I’d never met Mrs. Malloy. She was tall and heavy and looked a lot like her son, but she was as dour as Ben was cheerful. Her expression didn’t change as he said hello, and her eyes traveled over me with grim disapproval. Even you didn’t lighten her mood, Shelby. However, she poured hot coffee for me, and after I fished out a cat hair, I was glad to have the caffeine.

Ben and I took the stairs to the second floor. Then he led me to what felt like a secret staircase climbing into one of the house’s turrets. The tower had a circular wall and windows looking out in every direction, with a roof that rose to a conical point above us. The wooden floor was dusty, littered by a few dead bugs. Spiderwebs dangled in the shadows. There was nothing much up here but cardboard boxes. Ben seemed to know exactly where to look, and he dug among the boxes and found one in particular, which he carried over to me.

Inside was a Super 8 projector and a stack of more than two dozen silver film canisters. He dragged over another box and propped the projector on top of it and plugged the cord into what seemed to be the only electrical outlet up here. He took the first of the film cans and showed me how to feed it through the machine. Then he retreated to the wall of boxes and located a white screen, which he unfolded and set up. The windows had heavy curtains, and he shut them, leaving the room mostly dark.

“There, you’re good to go,” he told me. “When you’re done with one, you can move on to the next. These are all four-hundred-foot reels, so each one lasts about twenty minutes. Stay as long as you want.”

“Are you heading back to the resort?” I asked.

“No, I’ll stick around for a while. I haven’t been to see Mom in a few days, so I owe her a visit. I can make phone calls while I’m here.”

“Don’t stay on my account.”

“Well, I’ll check on you in a bit, and I’ll let you know if I need to leave.”

“Thank you again, Ben. I really appreciate it.”

“In the end, will you tell me what this is all about?” he asked.

I hesitated and told him what I believed to be the truth. “In the end, you’ll know.”