The long and short of it.

He spotted her between 2 groups of silhouetted protesters. She didn’t appear to him like she did to other people, like to her best friend and co-worker Nancy, for instance. He saw her for who she really was. A being as dead as himself. Perhaps moreso.

Breaking off her glare, Bettie turns to Nancy, hidden by a rusty pipe from his angle. “We better get you back inside before things get nasty down here.”