Page 45

This tiny fragment feels like a cutaway into secrecy, suggesting hidden duration and back-room time.

With so little text, the line works almost like a stage direction or splice. `in a back room` opens a private space, while `Weeks...` stretches that space into elapsed time and unfinished consequence.

A tiny continuation that works like a film splice: 'in a back room, - Weeks...' picks up the police conference from page 44 and immediately dissolves it. 'in a back room' opens a hidden, private space; 'Weeks...' stretches it into elapsed time and unresolved consequence, so the sequence ends not with a verdict but with duration trailing off. This reading remains provisional because the page is a brief, partial, OCR-uncertain handwritten fragment.