Chapter 19: Sound On

The screen above the head table showed a black road.

Desmond stood at the sound desk with his thumb over his phone, and his face was bright with certainty.

"Everyone, look carefully," he said.

"You will see who was in the driver's seat, and you will see who set this up. I have kept this video for three years, waiting for the right time."

He pressed play.

The speakers hummed, and a car engine came out of them, loud and rough.

The picture was the front seat of a gray sedan at night.

A woman's hands gripped the steering wheel.

Her fingers were long and bare of rings.

Chantal sat very straight in her gold chair with her eyes closed.

"There," Desmond said.

"Anyone can see that's a woman's hand."

He stopped, because nobody in the ballroom was looking at him.

He looked down at his phone, and the volume bar was all the way up.

On the screen, the camera turned.

It showed Chantal's face in the dashboard glow, white and fixed and terrified, her mouth open.

"Slow down!" a voice said from the phone, and it was Desmond's voice, amused and bright.

"Come on, you're not going to do it. Do you know how fast you're going?"

Chantal's voice answered, high and thin.

"Stop filming, Desmond. Please."

"Oh, this is going on the wall."

A shape flickered in the headlights.

A man in a dark coat stepped into the crosswalk.

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