Nara’s sister crossed out the word victim before Tessa had finished explaining the draft.
The pencil stroke was firm enough to score the page beneath it. Tessa stopped talking.
“She was a veteran hunter,” the sister said. “Put that before the thing done to her.”
Tessa drew the draft back, leaving the family their copy. The first sentence had introduced Nara through her death because the statement concerned the warning she had given while dying. Reading it now, Tessa saw how much of a life that arrangement had made disappear.
“Veteran hunter Nara Senn,” she said, writing it.
“She had work before your dam.”
“Yes.”
The independent advocate sat between the family and the door, with enough space beside her for anyone to leave without asking the visitors to move. Mira was not present. The meeting had been arranged through the family advocate, and nothing about its purpose required contact with the person under investigation for Nara’s death.
