“Check for school photos.”
One deputy turned several pages.
Then stopped.
“Oh, hell.”
He removed a printed image.
School playground.
Students blurred in the background.
Nora stood near the fence with her backpack at her feet.
She had no idea the picture was being taken.
Rose arrived twenty minutes later.
She came through the front doors still wearing navy hospital scrubs beneath her coat.
One look at the patrol cars told her this was not a normal evening.
“Nora?”
“I’m okay.”
Rose crossed the garage and pulled her daughter into both arms.
Only then did Nora’s composure change.
Not collapse.
Just soften.
She closed her eyes against her mother’s shoulder.
Rose looked at Lucas.
“What happened?”
Lucas told her.
Not everything at once.
The sound.
The storage room.
The man.
The photographs.
Then the school image.