Jessie went ahead of him down the hallway. “What if they weren’t planted?” So far, she had refused to consider the story Mark had told her after his initial arrest. That was crazy. She could only surmise that he’d been desperate to concoct something that outlandish. That was the only logical explanation.
“Wow, that’s wild.” The guy examined the negatives and pictures. “These negatives definitely came off the same roll of film. They were processed together, all the cuts on the film strips line up. They physically came from the same roll of film, and see where the film winds around the take-up spool in the camera?” He pointed to the square holes at the bottom of the negatives and continued, “Every fifth one has a tiny notch in it. The notch is on the second picture as well as the ones from the recital. I bet if I look at the camera you took the pictures with, I’ll find a small defect on one of the teeth that pulls the film through the camera.”
“I have the camera right here.” Jessie dug into her purse and handed the young man Mark’s camera. She noted his name tag. Gary.
Gary’s eyes lit up. “Cool. I’m not sure of the make, but it’s old. Very old.” He turned the camera this way and that, skimming his fingers over the textured body. “It’s in good condition too. It was probably one of the first thirty-five millimeter still cameras.” Beaming, he opened the back. “Yep, there’s a tiny flaw in one of the teeth on the wheel. See the sliver of metal sticking out?” The young man laid the strips of film out on the counter in order. “Right here.” He tapped the edges of the strips as he kept a silent count. “The notch is on every fifth negative and this negative falls exactly in sequence. These photos definitely came off the end of this roll of film.”
Jessie and Dan leaned across the counter. There was no doubt. Jessie straightened and caught Dan’s eye. Now what? He shrugged.
“Where’d you get the camera anyway?” Gary asked, then bent to get something beneath the counter.
“It’s not mine. It belongs to a…friend of mine.” Jessie ignored Dan, knowing that if she looked at him now, he would be grinning at her.
“Oh. Well, I can’t tell you how those bizarre photos got on your film, but I have another roll of film here. You could try it out and see what happens. In all likelihood, it was just some crazy glitch.”
Nodding, Jessie pulled some cash from her wallet. “I think I’ll do that. Meanwhile, would it be possible to get those two photos blown up to eight by tens?”
Gary made a face. “Sure, that’s no problem, but what in the world for?”
Dan leaned an elbow on the counter and smiled. “It’s police business. You understand.”
Gary’s eyes rounded. “Oh.” He rang up the film, his demeanor more subdued. “I’ll get right to work on those enlargements. Should be ready by tomorrow.”
Jessie smiled. “That would be great, Gary.”
Jessie picked up the enlargements the next day on her lunch hour. She waited until she was back in the office to open the envelope. Bracing herself, she sat and pulled the pictures out. The larger pictures showed more detail. Mark’s face was bathed in sweat, and his hands looked swollen in the cuffs. In the second picture, she saw the muscles in his arms bunched. He appeared thinner than she remembered, and his orange t-shirt was plastered to his body. Across the back, was a stenciled number. It was prison issue. That much was obvious. But which prison? Booted feet in the corner had camouflage pants tucked into the top. That meant military.
Dan entered, a bag in his hands. “Want a burger? I figured you wouldn’t have time to get one, so I got an extra.”
She tried to smile, but didn’t quite manage one. “Sure. That sounds good. Thanks.”
He handed her the burger and wordlessly took the pictures from her. After a long moment, he sighed. “It’s not any easier looking at them like this, is it?” Dropping the pictures on her desk, he returned to his own and began eating his lunch.
She took a deep breath. “No. Harder in fact.” As difficult as it was to look at the pictures, it was time to think logically. The pictures looked real, but where had they come from? How had they ended up in the camera? She had just happened upon Mark’s stuff tossed onto the lawn of his building. Then had happened to use the camera for the recital and happened to use the photo store near her work. How could anyone have planned an elaborate scheme to plant the photos with the prior set of chance circumstances?
Jessie unwrapped the burger. The photos of Mark had been on the end of the roll. How had a man who had been gone for months wind up on the end of a roll of pictures that should have been faces of giggling little girls wearing tutus? If it was a con, it was insanely complex. Who would go to that much trouble and why?
Dan didn’t know what Mark had told her about dreams and pictures predicting the attacks on nine-eleven. It had been hard enough telling anyone that Mark had been arrested as a terrorist; there had been no need to add lunatic to the list, but what if pictures like these were what Mark had experienced?
“When I went to see Mark that last time, he told me something.”
His mouth full, Dan raised his eyebrows and took a gulp of his soft drink. “Yeah?”
She tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned an elbow on her desk as she turned to Dan. “He told me that he had a camera that took pictures of the future and that then he dreamed about what was in the pictures.” She stopped as she tried to recall exactly what Mark had told her. “Or maybe he had dreams first and then the pictures show up. I’m not sure.”
Swallowing a bite, Dan wiped his lips with a napkin, and Jessie couldn’t help noticing that the corners of his mouth twitched.
“Really? That’s…interesting.” He tilted his head to the side with a half-shrug. “So? Taylor was always a bit odd. It sounds like something he’d say.” He dipped a fry into a pile of ketchup and pointed it at her. “Does that have something to do with why he was arrested?”
“It had almost everything to do with it. He said that he had photos of the Towers and a dream. I guess he called a bunch of government agencies the morning of the attacks to try to warn someone.” Jessie picked up her burger and took a bite. She wasn’t hungry, but it smelled good. Her coffee was cold, but she took a drink anyway to wash down the food. “What if he was telling the truth?”
Dan balled up his wrapper and tossed it in the wastebasket. “Aw, come on, Jess. I know you liked the guy, but I think you’re grasping at straws.”
Jessie snatched the photos and waved them. “Then where in creation did these come from?” With a snap of her wrist, she let the pictures slide onto the desk then stood and paced to the window. Of course he didn’t believe it. Why should he? It was crazy. Drawing a deep breath, she turned, arms crossed. “Look, I know it sounds…improbable. But what if it’s true? I didn’t believe it until these pictures showed up.” She flung an arm out, gesturing at the photos. “You got a better explanation?”
Dan slouched in his chair, but he had lost the sarcastic look, and instead, bit his thumb as he contemplated the pictures covering Jessie’s burger. “Well, you could test it.”
“How?”
“Take some more pictures.” He grinned. “See what develops.”
She couldn’t help smiling at his bad pun, then sat down in her chair as she thought about his suggestion. “I guess I could do that.” What if another horrible scene turned up? She shivered and hoped she was wrong about this.
“Did you dream?”
Jessie pushed the awful mental pictures of what might show up out of her mind. “Did I dream?”
“Yeah. You said Taylor told you he had dreams that went along with the photos. You have pictures, but did you dream?” He pointed his chin towards the photos, “Did those scenes turn up in your dreams?”