Daddy’s Little Princess and Will You Love Me 2-in-1 Collection. Cathy Glass

as provocative or seductive. He allowed her to go round giving kisses and cuddles to some of the other male patients. I stopped that. I also stopped Beth from organizing a game of kiss chase with the other men. She had no idea it was wrong. She gives her affection far too freely and appears to be sexually aware beyond her years. She shows signs of sexualized behaviour. I arranged a meeting with the psychologist who’s been treating Derek, and we’ve agreed that, combined with other concerns raised, there were grounds to act, which is why I stopped contact.’

      I shivered despite the heat of the room. ‘So you think Beth’s been abused?’ I asked.

      ‘It’s possible,’ Jessie said.

      ‘By Derek?’

      ‘It’s possible,’ Jessie said again, and then looked down at her notepad. ‘Can we start with the photographs,’ she said.

      A large knotted ball had settled in the pit of my stomach. I felt sick. Poor Beth, I thought. Whatever had she been through? And how long had it been going on? Yet while I felt dreadfully sorry for Beth, I also felt vindicated. I had spotted something was wrong, as had Marianne and Miss Willow, and I’d been right to contact Jessie and voice my concerns. Pity she hadn’t believed me then, I thought.

      I began by telling Jessie why the framed photographs made me feel uncomfortable: because of the way Beth and her father were posing, and because Beth was wearing make-up, which made her look much older. ‘They look more like boyfriend and girlfriend than father and daughter.’ I said. ‘They’re not touching sexually. It’s more the overall impression. You’ll see it for yourself when you visit next week. It’s difficult to put into words, but there’s an intimacy in the way they are looking at each other that isn’t appropriate for a father and daughter.’

      ‘And the photograph Beth keeps under her pillow?’ Jessie asked. ‘I heard her tell her father that she sleeps with his picture, so it feels like he’s there in the bed with her.’

      I nodded. ‘It’s the largest of the framed photographs and also the most intimate. She kisses it goodnight and then sleeps with it under her pillow. It appears to have been taken while they were on holiday. Beth and her father are in their swimwear. They’re kneeling in the sand, facing each other, and have their lips pursed ready to kiss. I persuaded myself that there was nothing wrong with the photograph, or the others,’ I added reflectively as Jessie wrote.

      When she’d finished writing she looked up at me. ‘Beth told her father you’d taken some photographs of her.’

      ‘Yes, I have.’

      ‘He’s unhappy about that.’

      ‘Why?’ I asked, amazed. ‘They’re family photographs, in the park and on outings. I’ve given Beth a set.’

      Jessie made a note. ‘I’ll need to see those photographs when I visit,’ she said.

      ‘Yes, of course,’ I said with a stab of unease. I felt that I too was being investigated.

      ‘Is there anything else you can tell me about the photographs that Beth brought from home?’ Jessie asked.

      ‘No, I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘There’s fifteen of them and I’ve arranged them on the shelves in her bedroom, but you know that already.’

      Jessie nodded. ‘Now to the telephone calls. I appreciate you stopped staying with Beth when she phoned her father, but can you tell me what you heard when you were present?’

      If only I’d made some notes, I thought, as I tried to think back and remember. Having been reassured there was nothing wrong, I’d put the details from my mind. However, once I started to remember, the phone calls seemed even more significant now, in the light of Jessie’s investigation.

      ‘Beth sprawls on my bed to speak to her father, more like a teenager talking to her boyfriend than a little girl talking to her father,’ I said. ‘She smiles and laughs almost seductively, and twiddles the flex around her fingers. She changes out of her school uniform when she comes home and chooses a pretty dress to wear just to make the telephone call. She always told her father in great detail what she was wearing. He wanted to know everything – the dress, the petticoat and any accessories she was wearing. Beth often says she likes to look nice for her daddy, and he appears to encourage her. Sometimes, when she was describing what she was wearing, she’d lower her voice and flutter her eyelids in a sexy way. I remember once he asked her if she had clean knickers on, which made her laugh. It doesn’t seem funny now.’