smiled, wiping the streaks from her cheeks.
    As she did, he looked into her eyes, trying to read what was there, dig to whatever she hid in the depths of her sadness.

    * * * *

    They split into three, walking through the thick forest and calling for Emma. Houser could hear Jon and Cassidy, calling her name every 30 seconds or so, coming close to alternating turns.
    “Emma!” Houser called, as he looked in the sky at the darkening clouds up above.
    A cold wind started to tear through the trees, causing his companions’ words to fade into a fogged mumble. Houser kept moving, searching for any sign in the woods for Emma.
    Houser happened upon foot traffic, three pairs of feet, and followed it until the trail stopped dead at a set of tire tracks.
    He wondered if the footprints belonged to the kidnapper, or just some people out hiking in the woods. Maybe some kids fucking around out here.
    The wind began to howl louder as clouds overheard gathered mass and speed, nearly blotting the sun, even though it was just past 2 p.m.
    Houser flashed back to his search for Cecilia, and begged God not to make history repeat.
    Please God, I don’t ask for shit. Er, I mean much. Sorry, God. Please, please, help us find Emma safe and sound, so she can be with her family again.
    Please, God. If you do this, I swear I’ll believe in you again.
    Houser doubted God would come through, but went on anyway, hoping it wouldn’t start raining again. It was bad enough that the weather had turned the woods wintry and black. Say what you wanted about California being a cesspool, at least the weather was always nice.
    “Emma!” he shouted again.
    Houser heard something weird above the wind.
    What the?
    He stopped walking, listening instead, and heard the crackle of static.
    Static out here?
    He reached down and checked his phone t0 see if maybe it was making the noise, but it wasn’t. His phone was blinking; the screen flickering on, off, on, off, over and over.
    The sky poured icy rain down in a torrent.
    Houser continued, despite not hearing his partners, deeper into the darkened woods.
    “Emma!” he screamed.
    In the distance, the howling wind was murdered by a high-pitched scream, almost digital sounding, like the screech of an ancient internet dialup connection. Thunder crashed, as though the forest was exploding around him.
    “What the hell?” he said to nobody as chaos erupted. The wind was so strong, that he fell back, and for a moment, he was certain that he was about to be sucked away like Dorothy to Oz.
    But then, as sudden as the freak storm came, it left. Or more accurately, stopped.
    A hush draped the woods in quiet and black. Houser looked overhead, and saw only swirling dark clouds.
    A blinding white light bled then burst through the darkness in a rattling thicket of trees just beyond Houser.
    “Emma!” he screamed, running like a rocket toward the light.
    Houser was nothing if not agile, particularly for a guy the size of a linebacker.
    “Emma!”
    As he reached the top of a rise and the last of the trees between himself and the brightness, the light flickered then faded, casting the world into an even deeper black as his eyes struggled to recover from the light.
    “Help,” called a small girl’s voice.
    Houser shot through the black and into a clearing where someone was standing, barely visible in the shadows — a naked girl, drenched and shivering, and crying for her mother.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 10 — Milo Anderson

    Beatrice was in her BMW, sitting in the parking lot of Hamilton K-12, waiting for Milo. Weird, since she picked him up once upon a never. He saw her white SUV sitting two rows from the entrance, the engine running and Other Mom staring.
    Though Milo had been looking forward to the walk, and clearing his mind from the chatter of students and pointless lectures from Mrs. Mellakar, he was happy to have a ride and get him home sooner so he could log on to LiveLyfe and see if he could find Cody. He didn’t believe Cody’s threats at all, but he was curious to find out just who the hell this guy thought he was, and why he was fucking with Milo.
    Milo opened the cabin and climbed inside, nodding at Beatrice as he tossed