The room still carried the weight of silence long after the sheriffs had spoken. Lira’s pulse thundered in her ears, every breath shallow as her gaze locked on the folder in the officer’s hands. The image of it tumbling from her bag replayed over and over in her mind like a cruel trick.
Her bag.
She remembered bending down, the feel of the strap under her fingers, the startled way the officer had grabbed the folder as if it had been waiting there all along. Her throat tightened, and her hand instinctively reached for the bag where it lay on the bed.
How did the files get there?
Her fingers trembled as she unzipped it, digging through every corner with frantic desperation. Lipstick, compact mirror, her wallet, but no papers, no folders. Nothing that could explain how the damning evidenc
