“Mr.

Drake,” he said slowly, “your family’s file is not an isolated case.”

He found, that afternoon, thirteen separate requests for the withdrawal of family genetic samples, submitted over the past decade.

Every one of them originated from the same rural valley region.

Every one was linked to a vehicular accident, a house fire, or an incomplete body identification.

And in nearly every single file, the same name appeared as the volunteer responsible for transporting the documents: Evelyn Hayes.

Among those files was one belonging to a young girl who had vanished seven years earlier, whose father still called the state police every single month for news.