The Secrets of Whitelea

|Chapter Two|

Chapter Two

"What can we do?" Elizabeth asked. The police officer stood with his hands on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. Elizabeth's hands were gripping the back of her mother's chair as if it was her only lifeline to stop her sinking into an abyss that had clawed at her since the realisation had come to her. Elizabeth could feel her mother shaking and she moved one of her hands to rest on Beatrice's shoulder.

"Stay here or stay nearby in case she comes home. Hope that she does." The officer said. Elizabeth nodded and her gaze dropped to where her mother's hands were clenched into fists. Before she had time to react, Beatrice had slammed her chair backwards and stood up, glaring at the police officer. Elizabeth let out a small cry as the chair crashed into her and the police officer moved forwards as if to help her.

"My daughter is missing and all you can do is tell us to have hope?" Beatrice shouted. "Instead of going out and searching for her you're just going to give up?" Elizabeth had recovered and she placed a hand on her mother's arm in an attempt to calm her. Beatrice shrugged her off. "If you were any good at your job you would have found her by now!"

"Miss-"

"No, you get out of my house and go and do your job!" Beatrice screamed before collapsing into her chair again and covering her face with her hands. Giant sobs tore themselves out of her as Elizabeth walked the officer out. Her hand was clutching her side where the chair had hit her the hardest.

"If your situation gets worse, please don't hesitate to come to us for help." The officer said, nodding towards Elizabeth's hand.

"I'll be fine. It's just a bruise and she's just upset. She'll be fine when she calms down."

"Are you alright? This is an awful time for you."

"That's a bit of an understatement but like you said, we need hope. One day she'll come back. We have to believe that, don't we? Otherwise, we'll never be able to cope with anything."

"Miss Hamilton, if you need anything-"

"Sir, you've done as much as you can already. Thank you for trying to find my sister."

"I'm just sorry we couldn't find her."

"She'll turn up one day."

"How are you so sure?"

"Annabelle has a flair for the dramatics. She'll just waltz back in one day and pretend like nothing's happened."

"I know I said to hope-"

"I won't get my hopes up too much."

"I'd best get going. Don't forget we're all here if you need anything."

"Thank you, sir." Elizabeth offered him a smile. "I'll make sure you're one of the first I'll go to."

"Goodbye."

"Bye." Elizabeth watched the police officer go and was about to shut the door when she noticed a figure stood next to one of the bushes by the drive. James Williams raised a hand in a wave and offered her a smile. Elizabeth met his gaze and half raised her own hand in a wave. A smash from the kitchen caused Elizabeth to look away. She gave a quick glance back at James before shutting the door and hurrying back to her mother.

~*~

"I didn't want to have to be the one to tell you this." Detective Williams said. Elizabeth brought herself out of her reminiscing and focused on what Detective was saying.