Lucas sat at his desk for a long time without moving.
The coffee at his elbow had gone completely cold. Outside the window, the city had woken up properly now.
Lucas looked at it without seeing it.
Nothing.
No cameras. No plates. No witnesses.
A scene so thoroughly cleaned that the absence of evidence was itself the only evidence; and even that could not be used.
He had investigated things before. He had looked into people and organizations and incidents that had been deliberately obscured, and in every case — every single one — there had been something. A mistake. An oversight. A single detail that someone had either forgotten or underestimated or simply not been careful enough about. There was always something because there was always a human being behind it, and human beings, no matter how careful, left traces.
Always.
Until now.
He got up from the desk and walked to the window.
