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I just shrug, spreading my hands out.
“Yeah, okay,” she finally says. “Maybe we should look into this a little bit more.”
Chapter 18
LINDY
Taking another look at it, I wonder why I didn’t really see this before. This BUST tech or whatever it is didn’t seem like such a big deal. After the initial surprise, it faded right away. Or maybe it seemed like too much of a big deal and so I pushed it aside.
“Okay, I’m ready,” I declare.
Diego looks at me suspiciously. He glances at Spencer, who gives him an almost imperceptible nod of permission.
Sliding the laptop across the small desk to me, Diego keeps his eyes on me while I peruse the first page of results.
“I know it’s a lot,” he begins sympathetically.
“No, I need to do this,” I sigh. “I need to get an idea of just how much is here.”
“I really think that’s the best way to do this,” Spencer agrees. “Just, you know, relax. Absorb it. See if anything stands out? A pattern? Maybe somebody else in the pictures?”
His voice fades into the distance as I concentrate. The pictures are in groups of three or four, as though the person who took them snapped a few at a time, and then the scene changes. I’m walking along the quad with my head down for three shots.
I am reading the course catalog while I eat cereal in the morning, with my pink pajama bottoms on for four shots.
A few shots in sculpture class. A few shots in drawing class. A few shots in the fourth floor hallway of the auditorium. A few more in the fitness center hallway, where I am looking up to check out the postings for the class schedules.
“Anything?” Zeke asks. “Anything coming together?”
“No, not really,” I admit.
“Well, like, who do you hang out with in these places? Anyone in particular?”
A few shots where I am carrying a burrito as big as my head back to a tiny table. A few shots in the library. A few shots in a different floor of the library.
“No. I don’t even remember being in all of these places, you know what I mean?”
“You think they are fake? We could do that now, you know,” Diego says seriously.
“No, that’s not it,” I shake my head, still concentrating on page fifteen of the search thumbnails. “What I’m saying is, these are so mundane, it could be any day at all. Like, I have been to the library two dozen times. I go to the fitness center twice a week. I only have two outfits for the fitness center.”
“And, the… uh… shower?” Spencer asks. “Anything stand out about that?”
“Well, I guess if I could see all the way down to my feet where I could check the level on my shampoo bottle?” I answer sarcastically. “But if I can’t see that, it looks like every other shower I’ve ever had!”
Trevor reaches out and wraps his big hand around my elbow.
“We’re just trying to help,” he says softly.
I melt a little bit. Sitting next to Trevor is like having Xanax on tap. He is such a calming influence.
“I know you are, hon,” I sigh. “I am sorry I snapped at you.”
A few pictures of me walking through the parking garage. A few pictures of me sitting in the stadium seats of the lecture hall where we do Greco-Roman art history.
“Oh, okay, here is something,” I say, tapping the screen.
The guys lean closer to me. Clearly they are intrigued.
