Exposure by Patricia Murdoch

Author:Patricia Murdoch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2006-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

I stopped in at the camera store in the little mall on my way to Sammy’s. It took almost all of Zack’s money, but I bought a card. I put on the thin winter gloves I’d brought, took out the old card and put the new one in. I put the original in the holder and tucked it into my pocket. I should have just thrown it out with the packaging, but I couldn’t.

“You were so weird on the phone,” complained Sammy when she opened the door. “What’s going on?”

“I am swearing you to complete secrecy. You can never tell another person, promise?”

“Sure. What is it?” she said.

“I mean it, you can’t tell.” I was starting to sound like Zack.

“All right, I promise.”

I told her about the camera and the party. I had thought I would tell her everything, but I changed my mind. There was something in her “I’m better than everyone else” attitude that was getting on my nerves. She’d disapprove of Zack, and she’d really hate that I burned the CD and kept the pictures. It was best that she think we were getting rid of it all.

“Well, if we have to go that far, I’m taking something to eat,” Sammy said. “You want something?”

We filled Sammy’s pack with drinks and snacks.

“What if we get stopped by the police?” Sammy asked.

“We can just say we’re out biking around. The food helps.”

The ride was long, but the cool weather made it more comfortable. It was fun until we got near the conservation area. I began to imagine that the place would be swarming with police cars.

The parking lot was empty.

We followed the dirt road to the dunes. No one was around.

It was clear from the bottles and garbage and picnic tables that we were in the right place. In some areas the wind had blown the sand smooth, but in other areas there were many footprints.

What was it like last night? There would have been music and voices. It was silent now, just as it had been in the photographs: Dana, doing those things, but with the sound turned off. I almost felt sorry for her. “We need to ditch this somewhere close, but not too close.”

We leaned our bikes against a picnic table.

“How about there?” Sammy suggested, pointing at a small pile of branches and leaves. It was a few feet off the road. A pack could have easily fallen and ended up there.

“Looks okay. I just want to get rid of it.”

We lifted up the branches and placed the pack on the ground. I kicked at the dirt a few times and then put the branches on top. “Add a few more leaves.”

Sammy shook her head. “We don’t want it to look like it’s been here for days. It’ll look phony.”

She was right.

I removed one of the branches. Now it looked more like it had just fallen. “Let’s get out of here,” she said nervously.

“I’m hungry,” I said. “I want to eat.” I also wanted to stick around for a bit and see if anything happened.

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