Next to the crowd stood an officer of the Egyptian National Police.  Resolute and dressed in a dark short-sleeve uniform with his head down, he wrote on a clipboard, ignoring Mona as she approached until she made a loud noise, clearing her throat.

The man, perhaps in his thirties, turned and looked at her without speaking.

“Where is this being taken?”

He looked her over.  “Who are you?”

Mona replied with a quivering voice.  “I’m his fiancé.”

The officer’s face softened.  Not much, but enough to see a change in his disposition.  “I’m sorry.  You’ve just come from Coptic?”

“Yes.”

“The car is on its way to a tow yard.  Unless you have another location you’d prefer.”

Mona shook her head.  “No.  I just… wanted to get some things from inside.”

The man stared at her and glanced at his partner, who was speaking with someone in the shadow of a palm tree.  He then waved to the truck operator and motioned to Mona.  “She needs to get inside.”

The man nodded, waiting and watching as Mona stepped forward and studied the flatbed, trying to discern a way up.

Awkwardly, she scrambled up onto the bed of the truck and shuffled along the side of the car until reaching the passenger side window.

Grasping the handle for balance, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The scene inside was petrifying.

The entire steering column and dashboard were mangled and bent, making room for part of the engine, which had been pushed back into the interior of the car.  The front windshield was shattered and sagging inward, littering the two front seats with a blanket of glass fragments, along with the driver’s side window, which was completely gone.  But worst of all was seeing the crimson blood on Omar’s seat.

Her convulsions returned almost immediately, forcing Mona to turn away, fighting to keep her stomach from erupting.

“Be quick,” said the tow truck driver, who was still watching while unwinding a thick strap.  Mona nodded and looked again, her gaze avoiding the blood-soaked seat.

She searched the front but found no trace of the brown folder, then carefully reached in to push the button on the passenger’s dash to release the glove compartment door.

Reaching in, she retrieved several pieces of paper and the driver’s manual but nothing else.

Mona then straightened and shuffled two steps back to the rear doors, both of which still had windows.

One more step allowed her to grip the door handle and pull the door open to her side, revealing more scattered glass in the back.

Still no folder.

Then her eye caught something on the floor.

Protruding beneath the passenger seat was a small corner of white paper.  She adjusted her stance and bent down, reaching for it and pulling it out to reveal a full-sized page along with a few others.  All were lying on top of one another.