Chapter 21: Play It Loud

Carrie's POV

The sound cart stood in the corner by the stage, under a sheet of white paper that said Slideshow Only.

I had been standing behind it for forty minutes in a stranger's apron, holding a tray of napkins.

My phone was already plugged into the mixing board with a black cable.

My thumb was over the screen.

The deputy had his hand on Caleb's shoulder, and the whole hall watched them.

Caleb didn't resist.

He turned his head toward me, once, across forty feet of folding chairs.

I nodded.

"Take him out, Deputy," Joanna said. "Please. I'd like to start my wedding."

Her voice was gentle and wet.

Half the guests on her side were crying with her.

The other half had started to whisper.

I saw Rachel's green dress in the third row, her arm across the shoulders of a nurse.

I pushed the first slider all the way up.

I tapped the screen.

The room filled with a click and a hiss.

And then Joanna's voice came out of the speakers on both sides of the stage, enormous and clear.

"Brett, why didn't you tell me he'd be here?"

Heads turned.

Joanna froze.

"He was supposed to go down the wash," said Joanna, from the ceiling. "It was one trail. He followed me for six days like a puppy."

A woman on the bride's side made a high sound.

"Turn that off," Diane shouted. "Somebody turn that off."

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