Dave

Dave ended the call. He was trying to process what Bethan had said. He wished he'd changed his number after the divorce. That woman. Always in the past...

He liked his new life. It was less...emotionally demanding. In fact, if he admitted it, it was a bit dull. His life living with Bethan before Laney's disappearance had been a juggling act but exciting. With Laney gone, Bethan's focus had been Laney's absence, to the detriment of everything else of which a marriage was made. He couldn't tell Bethan this because even to him, it sounded heartless, mean-spirited and selfish but once Laney had gone, Laney was gone. Nothing would change that.

He'd accepted Laney's loss more easily than Bethan. Yes, he wanted to know what had happened to her but Laney wasn't there, and he was grateful when the hole left by her shrank, when Life started to make its presence felt again and elbowed out Grief. Why Bethan held onto her sadness was beyond him. She needed to move on.

He had, in his whole other life.

Bethan could do that too but refused. It wasn't that hard really.

And now, this. A photo? Of three boys? What was that all about?

He shook his head and went to back to whatever he was doing. Then he stopped.

Three boys. Did Bethan mean Matthew, Luke and Mark? Had she been sent a photo of Laney's friends? They'd be young men now, wouldn't they? So was Bethan saying that she'd had a photo from back then? If so, where had it come from?

He thought back. Boys. Laney. In a flash, he remembered a day where she had been snapping her friends, kicking a stone on the street, trying to capture the boys in their rivalry and their energy. She loved that vintage camera. Took it everywhere with her.

"You never know, Dad, when a photo opportunity will come along."

Her words were recalled to him like a dart. He knew that Laney's camera was believed lost so to all intents and purposes, it was missing still. Unless...someone had found it and had developed the film from it.

But that couldn't be because he knew exactly where it was.

***

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