My sedan still had a cracked passenger-side mirror, and replacing it would have to wait until I knew whether my work assignment was about to become more complicated.

I aligned the corners of the two printouts before reading them again.

The Friday record contained no 5:48 a.m. entry.

The Monday notice did.

The verification field remained blank, and the blue folder had held a packet whose completeness Richard insisted was settled.

Those facts did not prove that anyone had deliberately bypassed a required step.

They did mean I could not safely accept the family’s explanation without checking the record.

I opened my notebook and wrote the date, the notice number, and the timestamp exactly as printed.