Chapter 5 · Continued
Recall
She opened it.
Seymour again.
This time, his face filled the entire frame. His fur was blurred around the edges, and his nose was nearly touching the camera.
Too close.
Completely out of focus.
Jane laughed despite herself.
“Okay…”
She shook her head and stared at the screen. “…What is actually happening right now?”
Then another thought came quickly.
Too quickly.
What if this wasn’t who she thought it was?
Jane’s stomach tightened as a brief chill ran through her.
She looked at the photograph.
Seymour.
Her mind scrambled for something solid.
No.
That didn’t make sense.
Who else would know about the garden?
Who else would have the original plant catalog?
Who else would have pictures of Seymour?
Jane slowly exhaled and forced the thought down.
“Don’t do that,” she muttered. “Don’t turn it into something it isn’t.”
She glanced toward the couch.
Seymour was still there.
Still watching her.
Still entirely unconcerned.
Jane looked back at the phone.
At Cam’s message.
At the photograph she had sent in return.
Her hand.
Her face.
The little wave.
The smile she hadn’t realized she was making.
Her chest tightened again.
“…That was stupid.”
She didn’t say it harshly.
Only quietly.
Honestly.
Jane locked her phone and set it on the table.
Almost immediately, she picked it up again.
She didn’t remember deciding to do it.
Her thumb hovered over the screen.
Nothing new.
Jane slowly exhaled.
The phone chimed.
She froze.
Another message had arrived from the same number.
Jane opened it.
An image.
Blurry.
Dark.
At first, it didn’t register as anything more than shapes and digital noise.
Jane frowned and tilted the phone. “…What is that?”
She zoomed in.
The pixels broke apart beneath her fingers, but something was there.
A vertical shape.
Edges too straight to be random.
Her breathing slowed. “…No…”
Jane enlarged the image again.
There—a suggestion of something familiar.
A curve.
A narrow line.
Positioned where—
She swallowed. “…Cam?”
The image remained still and unclear.
Almost nothing.
But not nothing.
Jane lowered the phone slightly and stared at it.
That wasn’t Seymour.
It wasn’t her house.
And it definitely wasn’t a catalog image.
She looked back at the screen. “…What did you send me?”
Jane sat with the final image still open on her phone.
Blurry.
Uncertain.
Her stomach tightened.
“…Okay.”
What if she contacted RCAM and asked them directly?
Is this Cam?
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
Then they stopped.
If it was Cam—if he was somehow doing something RCAM hadn’t authorized—telling them about the messages might make things worse.