"Don't lecture me." Camille closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She sighed heavily. "You're impossible."
"Thanks." Zara grinned, revealing dimples I hadn't noticed before. She bent her head, focused on the computer screen. "Okay, so the SD card's water-damaged, but the file allocation table's still intact, which means I can try to recover what's salvageable. Metadata survived on some of these. Timestamps, GPS coordinates. These are all from 12:17 a.m. to 12:39 a.m."
Camille stiffened. "Right before Leah fell."
"Wait." Zara leaned closer. She muttered something under herbreath, adjusted something, and tried again. "There are several photos. And a video fragment timestamped 3:31 a.m. Mom, that's literally when I heard those noises on the bluff."
Camille's expression sharpened. Her attention narrowed as if she were about to cross-examine someone into oblivion. She moved around the island to stand behind Zara, one hand braced on the back of the chair, eyes tracking the screen. "Can you retrieve the damaged files?"
"I think so," Zara said. "The data's still physically there. But the water damage corrupted some sectors, so I'm running a deep scan to reconstruct what I can. Video files are way bigger and more fragmented. It's gonna take a second."
Fragile hope bloomed in my chest. "This could help Mia's case."
"It could also hurt her," Camille said. "Depending on what it shows."
Those files would reveal something that would change everything. I'd bet my life on it. "It won't."
Zara looked up at her mother with a pleading expression. "If I'd spoken up sooner, if I'd just said something... maybe none of this would've happened. Maybe Leah would still be alive. We can actually do something now."
Camille's shoulders dropped. She looked as tired as I felt. "Even if I wanted to, Dahlia, you and I, there's a conflict. I withdrew because you refused to follow advice, and because you interfered with witnesses and endangered your daughter's case, which made my continued representation untenable."
Pride was a luxury I couldn't afford. I would beg. I would do anything. "I won't say a word without you. I won't talk to witnesses. I won't breathe unless you tell me to."
"Too late."
"I know you're angry with me. I deserve that. But Mia—she's not a murderer. She's a kid who panicked and made a terrible mistake. Whatever you feel about me, please, don't let them eat her alive."
Camille let out a heavy sigh. "I'm not forgiving you."
"I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to save my daughter."
"Fine. I'll represent her through the arraignment. After that, we reassess whether I stay on or refer you out. That's all I can promise."
Relief hit me so hard my vision blurred. I braced a hand on the island until the room steadied. The words were too small for what I felt, but they were all I had. "Thank you."
Camille was already moving toward the back door. "Zara, save whatever you find to an external drive. Make a copy to the cloud. Email me anything that looks exculpatory. Chain-of-custody issues are going to be a problem, but right now we need leverage."
Zara didn't glance up from her work. "I'm on it."
Camille grabbed her keys from a hook by the door to the garage and slid on her zebra-print heels, all business now. Her gaze lowered to my bare feet. "You can wear a pair of my shoes. Let's go."
Chapter Forty-Two
Mia stared down at the scarred metal table, motionless, not meeting my gaze. My heart squeezed at the sight of her, her eyes red and swollen like she'd been crying for hours.
I brought a hoodie for her to wear over her dress to keep her from being too cold. Her small frame was lost in the oversized hoodie, like a child playing dress-up in someone else's clothes. She pulled the sleeves over her hands and held her hands tight in her lap like she might break into a thousand pieces if she let go.
Detective Callahan sat beside Detective King, elbows on the table, her eyes bright like a hunter who'd just cornered her prey. King settled back into his chair and reached across the table, turning on the small black recorder. The red light blinked to life. Detective King read Mia her rights again for the recording.
"Mia, you were arrested earlier tonight based on probable cause. No formal charges have been filed yet. The district attorney will review this interview and all evidence before deciding what charges, if any, to bring. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Mia said.
"Then let's begin," King said. "Tell us what really happened that night."
"Everything was normal until after we all got ready in our dresses.Then suddenly they started being nice to Leah and mean to me instead." Mia wiped roughly at her reddened eyes. "Peyton said my dress looked like something from a charity bin, that I was a try-hard. When I got upset, Leah said I was being extra. Then she called me needy, said I was obsessed with Chloe, and it wasn't a good look. Whenshewas the one who wanted to be included so badly, who talked about them literally all the time. Leah kept saying she had, like, a plan. That something big was gonna happen."
"What did she mean?" Callahan asked.
