Elena's POV
"You want me to do what, exactly?"
Ruth's eyebrows rose as I laid out my request the next morning, the two of us huddled near the small archive room where this whole strange investigation had first started weeks ago. "Pull security footage from the courtyard. Just the past month. I want to see who Victor's been meeting."
"That's not exactly standard procedure."
"I know. I wouldn't ask if I thought there was another way." I kept my voice low, aware of how thin the walls felt in this particular corner of the office. "Something about all of this feels connected, Ruth. The hunters, the timeline he's rushing, whatever's been happening with my own father's case. I need to see faces, not just overheard fragments."
Ruth studied me for a long moment, weighing the request against wh
