“How could you know about it?” I ask. “Why would you know anything about how they’re handling the media?”

“My search engines. I see everything that goes out.”

She’s hacking.

“There’s been no mention of the missing mask, which is dumb as hell since the person they’re trying to keep that detail from is the person who shot you,” she’s saying to me. “That person is Carrie and she knows damn well the mask you had on is missing because she’s the reason it’s missing.”

“And on the video you can see this. You can see her take my mask.” I hope it’s true but don’t understand how it can be. “When I realized my mask was missing it made sense that Carrie might have ripped it off my face as a parting gesture. She would have recognized the camera embedded above the nosepiece. I can imagine her wanting the recording.”

“She didn’t rip off your mask,” Lucy says. “But she definitely would want the recording.”

“Then how did my mask come off? I understand I was spitting out the regulator. Benton says I was but he never mentioned I took my mask off too. Certainly he wouldn’t have done it.” I’m feeling more uncertain as I say all this. “And he wouldn’t have allowed her to get close enough to me to rip off my mask.” I’m becoming less sure of everything with each minute that passes. “I can’t imagine it happening like that.”

“She didn’t get any closer, Aunt Kay. She shot you and then was out of sight.”

“Out of sight? She wasn’t caught on camera?” I begin to get a cold feeling, a terrible one that clenches my gut.

“Your mask got knocked off when you were struggling, when you were being pulled around by the rope attached to the spear and the surface buoy,” Lucy says, and I try to stay positive as I feel the boom about to drop.

“Good. Fine. So we have documentation.” I’m deluding myself now but can’t seem to stop. “So we’re beginning to put the pieces together to show exactly what happened and who’s responsible.” My spirits lift even as I fail to comprehend how any of this makes sense.

“I wish it were that simple.” Lucy begins her windup for the bad news that will follow. “Carrie doesn’t need to find out from the media that this critical piece of evidence is lost, missing, stolen, whatever.” She says it sarcastically, and my mood sinks lower, back to the dark space where it has been for weeks.

“How the hell does it matter what’s in the news?” Marino retorts.

“The FBI thinks it does,” Janet says quietly, seriously. “Not for the right reason, and that’s the problem. It’s always the problem.”