Chapter 19: What the Camera Saw

Dirk crossed the creek at midnight, alone, with my say.

He walked up the slope in the dark with his hands out from his sides, and he stopped at the foot of the porch steps.

He looked ten years older than he had in the hospital.

"You asked for me," he said.

"I did. Sit."

He sat on the bottom step.

I sat on the top one, with the laptop closed on my knees and a lamp burning behind me on the sill.

"I'm going to play something," I said. "I've heard it once. I'm not going to hear it again with you in the room."

"Dara."

"Don't say anything. Watch."

I opened the laptop, turned it round and pressed the key.

The picture was dark and grainy, shot from the dash of my truck, looking down at the two front seats.

My own face filled the passenger side.

I was tired, in my clinic scrubs, with my hand flat on my stomach. I was smiling at nothing.

Celia was driving.

"Belt on?" Celia said. Her voice was soft and kind.

"Always," said the girl on the screen.

"Good. Hold on to something."

The engine note rose.

On the screen my head turned. "Celia, you're going too fast. The curve."

"I know where the brake is."

She said it quietly and calmly, with her eyes on the road.

I watched Dirk's face.

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