Summary:Snapshot
This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Snapshot. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book
Chapter 1
Anthony Davis eats a burrito with his partner, Chaz, as they stroll down the street of New Clipperton in a Snapshot of ten days earlier. Davis wonders briefly about Deviations they may cause, but focuses on the mission at hand. They arrive at the scene of the first crime of the day and decide to watch from inside a liquor store. After a few moments in the store, the shopkeeper grows suspicious and asks them to leave. Chaz shows him his reality badge, and he leaves the shop in a daze. Chaz gives Davis some change from the burrito stand and goes to find a beer. Davis is helping his son Hal complete his coin collection, so he searches for ones he needs. At the appointed time, they hear a single gunshot from a building across the street and see the murderer Enrique Estevez hurrying out. They follow him through alleys and streets until they eventually see him call someone on his phone and drop something. They walk up to a storm drain and find a gun inside. Davis sends a message to Maria, the "in real world" (IRL) liason, telling her where the murder weapon is. They have plenty of time until the next assignment that evening, so Chaz suggests they go over to Ingred Street to get some coffee.
Chapter 2
Davis eats some French fries in a diner when Chaz returns from the restroom. Maria sends Davis a message that the murder weapon was found IRL in the place they indicated. Chaz wants to quit for the day since the evening appointment is so trivial. Davis wants to stay, so he tells Chaz about a strange thing he noticed on the scanner forum. A call that day involving several squad cars had no result recorded. Davis convinces Chaz to do some "real" detective work and see what happened. Chaz goes back to the bathroom, and Davis notices a very attractive woman sitting near the back of the diner. Chaz comes back and notices that he is staring at her and encourages Davis to talk to her. Davis contemplates this for a moment but dismisses the idea since she isn't real anyway. As they leave, Chaz tells the woman that Davis wants her number. She hands Davis a slip of paper with her number on it. Davis is surprised that he's very pleased with the encounter. They walk to the site of the mysterious call and find an abandoned apartment building. They force they're way in and start to look around. They find an exercise center in the basement with a swimming pool, still filled with water and also containing eight dead bodies.
Chapter 3
Davis and Chaz decide to figure out what's going on even though the murders are obviously being covered up by the police. They wait a while until a man and a woman, presumably real estate agents, arrive. They go into the building then come out moments later, visibly shaken. The woman calls the police, and three cars show up. Again Davis marvels that none of this was reported and decides to head to headquarters to find out.
Chapter 4
Davis and Chaz enter headquarters and Chaz gleefully displays his badge, leaving a trail of whispers and tears. They head to Maria's office and show her the reality badge as well, but she is hardly affected. Davis demands to know about the call to the apartment, but she insists on asking the chief for permission. The chief storms into the cubicle and looks at the badge, then walks to his office and shoots himself. Maria relents and they read about the murders. Several sets of bodies had been found, killed in various ways, and prepared with embalming fluid to mask the time of death. The murderer has been nicknamed The Photographer because his methods are designed to make it difficult to use Snapshots to investigate. Davis demands to know why they weren't told of the case. Even with Chaz's gun to her head, Maria refuses to answer, so he shoots her. Officer Dobbs comes over with his gun pointed at Davis, but he just puts it away and shuffles away. Meanwhile, Chaz is looking at his personnel file. He finds out that his superiors find him overly aggressive and a bully, so he is recommended for Snapshot duty. Chaz starts to pull up Davis's, but Davis doesn't want to read it. They decide to leave before one of the cops decides that they can gun them down because there will be no consequences. Davis calls an autocab to get back to the apartment building to talk to the "owners" of the building.