Chapter 25: Open Air

Mo remembered her hair sliding across his knuckles. Tomorrow, she had said. Now it was Thursday. The conservation room occupied the archive's top floor, beyond two locked doors and a stairwell that required Ortiz's badge. The blue waxed cloth lay beneath acrylic. Beside it, a foam model matched the medicine cabinet's dimensions. Su opened the evidence carton containing the cut red cords. She lifted each cord out by its tag and laid it beside the cloth without letting the two touch. She caught him watching. "Work first." "I am working." "Your eyes are on the wrong evidence." Elena Ortiz adjusted the conservation lamp. "Should I leave?" "No," Su said. The county archive had agreed to return Mo's coffee under supervision. Ortiz set his cup inside a plastic specimen tray. "If it leaks, the tray catches it." "The lid already performs this task." "The tray has institutional approval." Su handed Mo…