Chapter 16 - Dana Learned Why Silas Kept the Victims AliveSilas finally talked because Conrad’s red book destroyed his bargaining position.
His lawyer negotiated.
Prosecutors listened.
Dana attended.
Silas looked tired for the first time.
“No speech?”
he asked her.
Dana frowned.
“What speech?”
“About how I picked the wrong biker.”
Dana almost smiled.
“You did.”
Silas laughed.
“Fair.”
Then the interview began.
Why keep victims?
Silas’s answer was practical.
Money.
But not ransom.
Identity access.
Some victims had bank accounts.
Credit.
Vehicles.
Employment portals.
Insurance.
Others had nothing.
Those were usually released sooner, often far enough away that immediate identification was difficult.
Victims connected to incriminating evidence were held longer.
Alicia saw too much.
Tessa knew Conrad’s identity network.
Howard witnessed a document operation.
Nora possessed the Vale file.
Jamie controlled Marla.
Samantha became Conrad’s obsession more than Silas’s business.
Dana asked:
“Did you kill anyone?”
Silas’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Never?”
“No.”
“What about Peter Nash?”
The former employee from Nora’s father’s file.
“Car accident.”
“You expect us to accept coincidence?”
“I don’t care what you accept.”
“Did you cause it?”
“No.”
Evidence never proved otherwise.
Dana let it go.
She had learned not to force the story darker than facts allowed.
“What about people in Conrad’s book?”
“Ask Conrad.”
“I am.”
Silas smiled.
“He’ll tell you everybody volunteered.”
Dana knew.
Conrad had already started.
He framed himself as helping undocumented or vulnerable people obtain identities.
Some had indeed sought help.
Then dependence became coercion.
Again, mixed truths.
Silas continued.
“I didn’t like holding people.”
Dana almost laughed.
“You did it.”
“It was inefficient.”
“That’s your objection?”
“Yes.”
At least honest.
“Boyd liked fear. Conrad liked control. Travis liked pretending he was smarter than everyone.”
“And you?”
Silas leaned back.
“I liked money.”
Simple.
Cold.
Probably incomplete.
But enough.
Then Dana asked the question bothering her.
“Why the fake pregnancy?”
Silas smiled.
“Not my idea.”
“Whose?”
“Marla.”
Dana froze.
Marla had said it existed before her.
“Tessa used car trouble.”
“Yes.”
“Who used pregnancy first?”
Silas answered:
“Marla.”
Dana stared.
Another lie.
“Why?”
“She said people ignore broken-down women.”
Dana’s stomach tightened.
“She thought pregnancy would make people stop.”
“Yes.”
Silas almost admired it.
“She was right.”
Dana thought of Marla’s performance.
Pain.
Pleading.
Belly.
Weaponized empathy.
Context had made Marla more understandable.
This made her more responsible again.
Dana left the interview and called Rebecca.
Marla agreed to clarify.
She looked ashamed before Dana spoke.
“Silas says you invented the pregnancy lure.”
Marla nodded.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted one thing I wasn’t responsible for.”
Dana stared.
That answer was painfully human.
“So you gave it to Tessa.”
“I heard Boyd talk about her roadside act.”
“And adapted it.”
“Yes.”
“How many victims did you lure with the belly?”
“Four.”
“Not six?”
“Two were different.”
Dana shook her head.
“Every time you tell the truth, I have to find the next layer.”
“I know.”
“Why should anyone trust your cooperation?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Marla looked directly at her.
“Verify everything.”
Good answer.
Dana did.
Silas confirmed.
Boyd confirmed.
Phones confirmed.
Four fake pregnancy jobs.
Dana.
Nora.
A man robbed and released.
A woman who had never reported the attack because she feared embarrassment after being tricked.
That woman was located.
She agreed to speak.
Her name was Caroline Wade.
She had escaped before reaching a secondary site by refusing to leave her vehicle when men appeared.
Her car was taken later, but she got away.
“Why didn’t you call police?”
Dana asked gently.
Caroline looked ashamed.
“Because I felt stupid.”
“You stopped for someone you thought needed help.”
“I know.”
“That isn’t stupidity.”
“It felt like it.”
Dana thought about how shame helped offenders.
Victims silence themselves because cruelty convinced them kindness was foolish.
Caroline finally agreed to report formally.
Another piece.
Then Silas revealed something else.
Dana herself would not have been detained long.
“Why?”
she asked.
“You were nobody to us.”
Dana almost laughed.
“Thank you.”
“Bike and wallet. Leave you twenty miles away.”
“So the badge changed the plan.”
“It ended the plan.”
“And Boyd ran.”
“Yes.”
“Then came toward Desert Star.”
“To warn Conrad.”
“About police?”
“Yes.”
Silas looked at her.
“You have no idea how much panic that badge created.”
Dana smiled faintly.
“Good.”
Then he said:
“But the real disaster wasn’t the badge.”
“What was?”
“The necklace.”
Dana paused.
“Nora’s necklace.”
“Boyd should’ve thrown it away.”
“Marla kept it.”
“Yes.”
Silas shook his head.
“Sentiment ruins business.”
Dana thought of Nora handing Marla the necklace.
A tiny act.
Maybe Nora had understood exactly what she was doing.
Not sentiment.
Evidence.
Connection.
A reminder that a missing woman had a name.
Silas had built his entire system on turning people into accounts, vehicles, aliases, and leverage.
The necklace had done the opposite.
It made Nora a person again.
Then Dana realized something.
The first thing that cracked the network had not been her badge.
It had been Marla’s inability to throw away one small piece of the woman she betrayed.
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Human attachment had survived where Silas believed only fear mattered.
And that failure had cost him everything.
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