It would have taken Tim less than five minutes to clear this house of all his belongings, if you could even call a sleeping bag and some personal hygiene products that. Jasmine walked past Tim’s bed, which looked brand new and untouched with the plastic wrapper still on the mattress. Her uneasiness grew, the mystery around him increasing. The first wardrobe was empty, as were the second and third. Where were his things? There were two more doors left. Her palms got sweatier as she reached for the handles. She opened the doors and saw a T-shirt and jeans on the shelf. Just one spare outfit? Did he keep things in his car still? Maybe that was it. Her father had told her that Tim had lived out of his car – maybe he just couldn’t make the transition. She paused before she opened the final door, terrified of what she might find in there. A weapon? A body? He could be hiding anything. She closed her eyes as she pulled the handle and then opened them again to see it was an empty shelving unit at a first glance, but when she bent right down, she could see the messenger bag he had tried to hide from her before, pushed deep into the corner. She reached down and pulled it out. She could already tell from the weight of it that it was full of papers. She let out a breath, relieved it didn’t contain a severed head or anything equally distressing.

Perched on the edge of the bed, Jasmine lay the bag down next to her. Carefully pressing the sides of the plastic clip that locked the bag she released the flap and reached inside, a part of her anticipating that something might bite her. She ran her fingers along the surface of the contents as if somehow she could discern what they were without actually having to look at them, as if this was somehow less of an intrusion, as if that in itself was forgivable. Her fingers dragged on the paper and she knew it was a photograph. Aware that time was no longer on her side, she pulled the photographs out of the bag.

The first photo was of a place. It was familiar to Jasmine, but she didn’t know why. It showed the front of a building, painted green and run down, with cracks all over the front. She had seen it before but she had no idea when, or where, or why. The next photo was more familiar.

It was her parents’ bedroom.