Burn Season novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Rookie's Phone

Rory's POV

I told the program officer the truth in two sentences and asked her for until Saturday.

On Thursday at noon Bea came up the trail with the rookie behind her.

He was twenty-two and sunburned, and he carried his phone in both hands.

"He's got something," Bea said. "Let him talk. He's been crying since Wednesday."

"I haven't been crying," the rookie said, and then his chin shook.

"Sit," Verna told him from her chair. "You're blocking my light."

He sat on an upturned bucket and told it fast.

The tavern clip had shown up in the shared reel folder the night before the barbecue, with no name on it.

He had thought it was a joke from the crew and used it.

On Friday night, after the barbecue, Kasey had asked to borrow his laptop to fix the slideshow.

By Saturday the folder with his raw footage was empty.

"But I back up my phone," he said. "I never thought about it. I went through the cloud last night, and I found this."

He held the phone out to me.

I took it.

The video was shot across the loft, the way he'd shot b-roll all summer, packing tables and people laughing.

The corner stamp said August 19, 5:52 PM.

The room was nearly empty.

My duffel lay by the loft door where I'd dropped it before the Idaho call.

Kasey walked into the frame and looked around once.

She knelt.

She pulled the side pocket open, which wasn't hard, because I always left it hanging.

She took out the envelope and turned it over to read the front.

Then she set it on the table, took a plain black phone from her jacket, and photographed the page.

She slid the envelope into her jacket and walked away humming.

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