“Miss Ludlow … can I see you in my office?”
It was the first time she had seen Brad after the incident. He never asked to go to his office before. She looked at him in silence, her heart was beating faster but she kept her composure. She nodded. After everyone had left the classroom, she followed him to his office which was down the corridor, the last room at the back of the second floor.
He closed the door behind them and turned the key. She clutched her books in front of her to hide her nervousness. Brad leaned on the desk with his feet crossed at the ankles, folded his arms and took his time before he started to speak.
“How was your stroll last Tuesday? I’ve been busy with work and stuff … I haven’t checked your footage for the Night Film,” he asked casually.
Her heart was knocking harder from the inside, “Oh … I didn’t go last Tuesday …”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t feel well …” she remembered she called in sick the next day, it was in line with what Maxine could corroborate.
“Oh … I’m sorry to hear that … so … I guess we should go tonight, then? The other guys have stocked up on some pretty good clips … you should too, we can start editing next week.”
Charlie was hesitant, “Uhm … it’s just that … my camera is broken, I’m having it fixed … so I don’t have anything to record it with.”
“That’s fine, I have cameras, you can use mine … I can teach you how to use it too, so there’s one more thing you can learn.” He went behind his desk and rummaged through his lower drawer. He had a lot of cameras stored in it.
She had exhausted every excuse she could think of to avoid going out with him for the Night Film, she didn’t want to draw any suspicion from him. She had to act like nothing was wrong.
“Are you going straight to work after this?”
“Uh … hmm …” she nodded.
“Okay … I tell you what, I need to see Maxine later, so I’ll pick you up at her office and then we’ll go do the project … how’s that sound?” he took a camera out and put it on his desk.
“Okay,” she agreed.
He smiled, “Good … oh … Charlie …”
“Yeup?”
Their eyes locked, he wanted to ask her something but he withdrew from it. “I’ll see you at 5?”
“Okay.”
Before she reached the door, Brad finally decided to ask, “Actually … I wanted to ask you about Amber.”
Her heart fell to her stomach, she almost got away with it. She turned to look at him, “Oh … yeah … I’m sorry about Amber … I know she was your friend.”
He paused for a moment, she used to be his girlfriend, but Charlie didn’t know that. “Yeah … I’m sorry too … Did Tom mention anything about her? I’m assuming you’ve patched things up with him?”
Charlie didn’t reply, she didn’t know what to tell him.
“I’m sorry … I don’t mean to intrude … it’s just you’re the last person I know who had any kind of connection with her … I thought you might know something or …” he looked away and sighed, then he shook his head, “I don’t know what I was thinking … it was rude of me to ask you that, I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay … it’s a shock to everyone … but no … Tommy hadn’t seen her ever since she was at his apartment, the next thing we knew …” she couldn’t bring herself to say it. “I guess you were right, she was troubled.”
He seemed disturbed by it, it was obvious he was still struggling to accept it. “I went to see her the day before she died,” he said.
Charlie’s eyes widened.
“I know about the tape,” he looked straight in her eyes.
She froze, she was bracing herself for what’s coming next.
“And I know for a fact that Maxine has the tape now.”