Photos?

Bethan takes Katie in her arms, hugging her. It feels good to hold her. Bethan's struck by a fierce protectiveness that makes her teeth clench and her heart fizz with warmth. She will not let anything happen to Katie.

"It's okay," Bethan soothes. "Okay."

Katie is crying but manages to say, "But it's not okay! He knows and he's taken it which means that he might know it's me!"

Bethan continues to hold Katie as she cries and tries to think. The camera speaks of guilt; the hiding of it, the taking of it from its hiding place. Dave definitely has something to hide. But is he a killer? Could he have killed their daughter? And what would have been his motive?

Bethan scours memories, rubbing Katie's back as Katie continues to sob. She tries to recall moments of Dave being angry or violent or times of animosity towards Laney and she comes up with nothing remarkable, nothing telling.

She doesn't think Dave is a killer but then, standing here, holding what could be his daughter is not something she ever envisaged either. She thinks Do you ever really know someone?

She decides.

"Katie, listen to me. I'm going to give you my number, okay? If anything happens that makes you scared, you call me, come to me, whatever. Do you understand? And here's my address too. Come to me if you need to. Okay?"

Katie nods, sensing that Bethan means what she says.

"I don't know what's going on here, but there's something strange about all this."

She pauses.

"I don't think your dad is a..." Bethan chooses her words carefully, "...a bad man but something's...not right...and I'm sure it's not..." She wants to say "...what we think it is, which is that your dad may have killed my daughter...your sister..." Bethan shakes her head at this - one thing at a time...."I'm sure there's an explanation for it, okay?"

Katie nods, trying to feel convinced but the pit of her stomach is solid with fear.

"Your mum will be back before him?" Bethan asks. Katie nods. "Okay. Good."

Katie starts to cry again and says, "I should never have sent the photos."

Bethan thinks Photos?

***

366 words

So the camera is gone, hidden again. Is Katie safe? How is Bethan going to process all of this? Will she quiz Katie about what she means by "photos"? Bethan only received one, after all.

This started here:

Yesterday's story:

Thanks for stopping by! If you do read this, please leave a comment as I love to interact with my readers.

288/366