Page 80 of Is Anyone Listening?
"Well, I don't know what's going on at that inn, and I'm concerned about Sophie working there," Katherine said.
"I told Sophie to quit," Finn said. "I'll lend her the money she needs to go to New York."
Katherine looked rather pained at that statement. "I keep hoping she'll change her mind, but I know she won't, and I can't blame her. I had to live somewhere else, too." She paused. "I just got you back, Finn, and I hate to see her go, but I know everyone has to live their own life, and if there is something happening at the inn, then I don't want her there, either."
"Tom said that there's nothing to that disappearance, that the woman just wanted to start her life over, and she had a right to do that," John interjected.
"Tom needs to work a little harder," Finn said. "Because Cassidy has brought up some good points, and it's not just one woman with a mysterious disappearance; there are a couple."
"I didn't realize that," John said with concern.
"I don't have any proof," I said. "I just know that too many things have happened that don't make sense and can't be explained away with this plausible doubt I keep hearing."
"Well, that makes me more nervous," Katherine said. "How long are you going to stay at the inn? Are you concerned about your grandmother, about getting hurt?" Her gaze swept my face. "I didn't want to ask, but were you in an accident? You have cuts on your face. That didn't happen at the inn, did it?"
"No. My car was run off the road last night. Finn actually rescued me."
"You did?" Katherine asked in surprise. "How did that happen?"
"There was a detour, and I ended up on the Upper Ocean Road, not too far behind Cassidy," Finn said.
"Someone ran you off the road?" John questioned, a sharp note in his voice now.
Before I could defend myself against another speculative question, Finn said, "Yes, someone did. I saw the other car. Unfortunately, I was too far away to see the make or the license plate."
"Why would someone want to hurt you?" Katherine asked, concern in her gaze.
"Because I'm asking questions. I'm shaking things up, and someone doesn't like that." I paused, then said, "My grandmother seems very sincere in her belief that Natalie checked out on her own, and her disappearance has nothing to do with the inn. You've known her a long time. Should I believe her?"
"That's a big question," Katherine said. "And we were David's generation. While I've had many short, casual conversations with Ellen over the years, I can't say we're close. I think the fact that we were David's friends has made her less interested in talking to us. We remind her of him."
"But Tom Holloway was David's age, and they seem very tight," Finn put in.
I thought about that. It did seem like an anomaly that Tom would be close to Ellen, since he'd been in David's class, and they'd had that alleged love triangle. But Tom hadn't liked David, and maybe that animosity had been easier for my grandmother to deal with once David had turned his back on her. "Perhaps she looks at Tom as the son she never had," I suggested. "Tom stayed and followed in his father's footsteps when David refused to do that."
"That's a good point," John murmured. "Personally, I never liked Tom that much, and I still don't. He's always had a short fuse, and it's worse now since his divorce. He rides his son hard, and Cole is unhappy and mixed up, too. I think he needs to get out of here more than Sophie does."
As the kettle began to sing, Katherine got up to get their tea.
After she left, John said, "I think you should be careful, Cassidy. If your father didn't want you to know his mother, your grandmother, then I think he had a pretty damn good reason."
"I just wish I knew what that reason could be."
"Well, I thought the rumors about David killing his father were completely unbelievable. But I always wondered if Ellen didn't have something to do with it."
I sat up straighter at John's unexpected words. "Why?"
"Because David left and never came back. Because he doesn't speak of his mother, and his mother doesn't speak of him. That sounds like a deep, painful trauma, and I can't imagine that trauma could be tied to something as simple as him not wanting to run the Boatworks. It had to be more than that."
"Maybe it was Lily's death," Finn said. "That's when he left."
"Perhaps, but why would he blame his mother for that?"
My heart began to race. "Was Lily's body ever recovered?"
"No, sadly, it was not," John replied.
"Oh, God," I murmured, looking over at Finn, who had the same awareness in his eyes.
