Double by Jenny Valentine Page B

said it. I felt the edge of the tightrope I was walking. I felt the sway of the ground far below.
    Edie went over to the window, put her face to the glass. She used her hands to block out the reflection of us on the inside. Frank opened the door. The light and warmth of the kitchen were so different to the blue-gray cold of outside. It was like another world out there.
    I tried to think who would drive here now, to this house in the middle of nowhere. I tried not to think they’d be coming for me.
    “It’s two men, I think,” Edie said. “I don’t know who they are.”
    “God,” I said, before I could take it back.
    “What?” Helen said.
    I clenched my fists. How had they found me? What traces of myself had I left behind?
    “That was quick,” Frank said.
    I looked over at him. What did that mean? Did he know? Had he expected them to catch me?
    “Who is it, Frank?” Helen said.
    He didn’t answer her. He left the house. He went to meet them on the porch. I felt my chest seize up, my lungs contract so I couldn’t get enough air, so I was fighting to breathe.
    “What’s the matter, Cass?” Edie said from across the room. She looked at me. Helen and Edie both looked at me.
    I didn’t answer them. Everything I had was focused on the door, on who was about to come through it. Social services. The child-catcher. The police.
    I held my breath, and when Frank walked back in, he held my gaze. He smiled.
    I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. He couldn’t miss the terror on my face.
    One of the men was young, with a big digital camera and gelled hair and a cheap suit. The second was older, gray and overweight. He wore a jacket that smelled of wax and wet dog.
    “Hello,” they said, a little awkward, a little shy.
    The older one said they were sorry to intrude. They looked around the room, and their looking stopped at me.
    My head pounded. My palms were wet. I rubbed them against my trousers. I tried to wet my lips with a dry tongue. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t smile, I didn’t move. I waited.
    Frank’s eyes were on me too, but when he spoke, he spoke to us all.
    “Mum, Edie, Cassiel, I hope you don’t mind. These gentlemen are from the local paper.”
    “Oh,” Helen said. She looked at Frank for approval. She looked from Edie to me and she smiled.
    Both men stepped toward her to shake hands. “We phoned earlier,” the younger one said. “We spoke to . . . erm—”
    “You spoke to me,” Frank said. “Sorry, everyone. I forgot to mention it.”
    He looked at me and winked. I felt the belt around my chest loosen a notch or two.
    “We heard some reports today, in town,” the older man said. “A few sightings. Of your son.”
    He looked at me when he said it. Everyone looked at me.
    They hadn’t come to get me. They weren’t going to take me away.
    Edie raised her eyebrows and smiled. “Freak show,” she mouthed.
    Did Helen mind, they were saying, did any of us mind if they took a picture, if they did a little piece?
    Frank said, “I think it’s a brilliant idea. I’m really sorry. I just forgot about it in all the excitement. You all right with it, Cass?”
    “Yes,” I said, just waiting for my pulse to slow down. Just hoping for the rigor mortis of pure fear to leave my face. “Yeah, sure.”
    The younger one walked over to me, reached out to shake my hand. “Cassiel.”
    “Hello,” I said. Was I supposed to know him? Didn’t everybody know everybody in a town like this?
    “Welcome back.”
    “Yeah. Thanks.”
    “Let’s get one of all of you together.”
    We stood together in front of the table with our glasses raised. I half expected somebody to notice how fake it all was, to say something. I was exhausted from just being afraid all the time, from always looking over my shoulder for the enemy. I was hollowed out.
    “This is great news,” the older one said. “You must all be so happy.”
    “We are,” Frank said. “We’re stunned. We’re over the moon.”
    It