<h4>Chapter 211: The Wrong Body</h4>


    As the papers spilled across the floor, Elias moved quickly to gather them, but then paused. His hand hovered over a photograph that had slipped out of a beige folder. He picked it up slowly, his brows furrowing as something clicked in his mind and he raised up the picture, showing it to Mnie as he asked quietly, "Why don’t we start looking from here?"


    Mnie blinked,and looked down at the image, understanding nothing. It was a crime scene photo—a woman lying on the floor, surrounded by yellow tape and evidence markers, with blood around the side of her face. Her eyes were shut, her face partially obscured by dried blood.


    Mnie looked at Elias and asked in confused. "Start from where?"


    He pointed directly at the woman in the photograph. "Her. From Saira. Saira was brought in with Adam and no one came to im her. She is still in the morgue."


    Mnie recoiled, and took the picture form his hand as she looked at it closely, "What are you talking about? The woman in the picture is definitely not Saira."


    Mnie stared harder at the photo now, heart pounding again for a whole new reason. "No," she whispered. "I know Saira. This... this isn’t her. The bone structure’s a bit off. She has a sharper jawline. And the hair length is different. This is definitely not Saira... I am sure of it... she is a close resemnce..."


    At this moment Elias and Mnie both were stunned. How could this be possible?


    Finally, Elias shook his head and said," Let’s not go off the tangent here. You said she is a close resemnce. Maybe the pictures appear off. Let us just go to the morgue and check...


    Elias sat back on his heels, frowning deeply. "If this isn’t Saira... then someone faked her death. Someone nted a body and passed it off as hers."


    "But why?" Mnie asked, eyes still glued to the image. Her mind was spinning again, recalibrating. "What does this mean? What does she gain from pretending to be dead?"


    Elias stood up slowly, his gaze sharp now. "If Saira faked her death, then she’s running from something. Or hiding something."


    Mnie’s hands tightened around the edge of the photo as a terrible suspicion began to take shape in her chest. "Or... she’s involved in whatever happened to Adam."


    Elias didn’t answer right away, but his silence spoke volumes.


    "We need to find out who this woman really is," Mnie said, her voice gaining strength again. "If she’s not Saira, then who the hell did they find in her ce?"


    "And what happened to the real Saira?" Elias added grimly.


    Mnie looked up, eyes zing again with purpose. "Then we start at the morgue."


    They moved swiftly through the quiet hallway as Mnie’s mind raced with possibilities.


    "What if that woman really isn’t Saira?" she asked under her breath.


    "Then someone went to great lengths to fake her death," Elias replied, keeping pace beside her. "And the real Saira might still be out there. But it would be even more difficult to find out where she is. Also, whoever it was must be very well acquainted with the ways of the Maniwaw. These pictures that you just saw, they would not be released to the defencewyer under any circumstances and you would have been punished without ever getting to see it."


    "The only way I got my hands on them was because of my own rtions with the police department. Which means, the people who did this were trusting on you being imprisoned without ever finding out that this was not real Saira."


    Mnie nodded then as she too understood this. She had not even been allowed to contact awyer so if this had gone to court under normal circumstances, she would have had a court appointedwyer or someone who did not even know the ins and outs of this ce.


    When they reached the morgue, Elias stepped forward and addressed the woman behind the counter, pulling out his credentials. "Elias Kramer. I’m awyer following up on a case. We need to see the body listed under Saira Vaughn. She was brought in recently—"


    The woman looked up from her logbook and blinked, clearly exhausted. "Saira Vaughn? Her body was imed this morning. Please don’t tell me there’s a fault with <i>that</i> too! I’ve already been questioned by so many guards today about a missing dead body..."


    "Ugh—no, no! We’re not here to im her," Elias said quickly, holding up his hands. "We just need to know who did."


    Mnie stepped forward, "Yes. Can you please tell her who imed her?"


    The woman scanned the entry again, squinting at the small print. "It says... her sister. Myra Vaughn."


    They both froze in ce.


    "Sister? I read her file. Saira didn’t have a sister mentioned there.


    Mnie shook her head as well, "Because she didn’t have any."


    Elias leaned in and turned to question the woman, "What time did shee?"


    The woman tapped the keyboard and pulled up the time log. "Early in the morning... almost before sunrise. The woman said she had to leave the country soon and would be taking her sister with her. That’s why she came so early." She paused, her brow furrowing. "It was actually around the same time that the missing ’dead’ body was supposed to have been brought in."


    Her words hung heavy in the air as she trailed off, realization dawning across her face. Without another word, she snatched up the receiver on her desk and began dialing.


    "I think I know where the missing dead body might be..." she murmured, half to herself, voice urgent now. "Maybe there has been a mistake..."


    But Elias was not paying attention to this now... The body being imed by someone was not an issue because the forensic reports and autposy had already been done... but what if it was not this woman’s body which was taken out but Adam who had been smuggled out?