The Photo Said I Must Die novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Washed Out

Dani's POV

I came in from the beach with Oliver's printout still in my head.

I heard my sister's voice coming up from the cellar stairs.

"I'd like it back, please."

I stopped in the kitchen doorway.

Judd stood at the bottom of the stairs with a padded box in both arms.

Briana stood at the top, with the light behind her and her hands folded in front of her cardigan.

Judd's aunt sat at the steel counter pretending to do her crossword, and she did not turn a page.

"What is that?" I said.

Nobody answered.

I crossed the kitchen and went down three steps, and Judd looked up at me with his whole face open.

It was the same look he'd had in the office, and I didn't trust it anymore.

"Dani," he said. "I was going to tell you tonight."

"Tell me what?"

"It's a bottle of wine," Briana said gently, from above. "For your birthday."

"Mom's favorite, from the little vineyard near Tours. I had it sent in July, so it wouldn't be forgotten."

"You had it sent to him."

"To the inn, yes. For the lunch."

I took the box out of Judd's arms.

He let me.

I lifted the tissue and read the card under the foil.

For my sister's birthday. Please serve this one only, at table four, and pour it yourself.

I read it twice.

I knew that handwriting from forty birthday cards.

"July," I said.

"It came in July," Judd said. "I signed for it. I put it on a shelf and I didn't think about it."

"And since I got here?"

He didn't answer fast enough.

"Since I got here," I said, "I've shown you a burned letter and a sawed-off board and my sister's lies."

"You looked at me in that office with my hand in yours."

"Dani."

"You knew she wanted you to pour for me on the ninth, and you knew what was in the photograph."

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