Page 271 of Taken Away

Anne blinked once.

“No.”

Burke did not answer.

“No,” Anne said again, sharper now. “No, I wasn’t.”

Burke slid a photograph across the table.

Anne stared down at it.

“License plate reader,” Burke said. “Interstate 26. Your vehicle entering North Carolina.”

Anne’s lips parted.

She stared at the photograph a beat too long.

“That’s not⁠—”

Burke slid out another photograph.

“This one is your car outside Asheville.”

Anne’s hand lifted from the table, then lowered again.

Burke placed a third photograph beside the first two.

“And this one is here. In Sylva.”

Anne stopped breathing.

Outside the door, Aubrey shook her head slowly, as if she could make the photographs vanish by refusing them.

Burke’s voice stayed low.

“You weren’t in Florida.”

Anne looked at him.

Then at the photographs.

Then back again.

“No.”

“Anne.”

“No.”

“You drove to Blackwood.”

Her eyes filled.

“You went to see Mabel.”

Anne’s face crumpled.

“Yes.”