In his hand was a grocery bag full of Julia’s clothes. He offered it to Eli as some sort of peace offering. They sat briefly at Eli’s kitchen table. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, dispelling the darkness and evil that attempted to consume Julia in the night. “There’s significant destruction to Julia’s home. Not a total loss, but she’ll be displaced for months. Water damage—mostly to the side that faced the home that exploded. Major roof damage. Windows blown out. Firefighters kept her home from burning to the ground, but...” Eli sat and waited for him to continue. Even though Eli hadn’t been with the marshals’ service long, he’d never had so much go awry with a witness in such a short amount of time. Ben continued. “I looked for the journal she kept, and found it in her nightstand table. It’s significantly water-damaged—hard to even see the words she wrote.
