Chapter 31: Terrace Camera

William's study had a wall of monitors that Jude had never once been allowed to touch.

Tonight, his father sat in front of them with a remote and his reading glasses, and July sat beside him with her arms folded.

Jude stood behind both chairs, still in his coat.

"Terrace camera," William said. "It records sound. We put it in after the break-in last spring."

"Play it."

"First, sit down."

"Dad."

"Sit," July said, and Jude sat.

The screen showed the garden in gray, full of people in glowing headphones moving in silence.

There was Jude's mother in her plum tracksuit, being a menace.

There was his father against the tree.

There was Jude himself, in red headphones, singing a song with his eyes closed and his arms up.

"I look insane," he said.

"You look happy," July said. "Watch the buffet."

William tapped the remote and the view slid to the far end of the terrace.

Ken stood by the long table in the good suit.

Freddy came up beside him with a glass in each hand and offered him one.

Ken shook his head.

Freddy put the glasses down, and the speaker caught his voice clearly, pleasant and low.

"Four thousand a month, a room, a ring. You priced it well, farm boy."

Ken did not move.

"Everybody here knows what you are. The only one who doesn't is him. And he will, in the end. They always do."

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