Chapter 19: Doctored

The room watched my sister walk across the asphalt on a wall twelve feet wide.

She had a phone in her hand, and it wasn't hers.

On the screen she glanced at the door, lifted the phone, and her thumb began to move.

Nobody breathed.

The bridesmaid who had been the emcee stood with her hand over her mouth.

On the wall Camille typed.

Her mouth moved while she typed, saying the words under her breath.

Then she put the phone in her blazer, climbed in the van, and shut the door.

The clip stopped on the empty slot where the van had been.

"Turn it off," Camille said into the microphone.

It came out too loud.

She said it again, and no one moved.

Dad stood beside the projector with his hands folded in front of him.

"That's the afternoon of the engagement party," he said. "That's Samantha's phone."

His voice shook, but it carried.

"Camille is deleting a photograph. Then she sends a text from Samantha's number."

"Ray," Mom hissed from table one. "Sit down."

"You counted heads in that van, Dot. So did I."

"Ray."

"Three," he said, to the room. "I counted three."

"Ray."

"I drove off from a rest stop with my youngest daughter standing in line for the bathroom."

He swallowed.

"I knew. Dot knew. We kept driving."

The ballroom made a low sound.

I stood up.

My knees were not quite working, and I used the table to steady myself.

I took out my phone and walked to the front.

The kid in the headset looked at me and plugged in my cable without being asked.

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