I'm the Only One Going in Blind novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Wide Camera

My boss put me on paid leave at eight in the morning.

He did it kindly, in the voice of a man who had read the comments.

"Until it blows over, Dean. Take a week."

I thanked him and hung up and stood in the loft in yesterday's shirt.

Downstairs Simone was at the long table with her laptop turned toward me and a cup of coffee already poured at the second chair.

"Drink that," she said. "Then watch this."

"Watch what?"

"I run a second camera on every shoot. A wide one on a tripod, in the corner, in case the first one fails." She tapped the trackpad. "Nobody notices it. Your mother filmed what Lacey wanted filmed. Mine filmed the room."

The screen showed the conservatory from above and to the left.

It was the whole picture, not the cropped square that was going around town.

I saw myself in the corner, holding the silver disc up with both arms.

I saw my mother with her phone, and the photographer's assistant fussing with a light stand.

I saw Lacey and Dustin under the arch.

There was no sound at first.

Then Simone turned it up, and the little speaker in the laptop gave us Lacey's voice, close to the camera and low.

"Smile," she said. "He's watching."

Dustin's shoulders went up.

"I said smile. Look at the lens."

She took his wrist in her hand and bent it down against his side.

I watched my brother flinch.

It was small, and it was real.

"Say it's fine," Lacey whispered. "Say it so I can hear."

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