And dozens of photographs.
Photos of the passengers from Flight 702.
Each photograph had a different name written beneath it.
In the final room, Layan found a photograph of a boy standing in front of a window.
Underneath it were the words:
“Don’t tell him he disappeared.”
But the boy’s face made her step back in shock.
He looked exactly like one of her colleagues at the police academy.
A man named Adam Richard.
He had been born in 1980.
And according to every official record, he had never been on that flight.
---
When Layan confronted him with the photograph, he remained silent for a long time.
Then he said:
“My mother always told me I was found in the sea.”
Layan froze.
“When?”
“1987.”
Hours later, investigators uncovered the truth through old adoption records.
Adam had not been who he believed he was.
He was one of the seven children aboard Flight 702.
He had been found months later on a distant shore.
He could speak, but he didn’t know his own name.
Then every document connected to his case had disappeared.
