The Photographer's Return novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Who Took This

Casey read it twice.

Then he put the phone face down on the blanket and got up and put on his jeans.

"I have to get Bean before she sees it," he said.

He was out the door in four minutes.

I sat on the edge of the bed and read the comments, because I couldn't not.

Two hundred of them already.

"Is this real??"

"He let his own wife die and now he's around a CHILD?"

And under them, from people in Tahoe City who'd known Casey for years, the others.

"He was hit by a pickup on black ice. Delete this."

"That man drives the rescue boat. He pulled my nephew out of the lake."

I typed a reply for ten minutes and deleted all of it.

At the shop, Bean sat on the floor behind the counter with the Brownie parts on a towel and didn't look at anyone.

She'd seen it.

Her aunt had found her at seven, reading it on the kitchen floor.

People came in all morning.

An old woman set a foil-covered casserole dish on the glass without a word and patted Casey's hand.

A man from the rescue crew came in and said, "We're all on it, Case. Say the word."

"There's no word," Casey said. "It's true. I was driving."

At noon I followed Casey into the darkroom.

He was standing at the sink with both hands on the edge.

"I've said it a thousand times," he said, without turning around. "I was driving. To the police. To her mother. To Bean, when she was old enough to ask."

"I know."

"I never had to say it to strangers who think it's a punchline."

I put my hand flat on his back.

"Don't fight him for me online," he said. "Please. That's what he wants. Everybody yelling."

"I won't do it online," I said.

He heard what I didn't say.

He turned around and looked at me for a long time.

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