***
“The western point?” Alice replied, with a hint of concern in her voice. “Are you sure that's where you were?”
“I only went because Doctor Young insisted I had to get some light exercise,” Kate explained as she dumped her bag on the chair in her room back at Edgar's mansion. “You see? This is why people shouldn't go to the beach. Bad things happen.” Pausing for a moment, she turned to Alice. “I know what I saw. Maybe it sounds crazy, and maybe it doesn't make sense right now, but there was definitely a little girl out there and she was struggling. I'm just scared that...”
Her voice trailed off.
“Cavaleri was pretty dismissive, though,” she added. “I guess that's something.”
“Did you see her face?” Alice asked after a moment.
“The girl's? Yeah. Kind of, anyway. It was so misty this morning. I saw enough to know that it was no seal, that's for certain.”
Taking her phone from her pocket, Alice began to check something on the browser.
“I don't know what to do,” Kate continued. “If the police won't take the situation seriously, it's not like I can organize a search. Cavaleri says that no-one's missing, and I don't see why she'd lie. All I can think is that someone must have managed to get onto the island without being spotted. There are so many beaches and coves around the west and the north, it's not that hard to believe that a boat could land without anyone in the town noticing.”
Taking a sip of tea, she paused for a few seconds. She was convinced that there had to be a rational explanation, if only she could get figure it out. She always laughed at people who believed in ghosts, and saw them as being a little too gullible, but right now she was struggling to think of another way to rationalize everything that had happened to her on the beach.
“I just can't stop thinking about that moment,” she continued eventually. “I saw the girl's eyes as she was... I mean, what if I'm right? What if I saw a young girl drowning right in front of me? I did everything to try to save her, but she just disappeared under the surface and... I mean, what if there really was a girl drowning out there? Wherever she came from, what if she was real and I could have saved her if I'd just...”
“Was this her?” Alice asked suddenly, holding her phone up.
Kate looked at the photo of a young girl.
“No,” she replied, “I don't think so.”
Alice started typing something else into the phone.
“She called for help,” Kate continued. “It's not as if I could have seen something else and mistaken it for the girl. She was screaming at me to go and save her, and I couldn't get there in time. Everything happened so suddenly and -”
“Is this her?” Alice asked, holding up the phone again.
“I...” Kate paused as she stared at the photo. “Maybe,” she replied, taking the phone. “Yes,” she said finally, shivering as she saw the same eyes she remembered from the beach a few hours earlier. “I think so. Why? Do you know her? If you know where she lives, we have to go and see if she's okay!”
Alice took the phone back.
“Who is she?” Kate continued. “We have to go to Cavaleri! We have to find out if -”
“Her name was Karya,” Alice explained, as the color seemed to drain from her face. “I... used to know her.”
“We have to get in touch with her parents,” Kate told her. “Maybe there's nothing to worry about, but -”
“We were friends,” Alice continued, interrupting her. “Karya, Elizabeth and I played together all the time. I told you about them the other day, remember?”
“I think so,” Kate replied, “but...” She paused. “Where does she live now?” she asked finally, even though she had a sneaking suspicion that she already knew the answer. “Why wouldn't Cavaleri know to check whether she's missing?”
“Because Karya drowned off the western point more than ten years ago,” Alice explained. “So did Elizabeth. They've both been dead for a decade.”