“Can you tell me whether the referral mattered?” I asked.

“It was evaluated,” he said.

“If we need information from you, someone will ask.”

It felt like being shut out until I imagined a different mother, with a different daughter, being told that private federal records had been given to an investigator’s old friend.

I stopped asking for details he could not give.

The assault investigation moved on its own track.

Investigators sought a warrant for the relevant areas of the estate.