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“That isn’t the same as none.”
“No.”
Trigger removed the evidence bag containing the key.
Rylie took it from him.
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t stop her.
Emily had given the key to Rylie. This moment belonged to her.
She opened the bag and removed it with her gloved hand. “What if it doesn’t fit?”
“Then we keep looking,” I said.
Rylie slid the key into the lock.
It fit.
She turned it.
The lock opened with a quiet click.
Nobody moved.
For more than eighteen years, someone had been afraid of what was inside this cabinet.
Rylie pulled one door open.
The cabinet appeared empty.
“No,” she whispered.
Trigger shone his flashlight across the shelves.
Nothing.
No files.
No photographs.
No explanation for Emily’s death.
Rylie stared into the empty cabinet. “Someone got here first.”
“They couldn’t,” I said. “The lock wasn’t damaged.”
“Then they had another key,” Mace said.
I stepped closer.
The shelves were covered in dust, except for a clean rectangular outline on the bottom one.
Something had been stored there.
A box.
Judging by the dust, it had been removed recently.