With time to kill while they waited, the brothers made themselves breakfast. Omelets, bacon, toast, orange juice, and coffee.Good coffee, Jeremiah thought, draining his mug. Freshly ground Arabica from an espresso machine. Yet he’d give anything,everything, to be at Remy’s house right now, drinking Folgers.
When they finished, they worked together to load the dishwasher. Then went to the garage to check the cars’ engine oil and tire pressure.
The first two times Jude’s phone rang, he checked the screen and shook his head.
The third time it rang, he nodded. After he connected the call, Jude gave Jeremiah a small, victorious smile. “Yep. If you’ll upload that to our shared folder, we’ll take a look. I can’t thank you enough for working on this immediately.” More listening. Then, “Thanks, man.”
They washed car grime off their hands and returned to their seats in front of the computer.
Jeremiah navigated to the shared folder.
“Nathan says he’s glad I sent this over,” Jude told him, “because what it reveals is messed up. His words.”
They exchanged a look like,Did we just solve this thing?
“Nathan trimmed the new video so that it shows only the relevant activity,” Jude said. “Also, he worked on clarifying one particular still frame that he enlarged. That’s included at the end.”
Before, the recording revealed nothing but opaque dark. Now it resembled the night-vision pieces of film he’d seen on news programs, documentaries, and movies. The landscape had a surreal quality to it—the whole thing was shades of gray and eerie green.
The silhouettes of two people—a man and a woman—came into view, walking toward the cliff holding hands. The woman carried a flashlight, and the man carried a rolled-up blanket. They were distant, grainy, and shadowed. No way to identify either of them.
The man spread out the blanket. As the woman swung to the side to kneel on it, her long hair flared out and was caught by the wind. That hair was pure Alexis. So was the way she moved and the shape of her body.
Both figures reclined. It was hard to see them clearly against the land. Maybe they were talking? Looking up at the stars? The woman rolled on top of the man.
Jeremiah winced. “It looks like my wife is making out with her lover.”
“Yeah. It does.”
He’d known Alexis had affairs. Still. It made him nauseous to see video of her with another man while she’d been married to him.
Even though the time-lapse video moved quickly, it was obvious they’d done a lot more than make out. Afterward, they rested against the blanket again. Then, all of a sudden, the woman rushed to her feet. Her outline jerked on clothing. Jeremiah recognized her angry, confrontational body language because he’d been on the receiving end of that plenty of times.
It seemed their conversation had taken a turn that had made Alexis mad.
The man stood, too. He was pulling on his pants, gesturing emphatically.
Alexis shoved him so hard in the chest that he almost fell before catching his balance. Her hand swung back as if preparing to slap him. He blocked her arm and they wrestled before she yanked away. She stepped back, toward the cliff.
He placed himself between her and the cliff, palms raised as if trying to back her up.
Once again, her arm reared back. This time, her hand connected with his face. She appeared to be screaming, her shoulders rounded forward, her hands in fists.
He grabbed her upper arms and shook her. Alexis kicked at his shins. He swung her around so that she was now nearest the cliff, and he was the one in the safer position. He pressed her closer to the ledge. Just inches now separating her from empty air.
Jeremiah’s blood moved through his veins slow and cold. He knew the ending of this movie. She was about to die. He didn’t want to see it. More than that, he didn’t want it to be true. Powerlessly, he wished he could change what was about to happen.
He and Alexis had not been cut out to be husband and wife. But divorced, they could’ve both gone on to live full lives. That’s what he would have chosen for her. He wished she'd found her way to a good, long life.
Alexis head-butted the man’s throat, kicked out at him again. Clearly both of them were screaming—
Leaning into it, he stepped forward and shoved her away from him. The move was deathly successful.
Instantaneously she vanished from the camera’s scope.
Jeremiah and Jude said nothing. In the silence he registered the whir of his heater and the lowchug chug chugof the dishwasher.
Life went on for him. But not for Alexis.
