Page 70 of Did You See Evie

“Maybe the girls have been given too much time to get their stories together.”

“You say it like you think they’re behind this.”

“They didn’t tell us everything,” I say. “My conversation with Kelly proves that.”

“Is that why you didn’t involve me?” he asks. “You’re still mad I didn’t tell you about some schoolyard mischief. We have no proof that any of the students at this school were involved with her disappearance.”

“But we do have proof they’re willing to lie to protect themselves,” I say. “If we care about what happened to Evie, we need to push them as much as possible.”

Mr. Lake’s phone buzzes on his desk. He picks it up, seemingly grateful for a distraction. Just as quickly, he puts his phone back down and starts typing on his computer.

“They’ve been able to uncover some of the damaged security footage,” he says. “Reynolds just sent it to me.”

Someone knocks on the office door. When I turn, I see Reynolds has poked his head inside.

“I thought you were alone,” he says to Mr. Lake, when he sees me.

“Come on in,” Mr. Lake says. “I’m trying to pull up what you sent me.”

Reynolds shuts the door behind him. He runs his fingers through his hair before resting his hands on his hips. I feel as though he’s avoiding looking at me.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time?—”

“I want to review this footage now,” Mr. Lake says. “Cass, look at it with me. You were there that night.”

Reynolds stares at me now, the expression on his face hard to read. Eyes wide, jaw clenched. He knows something.

“Have you already watched it?” I ask him.

“Yes. Evie doesn’t appear on the video. I think it would be best if we?—”

“It’s working,” Mr. Lake says, turning the computer screen around so that we can see.

“Reynolds already said there isn’t anything about Evie,” I say, panicked.

“It might give us insight into what the other girls were up to,” Mr. Lake says. “They’re the ones you’re worried about now, right?”

The screen is divided into six sections, each highlighting the various security cameras around the school: the front parking lot, the main corridor, the gymnasium, auditorium and two main hallways. The last one, a video of the back parking lot, is one I didn’t know about. Now I know why Reynolds is acting so weird; he’s seen what I did.

“Since when do we have a camera in the back lot?” I ask, my voice shaking.

My gaze focuses on that one square, terrified my image will appear any minute. I’d been able to avoid any cameras inside the school, but I didn’t know about this location. The placement is at the perfect spot to see me opening the back door and propping it open.

“We added them in January,” he says.

The pit in my stomach plummets further. How much have they been able to recover? Enough to tell us what happened to Evie? All of it? The part that shows me opening that door?

That seat he’d offered earlier calls to me. My knees are so weak, I think I might faint. Reynolds has already seen the video, and based on the way he’s looking at me, he knows something. He knows what I did. That’s why he came straight to Mr. Lake’s office. He wanted to tell him what he’d seen, and didn’t expect me to be here.

“Mr. Lake, please,” Reynolds says. The dread in his voice bothers me, makes me feel ill. “We should talk before?—”

“There’s something,” Mr. Lake says, pointing at one of the screens. He starts typing on his computer, trying to enlarge the video.

My chest is stuffed with hot air, as I struggle to think. How will I explain? What should I say?

Before I can complete a thought, I realize Mr. Lake isn’t pulling up the camera feed from the back parking lot. It’s zoomed in on the front parking lot.

“Who’s that?” Mr. Lake asks.

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