He Called My Brain Injury a Hunger Strike, So I Forgot Him novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Insurance

Imogen came to Alder Street at ten that night, in a rain slicker, with her hair pulled back and no makeup on.

She looked younger without it.

She looked completely exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes.

Erik opened the door, and she saw his size and flinched.

"I'm not going to hurt her," she said.

"No," Erik said. "You're not."

He stepped aside, and he stayed in the kitchen doorway with his arms crossed while she came in.

The detective sat at my table in her gray coat, because I had called her first.

Imogen saw her and stopped in the middle of the room.

"You told her."

"I told her everything," I said. "I'm not hiding from you, Imogen. I'm done hiding."

Imogen put her hand into the slicker and took out a small black flash drive.

She set it on the table between the detective's folder and my teapot.

Nobody touched it.

"I copied it the day after," she said. "The server room was unlocked, and Roland was at the hospital with you. I was the one who got the call from the garage manager about the footage. I knew what it was. I copied it onto this, and then I deleted the original myself because he told me to."

"Why did you keep it?" the detective asked.

"Because I'm not stupid," Imogen said. "I knew what he'd do to me if it ever mattered."

"Not because you felt guilty."

Imogen looked at her.

Then she looked at me, and her mouth shook.

"Both," she said.

I did not feel anything I had expected to feel.

I had thought I would want to hit her.

I had thought I would want her to cry.

Instead I felt tired, in a clean way.

"Sit down," I said.

She sat.

"Tell me what you saw," I said. "Tell me, not them. I want to hear it from you."

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