Officer Chen’s voice came down like a shutter. “Sir. Door. Now.”
They turned toward the exit in a jagged cluster—my father first because he could never bear to seem driven, my mother stiff-backed and furious, Laya trailing with her phone hanging limp in one hand. At the threshold Ramirez stopped my sister.
“Ma’am, your name for the report.”
Laya swallowed. “You already have my ID.”
“I want your verbal confirmation.”
She gave it. Quietly. I watched something inside her sag as she realized her life was not content here. There would be no clean edit. No victim narrative with flattering lighting. Her name sat in official notes now, attached to a room she had entered thinking witnesses were props.
When the door shut behind them, the café did not erupt. No one clapped. No one gasped. That would have cheapened it. Instead there was just a long, collective exhale from people who had held themselves together out of respect for me.
I looked at the room.
“Sorry about that,” I said.
And because it was what I knew how to do, because work had always been the bridge back to myself, I added, “Drinks are still coming.”
A tiny, strained laugh came from someone near the window. The spell loosened. Nena moved first, setting cups under the espresso heads. Grant gave me a look that said everything and nothing, then sat back down but did not reopen his laptop.
Officer Ramirez approached the counter again. “We need a statement.”
“Of course.”
Elliot lifted the clipboard slightly. “And I’ll need a signature on the preservation request.”
“Back office,” I said.
The office behind the counter was barely larger than a walk-in closet. Shelves. Filing cabinet. Mini fridge. Desk scarred by years of coffee cups and rushed arithmetic. I had cried in there twice in four years, both times with the door locked and both times after closing. It was not a room for drama. It was a room for facts.
Chen closed the door behind us, leaving the muffled rhythm of the café on the other side. I signed Elliot’s form. Ramirez took my statement in clean, ordered questions. Time of entry. Exact language used. Physical placement. Threats made. Items presented. Presence of cameras. Portal alerts. Silent alarm activation.
