Chapter 43
The fluorescent lights of the waiting room hummed with a sterile, almost taunting energy, the kind that made the air feel too bright and too thin. Leo sat hunched forward with his elbows braced on his knees, fingers laced so tightly his knuckles had gone pale. He stared at the flecked linoleum floor as if it might offer answers, his leg bouncing in a restless, uneven rhythm he didn’t seem aware of.
Evan couldn’t sit at all. He paced a tight, three‑step loop near the water cooler, each turn sharper than the last. His hands kept flexing at his sides, as though he needed something to hold onto but couldn’t bring himself to reach for anything.
The silence between them was a physical weight, broken only by the heavy pneumatic hiss of the main entrance doors. Detective Campbell wal
