Morning made the destruction harder to bear. Sunlight came through crooked blinds and showed dust suspended above the living room carpet, where tiny splinters of wood and glass lay among the fragments of Angela's medals. A kitchen drawer remained open because one of its runners had been pulled free. The scent of spilled coffee grounds drifted from the floor near the refrigerator, blending with the sharp smell of exposed plaster.
Angela picked up a broom but held it without moving. She wanted the familiar comfort of restoring order, yet the photographs and the untouched evidence still mattered. Marcus had already started a detailed inventory, identifying what appeared in the overnight recording and noting where each damaged object lay. Diana had arranged for an independent photographer to document the scene before repairs began. Until then, all Angela could do was clear a safe path from the bedroom to the kitchen without disturbing the worst damage.
"I wanted to make coffee," she said, looking at the ruined cupboards. "Just one ordinary cup, standing in my own kitchen."
Marcus set down the notebook. "We can buy coffee. Or I can pick up a new maker."
"It's not really about coffee."
"I know."
He put an arm around her, and she rested against him for a moment before moving away. The stillness felt dangerous to her now; when she stopped working, memories rushed into the space. She saw Griggs's face above her on the pavement, Holt smiling in the doorway, and the indifferent motion of a boot pushing her unit photograph through broken glass. She had never before associated the sound of a car turning onto Brookside with danger, but now every passing engine made her look toward the window.
A light knock sounded at the damaged front door. Marcus approached cautiously and saw Rosa Delgado standing outside in plain clothes. The detective wore dark sunglasses although the morning was overcast, and she carried a canvas bag with the anxious grip of someone transporting something important. She looked at the door, then at the damaged furniture visible behind Marcus, and her face changed.
"I heard about the warrant," she said. "I didn't understand it was this bad."
"Come in," Angela answered from the hallway. "If you're here to tell us it was all proper procedure, save yourself the trouble."
Delgado removed her glasses. "I'm here because it wasn't proper. And because I have evidence that may finally prove why he did it."
They moved to the kitchen, where Marcus cleared three chairs without touching the pile of debris near the counter. Delgado set her bag on the table and took out a small external hard drive inside a padded case. She explained that she had spent months documenting irregularities in the department's evidence archive under an internal preservation assignment. When camera files were deleted prematurely from the ordinary interface, corresponding backups sometimes remained in an audited archive.