Detective Miller sat in the back of the county records room, files stacked like ancient ruins around him. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, buzzing faintly.
He was two hours into sifting through psychiatric facility discharge papers when he found it—misfiled, faded, nearly missed.
A thin manila folder.
Patient Name: Reynolds, Ashley C.
Date of Admission: 8 years ago.
Diagnosis: Dissociative episodes. Obsessive behavior.
Discharge Status: Conditional.
He opened it slowly, like peeling back a wound.
There was a photo paperclipped to the top.
A girl no older than seventeen. Messy black hair. Wide eyes, bruised beneath from lack of sleep. Hands clutching the sleeves of her sweater like she was trying to hold herself together.
Miller stared at the photo.
It wasn’t that Ashley lo
