AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ABBY: Did you ask her about the photos?
ASHFORD: Thank you, Miss Ryder.
SARA: Ask me about which photos?
ASHFORD: We will get to that in due time. Miss Ryder, please see to our other guest.
Abby gives a curt nod and exits, pulling the door shut behind her with a bang.
ASHFORD: I’m sorry about that. Miss Ryder’s training is... informal. We’re still working on her people skills.
SARA: What did she mean about the photos?
Ashford hesitates, indecision in his expression. Then he reaches for the folder containing the photos he showed her earlier.
ASHFORD: We looked at some of these earlier, but we haven’t had the chance to discuss them in detail yet.
He sets two on the table. The first is the photo of Nick Dessen. The other he removes from the folder is one he has not shown her before, a photograph of Miranda taken with a flash, mist hanging in the air around her. There is something odd about her skin, and the shadows that lie on it. The viewer can almost imagine that they see the faint lines of the bones beneath her skin. Sara reaches for the photo of Miranda, pulling it toward her across the table.
SARA: Miranda. I remember taking this.
ASHFORD: Then Miranda was with you.
SARA: Yeah. She came with Mel. But you knew that.
ASHFORD: I did, I only... We’ll discuss that later. You haven’t said anything about the other photograph. Earlier, you hardly looked at it.
SARA: That’s because I’ve never seen it before.
ASHFORD: You don’t remember taking it?
SARA: I didn’t.
ASHFORD: It came from your camera.
SARA: Becca’s camera.
ASHFORD: Yes, but it was taken when you were in possession of the camera. And look at the background. The same tree is in both of them. These photos were taken in the same place.
SARA: That’s not possible.
ASHFORD: Why not?
SARA: Because whoever this kid is, he wasn’t with us. And we hadn’t met anyone else on the road yet.
ASHFORD: Excuse me?
SARA: We hadn’t met anyone else yet.
ASHFORD: Yes, but—you said “whoever this kid is.” You don’t recognize Nick Dessen?
SARA: Who?
Ashford stares at her for a moment in silence. Then he reaches for the papers that Abby brought in, flipping through once more.
ASHFORD: In your written statements, you don’t mention that Nick Dessen was with you.
SARA: I told you, I don’t know who that is.
