Richard didn't step into the archive room.
He stayed by the doorway as if crossing the threshold would make the search his instead of mine.
I held up the index.
"You've seen this?"
"Yes."
"And you knew the statement wasn't there."
"Last time I looked, it wasn't there."
"The last time?"
"Years ago."
"You looked for it?"
"I checked to see if everything was still there."
"And?"
"It wasn't."
"You asked?"
"I did."
"What did they say?"
"That legal records had been reorganised."
"And you believed them?"
"No."
"So why leave it?"
"I didn't."
He gave a faint shake of his head.
"I kept asking."
"For years?"
"Long enough to realise everyone thought it was somebody else's problem."
So this hadn't started with me.
Someone else had spent years chasing the same missing piece.
I
