Chapter 10: Sent Home

"It isn't what it looks like," I repeated.

My voice sounded flat and calm.

"It looks like you're having breakfast with your boyfriend," I said. "Is that wrong?"

"Cal, please, not in front of people."

"You wanted people."

I took out my phone.

I found the file, turned the volume all the way up and set the phone on the table between the oatmeal and the sugar.

The recording played.

I watched Dean's face the whole time, because I knew every word already.

He went from smiling to still by the tenth second.

Forty people listened.

Nobody coughed.

At the table by the stove, a gray-haired woman put down her cup and covered her mouth.

When it ended, the shelter was so quiet I could hear the stove tick.

"That's old," Dean said.

His voice was smooth, but sweat had broken out at his hairline.

"That's from this week," I said. "Tent Three. I filmed it from behind a snowbank."

"It's been edited. Anyone can fake a video these days."

"It's your voice."

"It's a deepfake. Freja put him up to it. She's been unstable for months."

"Please stop saying that," Freja said.

She had gone very pale, but she didn't raise her voice.

"I'm a large-animal vet, Dean. I put my arm inside a cow this week. I'm very stable."

Somebody at the back snorted.

Dean's jaw tightened.

Lindsay stood up.

Her hands were shaking and her eyes were full, and for one moment I thought she was going to say she was sorry.

"You followed me," she said.

I stared at her.

"You spied on me. You hid in the woods and filmed me. Do you know how disgusting that is?"

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