Teenager Jesse Tyler gets his first car – an old one that used to belong to the town sheriff. Alone in the car one day, the rearview mirror lights up like a TV screen. Jesse witnesses how the Sheriff killed his brother nearly twenty years ago at Dugan’s Lake, which is still an unsolved case.
When the Sheriff learns that his wife has sold the car, he becomes very angry. He knows what the rearview mirror can do. That’s why he’s stored the car in his garage since his crime.
He tries to get the car back from Jesse, who refuses all his offers. When Jesse lets something slip about what he has seen, the Sheriff pounces on it. At gunpoint, he takes Jesse for a ride in the old automobile. His plan is to drive the car into the lake with Jesse in it. All his troubles will be over.
As he is attempting this, his late brother’s sopping-wet arm bursts through the rearview mirror, strongly grabbing the Sheriff by the throat and squeezing ever tighter. The car veers wildly. Jesse is unable to gain control from the shotgun seat.
The arm finally cracks the Sheriff’s neck and lets his corpse fall from the car to the dirt. It brakes the automobile mere feet from the lake, puts it in park, takes the keys from the ignition, and tosses them to Jesse before retreating into the mirror.