Free Tainted Pictures by Sarah Robinson Page B

said anything to Jackson until we had already spoken to Glen.  Now what the fuck are we supposed to tell her?”  McCraig was sitting in the driver’s seat referring to Kate as he navigated their way back to Washington, DC from the prison.  Snow sat quietly in the passenger’s seat, brooding angrily.  
               “Don’t blame this on me, it wasn’t my hands around Glen’s neck.  It’s not a total dead end, we just need to look elsewhere.  We can look further into Tracy Glen and see what pops up in his history that might give us a clue to our perp, or did they not teach you how to research in the damn military?” She snapped back at her partner, trying to offer some solutions even though she really just wanted to bite his head off in an act of misplaced frustration.  
               McCraig was silent, he was the older of the duo and sometimes had to choose to take the high road.  He didn’t sling a comment back at Snow but just let the silence settle between them.  They weren’t angry at each other anyways, they were angry at their unknown suspect who seemed to just slip out of their grasps at every turn.  Neither one of them knew how they would explain this to Kate or if they even should at this point.  They hadn’t really known anything this entire time and today was just a reminder of that.  
               “We have to tell her.”  Snow said after a few minutes of silence.  McCraig just nodded, knowing that she was right.  
               “Tomorrow.”  He responded.  They both knew that they were going to spend every minute until then pouring over case files, research, and following every possible lead they knew of.  They were missing something.  They knew it wasn’t there, but they couldn’t figure out what it was.  Something was definitely missing from this case.  

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
               Although her day had gone smoothly, Kate was glad to walk through her front door and finally relax that evening.  She tossed her purse and keys onto a side table and scooped up her cat who immediately began weaving around her feet when she walked in.  She cuddled her for a few moments and then walked into the kitchen to feed her.  She poured some cat food out of the bag and into the bowl on the ground, then put the bag back away.
               She reached behind her and slid the zipper of her dress down from between her shoulders to the small of her back, shrugging off her dress as she walked towards her bedroom.  She continued undressing, removing all her uncomfortable work clothes and relishing in the freedom of those restraints.  She pulled some lounge pants out of her dresser and slipped those on, then opened the top drawer for a t-shirt.  
               She froze as she was reaching in and immediately withdrew her hand.  She opened the drawer further and stared, puzzled and shocked.  The photograph was sitting on top of her t-shirts staring at her.  That photograph.  Had she left it there?  She had been keeping it in her nightstand or her purse ever since the attack and no one knew of its existence except her.  She had never told the detectives or Derrick.  It was her secret.  And his.  
               Kate turned around and walked over to her nightstand, leaving her dresser drawer open.  She slid open her nightstand and pushed aside different items to find her Bible at the bottom.  She breathed slowly as she opened the Bible to the last page where she had left the photograph, or so she had thought.  She exhaled when she saw a white instant photograph still jammed in the pages of her Bible.  
               Kate’s mind suddenly caught up with what she was seeing and she jumped backwards, dropping the Bible suddenly and staring at the photograph that slid out onto the floor.  Her cat wove herself between Kate’s feet and walked over to the Bible and its spilled contents, sniffing