EPILOGUE - One year later

In the corridor of the homicide squad, a cheap chain of lights flickered above the whiteboard. Under all the Christmas decorations, case numbers and names were written in thick letters, some of which had already been half wiped away. Lena Berger pushed a labeled file back onto the shelf. "Frost & Flame", a date, a line. Completed.

On paper, everything was neatly sorted: course of events, evidence, confession. No room for the brief hesitation when she had been almost ready to write the most convenient suspect up in the form. And none for the waitress's face when she had contacted her again.

Outside the presidium, Lena stopped for a moment. The air was cold; the Christmas market glittered over the city like a filter set too brightly. Somewhere in between was the former "Frost & Flamme". She had passed it a few times: the lettering had been removed, the windows dark, a yellowed sign with "New concept – opening soon". Soon it was long gone.

She had already seen many crime scenes that became normal places again: offices, kitchens, backyards. But something stuck here. Maybe because it was one of the cases in which she had left the wrong path in time. The old miscarriage of justice stood like a shadow behind this winter; this time no one had disappeared into these shadows, just because it would have been the easier way.

Lena pulled the coat tighter and went off. New names would appear on the whiteboard; new mistakes would lurk. Unavoidable. But she now knew how much weight a single statement could have – and how quiet decisions were made that ultimately decided on guilt and innocence.