Chapter 5 — The Restoration Studio Finds Another Copy
Nina examined the photograph beneath a bright lamp.
She wore cotton gloves.
“Permanent marker?”
Robert nodded.
“Pink.”
“I noticed.”
She inspected the surface.
The original photograph had a protective coating.
That helped.
But Robert’s attempt to wipe the ink had pushed some pigment into several small cracks.
“Can you remove it?” Rachel asked.
“Not perfectly from the physical print.”
Robert’s shoulders dropped.
Then Nina continued.
“But I can restore the image digitally.”
She scanned the photograph at high resolution.
The mark could be removed pixel by pixel.
Faded areas could be corrected.
Scratches repaired.
The original would still carry some evidence of the accident.
But the restored version could look almost untouched.
Robert looked relieved.
Then Nina zoomed into the scanned image.
“Interesting.”
Rachel frowned.
“What?”
Along the bottom edge was a photographer’s studio stamp.
HARRIS FAMILY PORTRAITS.
Nina recognized the name.
The old studio had closed years earlier.
But its negatives had been transferred to the county historical photography archive.
“There may be an original negative.”
Robert looked up.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we might be able to make another print directly from the original image.”
Rachel smiled for the first time all afternoon.
“Can you check?”
Nina did.
The archive database contained a matching session number.
Three exposures had been taken that afternoon.
The family’s current photograph was only one of them.
There were two other frames.
Robert stared at the screen.
“We’ve never seen those.”
Nina smiled.
“You might now.”