A search authorized by a judge turned up materials that required further testing.

Nothing about that process felt like the swift justice I’d imagined during sleepless nights.

It was careful, documented, and slower than my fear wanted it to be.

I was sitting at my mother’s dining room table when Ramirez called.

Harper was building a cardboard neighborhood on the carpet, giving every tiny house a different colored door.

I stepped into the hallway to answer.

The detective told me that a search was under way at the clinic and that Carter had been informed of the investigation.