Her Name Was Annie by Beth Rinyu (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📕

I had off from school that day for Columbus Day, and my father and I had gone out to lunch.”

“Do you remember anything else about the day? Did you go anywhere else, did you get any weird vibes that you were being followed?” Detective Mathis asked.

I stared down at the table, trying to remember every detail of that day, but there weren’t very many. It was pretty ordinary. “After lunch we went to the farm stand and we got some mums and pumpkins, and that was really it.” I focused my attention back to the detective. “And, no, I didn’t get the sense that I was being followed.” I gasped when another thought came to me, one almost as terrifying as Kara being stalked. “You don’t think my dad is in danger?” My voice cracked in panic.

“No.” Jack shook his head in a reassuring manner.

Detective Mathis scribbled something on his notepad and then slid a second photograph my way. It was one of me taken at school as I got out of my car. It was definitely taken on a Monday. I knew this because I was wearing the summer clearance dress I had found and fallen in love with at Nordstrom the weekend prior. I remembered coming home, thinking I’d have to wait until next summer to wear it only to open my weather app to find the projected forecast for that coming Monday was going to be near eighty degrees. That had been the one and only day the weather permitted me to wear it.

Once again I tapped around on my phone and entered my online banking app, scrolling back to previous transactions. There it was, Nordstrom, $31.99, October 5, which would have meant I wore it on October 7. “That was taken October seventh in the parking lot of the school where I work,” I said without hesitation. All three of them looked at each other in astonishment. Little did they know that a woman with a minor shopping addiction could help them with their case.

“That’s good to know. That really gives us something to go by.” Detective Mathis once again scribbled on his notepad. “Which school do you work for and which town is it in?” I creased my eyebrows in confusion. “We’ll need to pull the camera footage from the parking lot that day,” he explained. Great. Now my work would be involved in this, which was the last thing I wanted. I sighed and reluctantly gave him all of my work details.

The last photo he had placed in front of me was perhaps the most eerie. It was the day before the incident had occurred. I’d just arrived at the beach house and the rain had begun to fall. It had been a long day at work, and I wanted to clear my head, so I ventured out to the beach with my rain boots on and umbrella in hand to take a walk along the ocean.

I remembered looking up and down the beach, comparing the complete desolation to the summer months where people were elbow to elbow. There wasn’t another soul around, but obviously there was. Was I really that naïve? I always tried to be aware of my surroundings and constantly hammered it into Kara’s head to be too. How could I not have known someone was watching me from afar? And who was this someone? Was it the man in the ocean or, worse yet, some hitman he hired who was going to finish the job when I least expected it? There was no doubt in my mind that Jack was thinking the same thing, he had already made arrangements to have Kara followed.

“I want to see the pictures of my daughter,” I blurted.

Detective Mathis nodded. “Okay, but first can you tell me when that particular photo was taken?” He pointed to the picture in front of me on the beach.

“It was the day before the man killed himself, and there was absolutely no one else on the beach. At least I thought there was no one,” I mumbled.

“Okay, good.” He scribbled on his notepad once again. My patience was getting the best of me. I wanted to be home with Kara. I needed to know she was okay.

“The photos of my daughter, please?” I reiterated.

Detective Mathis put down his pen and placed two photographs in front of me. The first was Kara with one of those fancy coffee drinks she liked, laughing with one of her roommates at what appeared to be an outdoor café. The other with her backpack slung over her shoulder, walking out of one of the large buildings on her campus. My blood boiled just thinking that whoever this was not only had easy access to me but to my daughter. My daughter who was miles away at school by herself without neither Jack nor me to protect her. That scared me more than anything.

“You need to get Kara in here and find out when those were taken.” I demanded of Jack. “She needs to know what’s going on.”

“I know.” Jack nodded in agreement.

I wanted to rush home and tell Kara she couldn’t return back to school until we figured out what was going on. She needed to stay home where I could watch every move she made, but I knew that wasn’t possible. Kara was fiercely independent. It was a trait in her that I admired and sometimes abhorred when it didn’t work in my favor. She would never allow something like this to stop her from living her life. In fact she’d more than likely embrace it. She was going to school to become a teacher like me, but she was more suited to follow in her father’s career path. She wasn’t afraid of anything, which in turn scared me to death—especially now.

Chapter 9

“WHAT? DAD, NO way am I being followed by one of your flunkies!” Kara took the news exactly how I had expected. “Besides, the guy is dead now. What do