A Flicker in the Dark

by Stacy Willingham

Theodore Gates—my father’s defense attorney.

“As a part of the deal, he’s agreed to take the police to the bodies.”

But they were never found? Sus...

but no bodies. An animal must have gotten to them first,

All 6?? Nah man

my father had taught me that it’s entirely possible to love someone without ever really knowing them,

I had a little sister once,

Uh..

He had lost his sister when he was seventeen; she had gone missing, too, the same year as the Breaux Bridge girls.

Babe are you stupid lol

Sophie. She was thirteen.

She stepped out my front door and vanished, which means that this office, my office, is the last place she would have been seen alive—and I’m the last person who would have seen her.

Monday, June 3. I swallow hard, trying to ignore the pinch in my chest.

That long, thick scar that still rests across her neck.

Judge us for abandoning our mother, leaving her fate in the hands of strangers. But what they don’t understand is that she abandoned us, too.

She’s not all there, but she’s not gone, either.

“I think we’re dealing with a copycat here.

Yeah, the fiancé

“Those cops had no right to show up at your office like that,”

Yes they did? Lol

So it sounds like you’ve been following all of this, then?”

Because he did it...

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve seen this guy around before, Chloe. Copycats—they copy for a reason.

this person could very well know you. He could be watching you.

Same size and spacing as the ones found on Aubrey.

The same person is responsible for the deaths of both Aubrey Gravino and Lacey

I imagine everyone has a Lena in their life at some point. A person who comes blazing in like a shooting star and fizzles out just as fast.

Lena had a way about her. She made you want to push the boundaries. Live your life without fear.”

Bert Rhodes reviled my father. For good reason, but still. It seemed unhealthy. Like an obsession.”