Chapter 12: The Card

The camera still had its screen.

I pushed the card into the slot with fingers that did not feel like mine, and the little display lit up.

Mason stood behind me on the deck.

He did not say a word.

The footage began on the water, with the sun low and orange.

It had been shot through a long lens from far away, steady on a tripod, and in the middle of the frame was the Marguerite.

I saw myself in my blue dress, standing at the stern rail.

I saw Wesley beside me.

He looked at his watch, and I had never noticed him do it.

Whitney stood behind him.

While he turned me toward the sunset, she bent, opened the cockpit locker and put the second life ring inside it.

She closed the lid and straightened.

Nobody on that boat had been going to throw anything.

On the screen Wesley kissed my forehead.

He put both hands on my chest.

The little figure that was me went backward over the rail and out of the picture.

My own scream came tinny out of the speaker, thin and far away.

Whitney lifted her hand and waved.

I made a sound I had never made before.

"Stop it," Mason said, behind me. "Hallie, don't watch the rest."

I did not stop.

The Marguerite pulled away.

The camera did not move.

The lens drifted a little, and there I was, a dark head in the water, clinging to a white ring.

I was kicking.

I was kicking so hard.

I could see my own arms slowing.

At the bottom of the frame, a clock ran in white digits.

*18:14. 18:15. 18:16.*

A man's voice murmured under the wind.

It was Mason's voice, very quiet and strained.

*Not yet. Wait. Let the lights go.*

*18:20.*

On the screen my head went under.

I came up gasping.

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