The room code belonged to a wall that no longer existed.
Investigators found it on an old oversight plan, printed beside a doorway removed during refurbishment. The current property office had inherited the code without the partition. Three storage bays now occupied the former room, and the clerk who first checked the inventory had looked in the wrong one.
Eli heard the explanation from outside the property corridor. He had not been invited to search shelves. Tessa stood beside Ada, who had chosen to attend the retrieval with the advocate after receiving the inquiry’s notice. Kellan and Sera waited near the public desk. Juno remained available by phone, preparing a method rather than handling an object she had not yet seen.
Ada held the empty property envelope in a protective sleeve.
“I asked where the bag went,” she said. “They sent me something that looked finished.”
The envelope’s inventory reference had sent them here. It had not delivered a bag, a key or a person willing to explain why the return had been recorded without the belongings.
A neutral officer came through the corridor door and asked whether Ada wanted to observe from the marked area while they checked the candidate container. She could remain outside and receive the record instead. She chose to observe. Tessa came at her request; Eli stayed beyond the boundary with Kellan.
