The room had no windows, only a wall clock and a cabinet with numbered shelves.

Ruth had brought the current index, while I carried the printout from that morning.

She compared the page numbers, moving one finger down each column.

“Here is the problem,” she said.

“The index lists an attachment that does not appear in the packet we have.”

“Could it have been filed separately?”

“It could have been.

We cannot assume that it was.”