Leila placed the paper in a clear sleeve without making any assumptions.

“We give this to Ellis,” she said.

“An anonymous document is a lead, not a verdict.”

PART 12

The police investigation continued behind doors I could not open.

I tried to keep my days ordinary: café shifts, rent payments, laundry, the bus ride past Patterson Park.

But the story had changed something in me.

My mother used to keep every appointment on a yellow kitchen calendar.