Flat White by Sandra Balzo

Author:Sandra Balzo [Sandra Balzo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2021-01-11T22:00:00+00:00

TEN

‘You have your cell phone?’ I asked Sarah.

‘In the office. Why? Where’s yours?’

‘Get it.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ Pulling a face, she carried the empty plate to the back and returned with the phone.

I took it. ‘You were taking photos that day, remember? Do you have any of the … Damn! What’s your passcode?’

‘How should I know?’

I looked up. ‘How do you get into your phone?’

‘My face.’ She snagged the phone and held it up in front of her. ‘See?’

It opened. ‘Of course, I see. But you still need the passcode when you restart your phone.’

‘Who restarts their phone?’

‘Me,’ I said, taking the phone back to punch up her photos. ‘When things start acting funny. Or slowing down.’ I tapped the photo icon again. Nothing. ‘Like now.’

‘I don’t even know how to turn this one off,’ she said. ‘Or on. That button at the top is missing. I wish they’d stop changing things.’

I sighed and handed her back the mobile. ‘Can you pull up your photos?’

She diddled around with it and then finally: ‘There.’

Sure enough. I did not know or care how she did it. I scrolled through recent photos. Most of them were of her car, a vintage 1975 Firebird, then a couple frames of the EMTs around Margraves’ body. But one … ‘See?’

‘See what?’ Sarah asked, sliding her chair around so we both could, indeed, see. ‘The garbage truck stuck in our snow pile?’

I squinted. ‘The plow was traveling at a good pace. Do you think that pile of snow was big enough to stop it without somebody inside braking?’

‘It’s all the snow from the parking lot from the first snowfall up until that day.’ She got up. ‘Let’s go see.’

I didn’t quite understand why we had to go outside in the cold to see a mound of plowed snow that was perfectly visible on a picture. I followed her out onto the train platform, though.

‘Brrr,’ I said, folding my arms against the cold. ‘Let me go get my coat.’

‘Don’t be a wuss,’ she said, pointing. ‘There’s the pile.’

I surveyed the dirty gray pile, a mix of snow and salt and sand put down to both melt the snow and provide traction. It stood about six feet high, maybe eight feet across. There was an impression where the wheels went in. ‘Snow has been added since Tuesday.’

‘When they plowed out the lot after the storm that night.’

‘And anything that fell on top of the pile throughout,’ I said. ‘Still, even in the pictures it looks substantial enough. Plus’ – I pointed – ‘there’s the light pole in the middle of it.’

‘True,’ Sarah said. ‘To keep going it would have had to plow through the pile, the pole and back out the other side.’

‘Let’s go in.’ I was rubbing my hands together to keep circulation going. ‘I want to see something.’

Back inside, I peered at the photo. ‘Obviously it’s sitting with the headlights in the snow, but the taillights are visible and they’re on.’

‘Then you were right,’ Sarah said. ‘The lights were switched on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.