Chapter 77
You Look Well
"One moment."
Dafa stopped.
Not startled. Not confused. Just… stiffened. The kind of stillness that came from instinct. He'd been leading us out, but now he turned back, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"What is it?" I asked.
He didn't answer.
His gaze slid past me, back into the storage room we thought we'd finished with. He tilted his head, as if listening to something I couldn't hear. The beam of his flashlight drifted away from the exit and traced the floor again.
Then he walked back in.
His steps were slower now, deliberate. Careful. I followed, the easy quiet between us replaced by something tighter, heavier.
He stopped at a low shelf cluttered with tarnished trays and chipped plates. He moved one large platter aside, not impatiently, but with care, as if he already knew what was behind it. He reached into the shadows and pulled something out, brushing dust off against his trousers.
A photograph.
Small. Framed in plain wood.
