Chapter 3 — Marcus carries the damaged stack over to the side desk near the electric fan
Marcus reached out quickly to catch the envelope before it could snag any further.
He pulled the paper free from the metal teeth.
A clean triangular notch was missing from the top corner.
Vanessa looked down at the newly damaged envelope in his hand.
The paper fibers along the tear matched the exact jagged pattern found on the school notices from the dining table.
“It happened in seconds,” Marcus murmured.
He set the envelope down on the flat surface of the desk away from the airflow.
Vanessa swallowed hard and looked back toward the dining room.
Penny was still standing by the wooden table, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her blue cardigan.
“I blamed her,” Vanessa said quietly.
“I didn’t even ask what happened.”
“The setup here is the real culprit,” Marcus replied.
He reached down to unplug the electric fan from the baseboard outlet.
The sudden silence in the study alcove made the room feel heavy.
Marcus picked up the main stack of ruined school notices and laid them flat across the desk.
He began lining up the torn edges of the documents like pieces of a puzzle.
Most of the missing fragments fit the jagged grooves of the metal organizer perfectly.
Vanessa watched him work in silence.
“We need to check the timestamp on the digital security camera mounted in the hallway,” Vanessa suggested suddenly.
“Why?” Marcus asked, looking up from the papers.
“To see exactly when the papers started blowing off the table.”