Page 13 of The Line
Except the words are hollow.
Weightless, fraudulent, they simply fall apart.
Because anonymity won’t get her commissions at theTimesand it won’t get slots on radio phone-ins, or invites to talk shows. Nothing about her career will change, because no one will ever know that she was the one who broke the biggest story of the year. They won’t know the words are hers. They won’t see that she was tough enough to make it to this point. She will remain every bit as invisible as she always has been.
Hallie blinks, tears blurring her eyes.
It was never about the money, she realizes now.
But the money is all she has left.
In the window, Porter Sloan moves.
She puts the camera to her face, looks through the viewfinder, and hears her voice in her head again.I’m so sorry. She puts her finger on the shutter release.I’m just so, so sorry.
But she’s not sure anymore who she’s apologizing to.
She doesn’t know if it’s Sloan.
Or Jordan Sanchez.
Or herself.
Inside his house, Porter Sloan finally raises his head, the skeletal mask of his face half-lit by the lamp, the image of him perfectly framed by the window.
And in his garden, Hallie Pitney takes the first picture.
