“Zachary, you’re okay. Come on back. You’re not there. You’re in the camera store. Open your eyes. Look around.”
Zachary became aware of Mr. Peterson’s gentle touch and his calm, even voice. If Mr. Peterson was there, then the fire was long extinguished. He could breathe again. Zachary sucked in lungfuls of cool, sweet air. He pried his eyes open and took in the camera store around him, a couple of the employees gawking at him like he was some sideshow freak. Zachary held Mr. Peterson’s arm, trying to ground himself back in the present.
“You’re okay,” Mr. Peterson repeated.
Zachary nodded, unable to speak yet. He focused on breathing slowly in and out, trying to slow the pounding of his heart. Mr. Peterson stood there waiting patiently.
“Sorry,” Zachary apologized.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You can’t control the flashbacks.”
“I should be able to. After this long, I should know better than to let myself think…” he trailed off, trying to force his mind away from thoughts that would take him back down that hole.
“See anything you’re interested in buying today?” Mr. Peterson looked around at the shelves of camera accessories, trying to distract Zachary.
“Plenty,” Zachary agreed, forcing a smile. “Just like Pat said, I could spend all of my money here.”
“I’m thinking of a macro lens.”
“Yeah. Those are cool.”
“Were you… talking to someone?” Mr. Peterson nodded to the phone in Zachary’s hand. He looked down at it and realized the call was still live. He put it back up to his ear.
“Uh—hello?”
“Mr. Goldman? What the hell is going on? Where are you?”
“I, uh… I get flashbacks sometimes. Sorry.”
“Flashbacks to what? Were you a soldier?”
“No. A fire.” Zachary tried to gloss over it, to focus on other aspects. “So everything was destroyed. All of John’s original research.”
“I would say so. Did he have a suspect? Who knew he was coming to see you?”
“I don’t know who might have known about it. Just me, and him, and Philippe as far as I know. He didn’t have a suspect… not that he mentioned. I’ll have to see what’s in his papers, but I would think that if he had a name, he would have told me, even if he couldn’t prove it.”
“And Philippe? Give me his info.”
“He was a friend of Jose’s. He’s not the one.”
“You can’t rule out anyone Jose knew. It’s a lot easier to get someone alone if they trust you.”
“He’s just a kid. Eighteen, maybe.”
“I need to talk to him. Whether he is a suspect or not, I need to know who he talked to or who might have overheard him. If only three people knew where our vic was going to be, then one of you either torched the car or told the person who did.”
Zachary sighed. He knew it was true, but he couldn’t imagine Philippe having anything to do with Jose’s death, not even because he had accidentally let slip to the wrong person where John was going to be. He reluctantly gave Philippe’s information to Dougan.
“I want copies of all of the papers you took pictures of. They could be the key to this case. How soon can I get them?”
“As soon as I can. The camera got damaged and we’re trying to recover them right now.”
“The camera got damaged.”
“Yes. The photos are on the memory card, they’re still just fine. But we can’t get the card out. I’m just at the repair place.”
“You want to tell me what happened last night?”
“I told you, John came to see me at the hospital. I took pictures of his research. Then he left, and I guess that’s when—”
“Back it up. I want to know the rest. Why you have a fat lip and were in the hospital last night and how your camera got damaged.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes. That.”
“I had… an encounter with the local skinheads.”
“I see. Did you report it?”
“I talked to a cop… I don’t remember his name. I might have been a little doped up on Demerol at the time.”
“How badly were you hurt?”
“Cuts and bruises. Nothing broken.”
“Except your camera.”
“Yeah,” Zachary agreed.
“As soon as you recover the photographs, I expect you to get them to me. Can you email them?”
“Sure, of course. The minute I get them.”
When Zachary ended the call, he bowed his head, letting out a long breath. Mr. Peterson was still nearby, browsing the accessories and keeping an eye on Zachary. He glanced over and raised one eyebrow. “Okay?”
Zachary nodded.
“I’ve got it out,” Rocky announced. Zachary looked over at the service counter and saw Rocky holding up the memory card with a pair of tweezers. Zachary got up, his legs still a little wobbly, and went over to him.
“And everything is accessible?”
“Let’s have a look.” Rocky inserted the card into a card reader and watched the computer monitor. “Looks like it’s loading.”
They watched the file list populate the screen. Zachary breathed out a sigh of relief. “Can you print them out so that we have a hard copy?”
“There’s quite a bit here.” Rocky changed the view to thumbnails. “Are they all documents? Cheaper to print them on copy paper rather than photographic paper.”
“Yes. Copy paper is fine. I’m just anxious to have a hard copy right away. It’s easier for me to read than a computer screen. And could I borrow your computer to email out a copy?”
Rocky hesitated. “I don’t normally let customers use my computer. It’s not a public terminal.”
“It’s important,” Zachary insisted. He pulled the first page from the printer as it dropped into the tray. “Look,” he showed Rocky the list of names. “These are all missing and probably murdered men. I need to get copies of all of this to the police for them to use in their investigation.”
Rocky’s eyes widened as he took in the length of the list. He looked at the printer as it whirred and continued to drop pages into the tray. “You can just take it home and email it from there.”
“Just let me use your computer for thirty seconds,” Zachary snapped.
Rocky looked taken aback. Mr. Peterson shot Zachary a surprised look from across the store.
Rocky stepped back from the computer, turning it a few degrees toward Zachary for him to use. Zachary opened the web browser and uploaded them to his cloud account then logged into his email and shared them with Dougan.
Rocky had moved away to talk with Mr. Peterson, and Zachary realized they were discussing Rocky’s fee to retrieve the memory card and print the files.
“I’ll pay for that,” Zachary said quickly. “You don’t need to do that.”
“Zachary, we asked you to look into this case. If we were proper clients, you’d be billing us back for your expenses anyway, wouldn’t you? There’s no reason you should have to eat the costs just because we’re family.”
“But…”
“Zachary, let me cover it.”
Zachary gave in. He was exhausted after the flashback and wanted to go somewhere he could be alone to recover. He had sent the files to Dougan. The police would be reviewing them and they would open an investigation into the missing men. Zachary would review the files too, in time, but in the meantime, the police could get started on the information John had compiled. They would probably tell Zachary to stay out of the case altogether, and his involvement would be at an end.