Lena drove to Thomas's office the next morning with a notebook full of questions. She did not accuse him of causing Anna's death, but she asked why he had never mentioned a meeting that night. Thomas went quiet. He admitted he had arranged to meet Anna at a gas station to collect a source's statement. She never arrived. He had kept that detail private because it felt like proof that he had pushed her too hard. Lena was furious. His silence had denied their family a piece of Anna's final day. Thomas apologized without defending himself.
Thomas's office had a wall covered in framed newspaper pages. Lena saw Anna's byline on one of them and nearly lost her concentration. She asked for dates, names, and a way to verify the claim. Thomas answered reluctantly, avoiding her eyes whenever he reached a gap in his recollection. She wrote down the gaps too. For a few seconds Lena pictured how differently the day might have gone. Someone could have looked away. A door could have been closed. Yet imagining those alternatives did not change the work in front of them. It only strengthened Lena's resolve to proceed carefully and leave room for new evidence. Later, Lena would remember the sounds around this conversation more clearly than some of its words. A chair scraped, a cup settled against a saucer, and voices from farther away continued as though nothing important was happening. That contradiction stayed with Lena: entire lives could shift while the rest of a town carried on without noticing. It was allowing the question to stay open long enough for an honest answer to emerge. People often reached for a tidy story because the untidy one required them to live with discomfort. But comfort was not the same as truth, and Sophie deserved more than a reassuring guess. The room held familiar objects that suddenly seemed strange. there was still hope.
Then he produced a yellowing calendar page with the appointment circled. The meeting was set for an hour before the collision, not after. Investigators examined the record alongside phone logs that had been preserved in case files. The detective said there was no current evidence that Thomas played any role in the crash. Still, his delayed disclosure complicated the investigation and reminded Lena how grief could cause people to conceal facts even when they believed they were protecting others. A review of Anna's collision file revealed a witness statement mentioning a vehicle that left the road shortly before the crash. The statement had been documented, but investigators at the time could not identify the driver. Detectives now sought additional records. Lena forced herself not to confuse new questions with answers.