The woman waiting beside the water jug held Dain Kester’s identification card inside a transparent envelope. She had not taken the chair nearest the door. The younger man with her stood whenever a footstep sounded outside.
Nora closed the door without locking it. Tessa introduced herself and asked where they would prefer her to sit.
“Here,” the woman said, pointing across the table. “I’m his sister, Ada. This is my son, Tomas.”
Tomas sat beside her. His knee struck the underside of the table hard enough to shake the cups. He steadied the water jug before anyone could offer to help.
Tessa placed the receiving facility’s reference on the table, facing Ada. She kept the organizer’s statement underneath her notes. Ada had already seen the accusation on someone else’s phone; Tessa would not make it the first thing waiting for her here.
“The coordinator confirmed the transfer,” Tessa said. “This is the facility, the time they received him, and the number the family can call. I checked it with the coordinator again before we came.”
Ada looked at the reference but did not pick it up.
“Was somebody with him?”
