Secrets, Lies, and Captivity

CHAPTER FOUR

Three hours earlier (Katherine's Point of View)

'Ryan! What now, huh? It was your idea to drag her to the shed and we haven't fed them in days...which was also your idea as well. If they die...all we did was for nothing" I sighed and flopped down on the couch in the living room.

Ryan walked inside the living room, "Believe me, it felt like the best thing to do at the time...maybe it still is. We couldn't have brought them back to the basement, they would have tried to escape again, and we can't bring them to one of the bedrooms with breakable windows. The shed seemed like the only option" he crossed his arms and looked towards Belle.

"Alright then, Belle? What should we do now? You're clearly the smart and more sensible adult here." I said while turning my head towards her.

"Hey!" he yelled while looking towards me, developing the urge to slap me across the face. "Hit me, hit me if you dare." I said while glaring at him.

"How dear you speak to me like that," he walked closer towards the couch. I got up and said, "You might have adopted me, but you will never be my father, so you don't deserve my respect or my trust. Remember this...both of you," I looked at both of them, "you both mean absolutely nothing to me. What we are doing now is strictly business related; I don't care about any of you or your pitiful wellbeing. When all of this is over, I am going to make sure to move out of here as quickly as possible; move far away from both of you and Ash." They didn't say anything, didn't make eye contact. "Oh, don't act like you're feelings are hurt and that you aren't happy about what I just said, we both know that you didn't adopt me out of love," I gave them one last look before I turned around and walked upstairs to my room.

As I was on the second-floor walking towards my room, I heard the front doorbell ring. Belle walked towards the door and peeked through the window on the door. "Oh no! no, no, no, no, no. Ryan! It's the cops!" she walked frantically towards him. "What should we do?" she turned around placing her hand on her head.

"We have to answer the door, if we don't, we would look suspicious. We just have to try our best to act normal." He walked past her towards the door. He turned around to look at her and nodded his head, his nervousness slightly seeping through. He finally opened the door after the third doorbell rang. "Hello officer, what brings you here?"

"Hello, I'm Officer Criss. I'm just here to ask you a couple of questions. It's about George Plate, we heard from his family that he's very close friends with Ashley Douglas, your daughter. Is she here right now? I think that it will be better to ask her a few questions first."

The officer walked closer to the doorway, "oh, no she's not here right now, you can just only talk to us for now" Belle quickly and calmly interjected.

"Alright then...so, have you seen George recently? He has been missing for a few days now and according to his family, he mostly goes to this house besides his own," he looked between Belle and Ryan.

"No officer, we haven't."

"Are you sure about that? His family mentioned that a few days ago he stayed at your house for dinner," he started to have an annoyed look on his face. "If you both aren't telling the truth, you will be more suspicious and be potential suspects of this case"

Belle walked in front of Ryan, "We know that, and we are telling you the truth. Yes, he did make plans to stay here, but he had to reschedule last minute. We didn't ask why, and he didn't say why. We are truly sorry that he's missing, that's very tragic. But we have nothing to do with that. So, if you don't mind...i-is this questioning finished," she took a deep breath and looked away and looked behind her and saw me upstairs watching the whole scene.

The officer followed her gaze and saw me standing there, "Is that your daughter, Ashley?" She quickly turned her head back to him, "what? No! no that's no one to worry about, it's none of your business of who that is, it shouldn't be important to your investigation right now," she crossed her hands.

"Alright then...when is the last time you've seen Ashley?"

"Oh, we saw her earlier this morning before she left," the officer nodded his head and also asked, "Where was she when George left your house five days ago?"

"She was at home."

"Alright, and why did you guys decided not to let George stay for dinner?"

"We-we just wanted to have dinner with just the family that day, it wasn't really a big thing. And as I said...he was the one to change his mind about it anyway." The officer slowly nodded his head again. I just continued to stand still as I listened, hoping that the officer will buy that lie and that he wouldn't need to question Ash after all. My heartbeat was increasing, and I was starting to sweat.

As the officer finished writing everything down on his note pad, he said, "Alight then, this is the end of my questioning, but it's very imperative that I ask Ashley questions about George as well. You might not know, where he is, but she would definitely know something. If there is no cooperation, then I will have no choice but to bring her to the police station; and I think that that would be much worse for her. When your daughter comes back, please instead of calling the police station, please call me directly." He gave them a card with his number on it, "it would just be easier that way. Good day," he did a stiff nod to both of them and turned his head to me; his expression showed uncertainty and curiosity, it was like he was unconvinced that I wasn't important in the whole thing. But he quickly looked away and walked towards his car. Belle and Ryan held their breaths as the officer walked away from the door, and then finally released their breaths when they closed and locked the door.

Belle did a loud sigh and look up towards me, "We thought that you were in your room...how much did you hear?"

I started to walk back downstairs, "I-I didn't hear much, your voices were quite low, I couldn't hear much from all the way upstairs," for some reason I thought that it was best to lie. "I came out my room closer to the end of the conversation and as you know, that's when the officer saw me."

"...OK then," Ryan sighed and walked away from the front door. "What should we do now? The police are already asking questions about him; they are already asking us questions."

Belle sat on the couch, "Well of course they asked us, he is really close friends with Ashley, we should've seen this coming."

I crossed my arms, "Yes, you adults should have seen this coming."

"Aright, alright, we obviously have to make her talk to the police, we just have to make sure that she says the right things."

"I know where you are coming from with this, but I don't think that's a good idea,"

"Yeah, I know that it might not be, but we don't have a choice in the matter," he walked towards the kitchen where the back door was.

I was really starting to regret being a part of this whole situation. I needed to tell someone else about it. I needed to tell Sam; she was my best friend, my only true friend for most of my life. I've told her everything... besides this situation. Might as well tell her this as well. I dialed her number, planning to tell her everything. Besides, this wasn't Sam and I's first rodeo in keeping secrets from the police, from everyone.