The report was given to Dr. Naboru a few days before the girl arrived. The detective had stayed in his office, quietly waiting as the doctor flipped through page after page of the examiners' findings. This, Dr. Naboru knew, could not be possible. The witnesses from the apartment building stated that the screaming only lasted for one or two minutes, and that the bright light had been visible for even less time.

Mutely Dr. Naboru had looked at the woman on the other side of the desk and gestured to the file with one hand, his eyebrows raised in questions he could not find a voice to ask.

The detective simply nodded and said, "Every word is true. I've never seen anything like it before. If there is some merciful god, I never will again."

Quietly shutting the folder, Dr. Naboru ran a professional eye over her. "There's something else, isn't there?"

She withdrew another folder from her bag and held it out to him. When he reached to take it she held on for a moment and caught his gaze with her own. Though her hand did not shake, in her eyes he saw fear, and a warning.

"You need to know that these are the crime scene photos. There has been no editing, and we have given you every one that was taken. This is something you will never be able to forget."

Then she stood up, took her coat and her bag, and walked toward the door.

"You aren't going to stay?"

The detective glanced back over her shoulder and shook her head. "I will not look at those again unless I have no choice. You have my number if you have questions."

Out of respect to her very real distress the doctor waited until the door closed behind her before he opened the folder and withdrew the first crime scene photo.