Richard followed the gesture toward the dark road beyond the lot. His shoes splashed through shallow puddles. “She wouldn’t just walk off,” he said aloud, as if someone were listening. His voice sounded foreign, hollow. Somewhere above, the CCTV camera blinked red. Watching and recording everything.
He forced a laugh, brittle and humorless. “I bet she’s trying to get back at me,” he told the attendant, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself. “We’ll both laugh about this tomorrow.” The boy said nothing, eyes flicking to the camera and back to him.