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CHAPTER 62

Bend, Oregon Friday, August 2, 2024

WITH TREMBLING HANDS SLOAN SECURED ANOTHER PIECE OF PHOTO paper in the easel and set it below the enlarger. She fed the film into the machine and pressed the button to set the exposure. The process took just over a minute before Sloan transferred the blank paper through the three trays of solution. As it floated in the fixer, the final tray, she waited. Painstakingly, a form began to take shape on the paper. Sloan used tongs to lift the photo out of the solution. She clipped it to the drying rack next to the photo of the Cooper’s hawk. In the glow of the red safelight, the image materialized.

Blurry crossbars in the foreground told them that the picture had been taken through a window.

“These are curtains in the foreground,” Sloan said. “And the blurry lines are window grids.”

The angle of the photo was on a downward trajectory, clearly taken through a second-story window. Nora moved closer to the photo.

“That’s Preston and Annabelle’s driveway. And their BMW. This was taken through Annabelle’s bedroom window.”

As the image came into sharper focus, a person emerged.

“Who is that?” Sloan asked.

Nora lifted the photo from the drying rack and took a closer look.

“It’s Ellis.”