The screen of the second phone.

The bundles of cash, with the bands visible.

I photographed the case itself, closed and then open, so that the chain of it was clear — this box, in this room, holding these things.

I narrated it to myself as I went, the way I’d been taught — establish the item, establish the context, establish the link between them — because evidence is not just a picture of a bad thing; it is a story a stranger can follow, and a photograph that cannot be placed in a time and a place is worth nothing when it matters most.

Thirty-six photographs in all.