Chapter 4 - Marla’s First Truth Was Still a LieMarla spoke with her attorney beside her.
Her name was Rebecca Shaw, a public defender who looked as though she trusted nobody in the room.
Probably wise.
Dana sat across from Marla.
Luis beside her.
Rebecca spoke first.
“My client is willing to provide information in exchange for appropriate consideration.”
Dana said nothing.
Luis answered:
“That’s for prosecutors.”
Marla’s fingers trembled.
“I can tell you about Nora.”
Dana kept her face still.
“Start.”
Marla looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca nodded.
“Nora was alive when I last saw her.”
Dana’s chest tightened.
“When?”
“The night she disappeared.”
“Where?”
“The yard.”
“Sonoran Recovery?”
Marla hesitated.
“Yes.”
Dana felt relief at the confirmation.
“What happened?”
“We took her car.”
“How did you get her there?”
Marla looked down.
“The same way.”
“Fake pregnancy.”
“Yes.”
“How many times have you done that?”
Marla’s silence lasted too long.
“Marla.”
“Six.”
Dana stared.
Six.
“How many victims?”
“Not all were women.”
“How many people?”
“Six.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
Dana leaned forward.
“You expect me to believe you lured six people into robberies but don’t know where they ended up?”
“I left.”
“Every time?”
“Most.”
“Which ones didn’t you?”
Marla looked toward the wall.
“Nora.”
“And?”
“Alicia.”
Dana felt cold.
“Where is Alicia?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is getting old.”
“I swear.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
Marla began.
Boyd recruited her eleven months earlier.
She had been working at a bar.
Debt.
Eviction.
No car.
Boyd offered cash for what he called staged roadside thefts.
“You thought you were helping steal vehicles?”
“At first.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred a job.”
Dana shook her head.
“Five hundred dollars.”
“I know.”
“You risked people’s lives for five hundred dollars.”
Marla’s face hardened.
“You asked what happened.”
Dana continued.
“When did you realize it was more?”
“Second job.”
“Alicia?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Alicia fought back.”
Dana did not ask for graphic details.
“Was she injured?”
“Yes.”
“Seriously?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she leave the yard?”
Marla started crying.
“I don’t know.”
Dana stared.
“That means no.”
“I left before morning.”
“Why?”
“I was scared.”
“For her?”
“For me.”
At least honest.
“What did Boyd say?”
“That Mr. Vale would handle it.”
“Silas.”
Marla nodded.
“What does ‘handle it’ mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Dana didn’t believe that entirely.
“Where did Nora fit?”
“Months later.”
“You were still working for them.”
Marla closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“So fear wasn’t enough to make you stop.”
“No.”
“Money?”
“Partly.”
Rebecca glanced at Dana.
Dana kept going.
“What happened to Nora?”
Marla looked at the photograph between them.
“She was nice.”
The statement made Dana angry.
“Was that unusual?”
“No.”
“She stopped for you.”
“Yes.”
“Then you betrayed her.”
Marla cried.
“Yes.”
Dana let the silence sit.
Marla continued.
“Nora kept asking if I was okay.”
Dana felt something tighten in her chest.
“Even after?”
“Even after Boyd took her keys.”
“What did she say?”
“She said I looked scared.”
Marla wiped her face.
“She told me I could leave with her.”
Dana stared.
“She thought you were another victim?”
“Maybe.”
“What happened at the yard?”
“Silas came out.”
“Describe him.”
Marla did.
Late fifties.
Gray hair.
Expensive boots.
Calm voice.
No need to shout.
“He looked at Nora’s license.”
“And?”
“He said she was useful.”
Dana’s stomach turned.
“For identity theft?”
“I think.”
“What else?”
“Boyd took her phone.”
“Then?”
“Silas asked if anyone knew where she was.”
“Nora answered?”
“She said her sister did.”
Dana remembered Leah was on the phone.
Silas would know that made Nora’s disappearance more visible.
“What did he do?”
“He got angry at Boyd.”
“Why?”
“Because Boyd was supposed to choose people traveling alone who wouldn’t be expected quickly.”
Dana felt sick.
A selection system.
Not random enough.
