Chapter 21: Bennett

On the screen, the girl in the pale dress looked up at the library window for two full seconds.

Nobody on the terrace spoke.

At the edge of the frame, a small white light flashed twice in the dark window.

The girl set her shoes on the dock and stepped off.

The splash came through the speakers, and two hundred people flinched at once.

"That's fake," Bennett said.

His voice cracked on it.

"Anyone can fake a video. It's a cheap edit. Mitchell did this, my brother did this, he's been after me for years..."

"The timestamp's in the corner," said the managing partner of the law firm.

He had stood up at table three.

He said it flatly, with no look at Bennett.

"Seven fifty-seven," he said. "And my firm's complaint is stamped 7:12. I signed that stamp myself, on your instruction, Bennett."

"I never..."

"You called me at six, and you told me she was going to say something unforgivable at the party."

The senator was looking at Bennett and not blinking.

"That's a serious statement, counselor," he said.

"I know what it is, Senator. I'm giving it in public so it can't be buried."

Bennett's face did something I'd never seen it do.

All the charm went out of it at once, and what was left was angry and white and very young.

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