The office seemed to contract around Rachel.
“Why didn’t you tell me that first?”
“Because I didn’t want to tell you what I thought. I wanted to tell you what I knew.”
The words were almost exactly what Rachel herself had said minutes earlier.
Facts first.
Rachel hated them now.
“Give me whatever she left.”
Mara nodded toward the envelope. “It’s in your hand.”
Rachel tore it open.
Inside was a black flash drive.
Nothing else.
No note.
No explanation.
Just the drive.
Rachel rolled it into her palm.
It was small enough to disappear inside her fist.
“Did you look at it?”
“No.”
“You didn’t copy it?”
“No. Audrey asked me not to.”
Rachel stared at the drive. “But you copied the security videos.”
“Those belong to the studio. I didn’t need her permission.”
The distinction was crisp, deliberate. Rachel understood why Mara had drawn it.
