Part 2: My aunt wanted to adopt my little sister after our parents d*ed just to get her hands on the money — she had no idea I had one more card to play.

Vicky was eating cereal.

I sent her into the bedroom.

She complained.

I didn’t care.

Alvarez sat across from me.

“You said Mr. Reed presented a photograph yesterday.”

“Howard outside our house.”

“Yes.”

“We obtained the original file.”

My stomach tightened.

“And?”

“The photograph Reed submitted to court was cropped.”

I stared at him.

“Cropped?”

Alvarez opened the folder.

He placed a larger photograph on the table.

Same street.

Same night.

Same timestamp.

11:47 p.m.

Howard stood near the sidewalk exactly where I remembered.

But the original image showed more of the street.

Much more.

There was another man standing beside him.

For several seconds, my brain refused to understand what my eyes were seeing.

Then the room tilted.

“No.”

Alvarez said nothing.

I picked up the photograph.

My hands shook so violently that the paper rattled.

The second man was turned partly toward the camera.

His face was visible.