Not sophisticated enough to be impossible.
But cruelly calculated.
“What happened to Nora?”
“They took her into the back building.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“I didn’t see her again.”
“Why did Boyd have her necklace?”
Marla stared.
“I gave it to him.”
Dana’s expression hardened.
“You took it?”
“Nora handed it to me.”
Dana stopped.
“What?”
Marla looked ashamed.
“She asked me to keep it.”
“Why?”
“She thought I might leave.”
Dana stared.
“She still trusted you?”
“No.”
Marla shook her head.
“She said if I ever got out, give it to her sister.”
Dana looked down at the photograph.
Nora had understood.
Maybe not everything.
Enough.
“And instead you gave it to Boyd.”
“He found it.”
“How?”
“He searched my bag.”
“You could have thrown it away.”
“I didn’t.”
That mattered a little.
Not enough.
“Why keep it?”
Marla whispered:
“Because I wanted proof that Nora was real.”
Dana stared.
“What does that mean?”
“Silas told us never to use names afterward.”
“Why?”
“So nobody got sentimental.”
Luis finally spoke.
“Did he kill them?”
Marla’s head snapped up.
“I never saw that.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“I don’t know.”
Luis leaned forward.
“Does Silas have somewhere else?”
Marla hesitated.
“Maybe.”
“Where?”
“I heard Boyd say ‘the ranch.’”
Dana exchanged a look with Luis.
“What ranch?”
“No idea.”
“Did Nora go there?”
“I don’t know.”
Dana’s patience thinned.
Marla whispered:
“But I heard her three weeks after she disappeared.”
Dana stopped breathing.
“Where?”
“On a phone.”
“What phone?”
“Silas’s.”
Dana leaned closer.
“Explain.”
“Boyd and I were at the yard.”
“Doing what?”
“Picking up money.”
“Silas answered a call.”
“And?”
Marla’s eyes filled.
“A woman was yelling.”
“You recognized Nora?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She said my name.”
Dana’s heart pounded.
“What did she say?”
Marla looked directly at her.
“She said, ‘Marla, if you can hear me, tell my sister I’m alive.’”
Dana’s hand tightened around her pen.
Three weeks after Nora vanished.
Alive.
“What did Silas do?”
“He ended the call.”
“And you did nothing.”
Marla started crying harder.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because he looked at me and said my brother’s address.”
Dana paused.
“What brother?”
“Jamie.”
“How old?”
“Twenty.”
“Where is he?”
Marla’s breathing changed.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Dana frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Silas started making me work after Alicia.”
“Because of what you witnessed?”
“Yes.”
“He said if I went to police, Jamie would disappear too.”
“Did Silas actually contact Jamie?”
“He sent photographs of him leaving work.”
Dana sat back.
That explained Marla’s fear.
Not her choices.
But part of them.
“When did you last speak to Jamie?”
“Two months ago.”
“Why?”
“He stopped answering.”
Dana stared.
“Did you report him missing?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Silas said Jamie moved.”
“You believed him?”
“No.”
Marla looked broken.
“But I was afraid what reporting it would do.”
Dana wrote the name.
Jamie Voss.
Another possible missing person.
Then Marla whispered:
“There’s something else.”
Dana waited.
“The pregnant woman trick wasn’t mine.”
“Whose?”
Marla’s eyes moved toward the photograph of Nora.
“A woman did it before me.”
“Who?”
“Silas called her Tessa.”
Dana frowned.
“Where is she?”
Marla swallowed.
“She disappeared after refusing to do another job.”
Dana’s stomach tightened.
A former decoy.
Perhaps another victim.
“How many people has Silas made disappear?”
Marla shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Dana believed that part.
Then Marla added:
“But there’s one person who does.”
“Who?”
Marla looked toward the mirrored glass as though someone might be listening from the other side.
“Travis Cole.”
The former deputy.
“What does he do?”
“He keeps the records.”
Dana felt cold.
“Where?”
Marla whispered:
“Somewhere Silas calls the church.”
May you like
And for the first time, Dana wondered whether the marked roads on the fake pregnancy map were not just robbery locations.
Maybe they were routes leading to a place no victim had ever been expected to leave.
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