Then the door opened again.
Audrey climbed into the SUV.
It drove away.
Rachel reached for the desk before realizing she needed support.
“What date?”
“September twenty-ninth.”
Rachel looked at the attendance sheet.
Absent.
She looked at her phone.
September twenty-ninth, 8:54 p.m.
Derek: We grabbed food. Home in twenty.
The words blurred.
“Play it again.”
Mara did.
The SUV arrived. Audrey got out. Audrey stood still. Audrey leaned toward the window. Audrey got back in.
This time Rachel watched the driver’s silhouette.
She couldn’t see Derek’s face.
She knew the angle of his arm on the wheel anyway.
“Again.”
Mara didn’t comment. She replayed it.
On the third viewing Rachel noticed something she had missed before: Audrey’s dance bag never left the vehicle.
She pointed. “She doesn’t have her bag.”
Mara froze the image.
Rachel leaned close enough to see pixels.
Audrey stood on the sidewalk in tights, warm-up pants, and a fitted black jacket.
