Garcia twisted his lips to one side. ‘I’m going to use the kid as a guide here because it’s easier to guess the age change.’
‘OK.’
‘In these pictures,’ Garcia said, indicating the ones on the marked page, ‘the kid looks to be five… six, maybe.’
Hunter nodded his agreement.
‘And in this one,’ Garcia flipped to the end of the photo album. ‘He looks about eight or nine years older. Definitely starting his teens, so I’ll say – thirteen… fourteen?’
‘And on this one?’ Hunter handed Garcia one of the photos from the box. It was a photo of Joana and Joseph together.
‘Umm…’ Garcia waved his head from left to right. ‘I’m going to guess that the kid is around ten… not older.’
‘So easily at least a three-year gap from one photo to the other?’ Hunter asked.
‘I’d say that that’s about right, yeah,’ Garcia confirmed.
‘And nothing made your mind wonder with questions?’
‘No, not re… What sort of questions?’
Instead of replying, Hunter’s gaze went back to the album, which Garcia had placed on the bed when he took the loose photo.
Garcia waited, but he got nothing else from his partner. ‘So are you going to tell me what the hell apophenia is, or was this it – comparing images and trying to figure out the time lapse between them?’
‘In all honesty,’ Hunter explained, collecting the album from the bed, ‘apophenia is really just a fancy word for the tendency that humans have to find connections where they don’t really exist – being either images, situations, words… anything, really. Like kids finding shapes in clouds. And that was me right now – trying to see connections where no real connection exists.’
‘So basically – overthinking,’ Garcia said with a nod.
Hunter chuckled. ‘That’s one way of looking at it, yeah.’ He reached for the loose photos, but Garcia halted him.
‘Hold on a sec, Robert. That isn’t what you do, though.’
Hunter frowned at him. ‘What isn’t what I do?’
‘Find connections where they don’t really exist,’ Garcia replied. ‘Or see patterns that aren’t really there. For most of us – I’d agree. But not you. Not usually. What you do is find connections where others can’t… you see shapes that others have missed.’ He indicated the album and the photo. ‘So enough with the Gugguggle lesson and just tell me straight up – what is it that you think you saw in those photos?’
Thirty
Hunter began with the same photo that had first caught his eye – the one on the final page of the photo album. It was a picture of Joana and Joseph together, where Joseph looked to be around fourteen years old. The picture was taken on a bright sunny day. Joana was sitting on a patch of grass that had been recently mowed, with a large picnic basket by her side. She wore a spaghetti-strap floral dress and ankle-strap sandals. Joseph was standing just behind his mother, his arms by his sides, his eyes looking straight ahead; his smile was shy and it looked a little forced. The thorned name of the metal band across the front of his T-shirt was impossible to read.
‘What caught my attention in this photo was Terry Wilford’s son,’ Hunter said. ‘Joseph.’
Garcia repositioned himself and looked at the picture again.
‘See his arms?’ Hunter indicated.
‘Yeah, what about his arms?’
‘Right here.’ Hunter tapped his index finger against the photo. ‘Just below the elbow joint. His arms bend in very slightly at an odd angle, don’t you think?’
Garcia squinted for better focus, as he brought the album closer to his face. ‘Oh-kay.’ He agreed. ‘Very slightly, but isn’t he holding his arms like that on purpose. You know, trying to look more muscular for the photo.’ Garcia exaggerated the pose – armsdown and flexed inward, pushing his chest out. ‘Teenagers will do stuff like that.’
‘That’s not what he’s doing.’ Hunter indicated again. ‘See, the bend isn’t at the elbows, like you just did. It’s a little below them.’
‘Yeah, I see that now.’
Hunter flipped back a few pages on the album and indicated two different photographs. The first was a photo of Terry, Joana and Joseph together. All three of them were standing by a tall, lit Christmas tree. Joseph looked to be about five or six years old then. This time, he was standing right in front of his mother, while Terry stood to their left. Terry had stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes for a silly and funny face. Joana had her arms over Joseph’s shoulders, with her fingers clasped together over his chest. Both of them were laughing at Terry’s silliness.
