Alan watches the tape and discovers Ace caused the crash

Alan watches the tape and discovers Ace caused the crash, turning years of unresolved grief over Annie and Todd’s deaths into the knowledge that Ace Merrill deliberately caused their fatal collision. The revelation comes through a recording that lets Alan see the road, the approaching Scout, and the second car that had never appeared in any prior account of the accident.

The Recording and the Old Loss

Alan had made home movies of his family before switching to a video camera five years earlier. The unlabeled cassette offers no explanation of its contents, and his hand hesitates over the VCR before he decides to play it. The family images that come to mind include Annie and Todd, but also Brian Rusk, whose recent distress has become part of Alan’s immediate worries.

For Alan, the accident has never been a settled piece of the past. On the day Annie and Todd left for Hemphill's Market, he had waved from his study window; Todd waved back. They died on Route 117, less than a mile from the market, after their Scout left the road and struck a tree. The State Police estimated that Annie had been driving at least seventy miles per hour, an account that conflicted with Alan’s memory of her as a careful driver. He had also remained troubled by the seatbelts: Todd wore his, as usual, while Annie did not, despite her habit of buckling up even for a short drive. That discrepancy kept alive his fear that he might never know what had happened.

What Alan Sees

The tape begins with a shaky view of a country road. Alan recognizes Route 117 and the grove of pines near the place where the Scout crashed. The trees in the recording are unmarked, unlike the trees he has visited since the accident, and the intact landscape tells him that the footage predates the collision. He realizes that the camera recorded the day Annie and Todd died, and that he is about to witness their final drive.

The Scout approaches without appearing to speed or lose control. Then another car comes into view behind it, an unreported vehicle traveling at roughly seventy or eighty miles per hour. It is a lime-green Dodge Challenger, recognizable by its raised rear end, smoked-glass windows, roll bar, and stickers. When Alan recognizes the car, he identifies its driver as Ace Merrill and understands the motive: revenge.

As the Scout passes the camera, Alan briefly sees Annie, wearing the paisley scarf she had tied in her hair, and Todd in his Star Trek T-shirt. The Challenger bumps the Scout. Though the contact is not forceful by itself, the Scout is already moving faster; it misses the curve, leaves the road, and strikes a pine. The recording then shows Ace get out beside the wreck and laugh. Alan’s recognition is no longer a suspicion about an inexplicable accident: the tape shows the act that caused it and the person responsible.

Revelation and Consequence

The discovery recasts the accident Alan has repeatedly examined in his mind. The official account of Annie’s speed and the unanswered question of her seatbelt had left him confronting possibilities he could neither prove nor dismiss. The video supplies a cause outside the Scout: Ace’s car approaches from behind and bumps it off course. It does not erase the death or the uncertainty Alan had carried, but it reveals that the crash was deliberately brought about.

Alan responds in shock and fury, shouting as the Scout leaves the road and again when Ace appears. He pushes the VCR over, then throws the television against the wall, while the cassette continues playing. The scene makes the recording itself a painful instrument of revelation: it gives Alan evidence he could not otherwise have had, but only by making him watch the loss again. Its significance lies in the reversal from unanswered grief to confirmed responsibility, a revelation that points Alan toward a confrontation with Ace.