The steady, decent, tireless woman in front of him was simply not the profile of a thief, and some honest part of him knew it, which is exactly why he kept hesitating.

But hesitation is not the same as listening.

He felt the truth tugging at him and he overrode it, because the suitcase was concrete and his suspicion was loud and the quiet evidence of her character was easy to dismiss as sentiment.

He had all the information he needed to not do what he was about to do.

He simply valued the wrong parts of it, and let the heavy bag outweigh three years of a good woman’s life.

“Supplies have been going missing for weeks,” he said, stepping in front of her while the others watched.