Chapter 4 - Delia Had Lied About Only One Thing, and It Was the Biggest ThingDelia spent the night in county detention.
By morning, she had an attorney.
By afternoon, she asked to speak again.
Ava Morales attended.
So did Detective Marcus Bell from financial crimes.
Nash was not supposed to participate.
He watched later through an authorized recording because he remained a witness in the roadside case.
Delia looked different without the gray coat.
Smaller.
Twenty-nine.
Dark hair pulled back.
No fake stomach.
No performance.
Ava placed a photograph of Eli Voss on the table.
"Your brother?"
Delia nodded.
Eli was twenty-four.
Thin.
Restless eyes.
Several misdemeanor arrests.
One theft conviction.
"How did he meet Royce?"
"Auto shop."
"Which?"
"Royce's."
"Employment records show Eli never worked there."
"He worked cash."
Ava did not chase the detail.
"When did he disappear?"
"November ninth."
"You said four months. It's closer to five."
Delia looked down.
"I stopped counting."
"People don't stop counting when family disappears."
Delia's jaw tightened.
"You don't know what people do."
Ava let the silence sit.
"Why no missing-person report?"
"Because he sent me a message."
"From his phone?"
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
Going away. Don't look for me.
"Why didn't you believe it?"
"Because Eli couldn't go two days without asking Mom for money."
Marcus almost smiled.
Ava didn't.
"Then what?"
"Royce came over."
"To your home?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
"That Eli had stolen from him."
"What?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
"Did he threaten you?"
Delia hesitated.
"Yes."
"How?"
Her lawyer touched her arm.
Delia continued carefully.
"He made it clear that if I caused problems, my mother could lose her house."
Ava frowned.
"Royce owns it?"
"No."
"Then how?"
"Debt."
Marcus leaned forward.
"What debt?"
Delia's eyes shifted.
There it was.
The financial-crime connection.
"My mom refinanced after my dad died."
"Through who?"
"I don't know."
"Try."
"Easton Recovery."
Marcus and Ava looked at each other.
Nash paused the recording later.
Easton Recovery.
The company Caleb Rowe had been investigating.
He resumed.
Marcus asked:
"Easton isn't a mortgage lender."
"I know that now."
"What is it?"
"They bought some old debt."
"Your mother's?"
"Yes."
"How is Royce connected?"
Delia shook her head.
"I don't know."
Ava stared at her.
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"You lured nine people into robberies for Royce because he threatened your mother's house, and you never asked how he knew her debt?"
"I asked."
"And?"
"He said he knew people."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Ava placed the brass key photograph down.
"Eli gave you this."
"Yes."
"When?"
"Two weeks before he disappeared."
"What did he say?"
"Hide it somewhere Royce won't search."
"You chose a fake pregnancy pad?"
"Later."
"Why?"
"Royce never let anyone else carry the bait equipment."
"What does the key open?"
"I don't know."
Ava slid Caleb Rowe's photograph beside it.
"Why did you say CRW might mean Caleb?"
Delia looked at the image.
"Because Eli said his name."
"When?"
"The last time I saw him."
"What exactly?"
Delia closed her eyes.
"He said, 'Caleb was right.'"
"About?"
"He wouldn't say."
"What else?"
"He said Royce didn't run anything."
"Who does?"
"I don't know."
"You keep saying that."
"Because I don't."
Ava leaned closer.
"Then explain what you meant when you told Officer Mercer you thought you were robbing people."
Delia swallowed.
"We took wallets."
"We know."
"Phones."
"We know."
"Sometimes watches."
"Anything else?"
"No."
"Then why pay extra for certain IDs?"
Delia stared at the table.
"Royce had cards."
"What cards?"
"Not bank cards."
"Then?"
"Pictures."
Ava waited.
"Of people."
"Victims?"
"Sometimes."
"Before the robbery?"
Delia nodded.
There.
Targeting confirmed.
"How many?"
"I saw six."
"Were you bait for those six?"
"Three."
"Names?"
Delia gave them.
Marcus wrote rapidly.
One matched a retired nurse whose identity had later been used in a disputed loan application.
One matched a widower whose bank accounts were frozen after someone attempted to redirect retirement payments.
The third—
Caleb Rowe.
Ava stared.
"You said another woman baited Caleb."
"She did."
"Then why was his picture in your group?"
"Royce showed us afterward."
"Why?"
Delia looked frightened.
"Because Caleb fought back."
Ava's expression sharpened.
"Was he injured?"
"I wasn't there."
"Then what did Royce say?"
"That Caleb had taken something."
"The key?"
"Maybe."
"What did the crew do?"
"Royce made everyone look for him."
"Caleb escaped?"
"I think."
"Then how is he missing?"
Delia shook her head.
"I don't know."
Ava sat back.
"Here's what I don't understand. You tell us Royce is dangerous. You tell us your brother disappeared. You tell us Caleb disappeared."
Delia looked up.
"And then you joined Royce."
"I needed to know what happened to Eli."
"So you committed nine robberies."
"Yes."
"No excuse?"
Delia's face twisted.
"No."
That answer surprised Ava.
Delia continued.
"I told myself nobody would get hurt."
"That's what people say when they need their own behavior to sound smaller."
"I know."
"Did you keep any money?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"About four thousand."
"Then this wasn't only coercion."
Delia's eyes filled.
"No."
That was the biggest lie she'd told.
Not that she was pregnant.
Not that her family waited up the road.
She had spent months telling herself she was only inside the group to find Eli.
But she had taken money.
She had kept going.
She had watched strangers hand over wallets because she had chosen them.
Ava saw something change.
Maybe the first real crack.
"What do you want now?"
Delia looked at Caleb's photograph.
"Find Eli."
"And Royce?"
"Arrest him."
"Anything else?"
Delia hesitated.
"There's a motel."
Ava leaned forward.
"What motel?"
"Prairie Star."
"Room?"
"Two-fourteen."
"What's there?"
Delia looked at the brass key.
"I think that's what it opens."
Marcus frowned.
"Storage key doesn't open motel rooms."
"No."
Delia shook her head.
"Room 214 isn't where the key goes."
"Then why mention it?"
"Because that's where Eli told me I would learn what the key was for."
Ava stared.
"When?"
"The night before he disappeared."
"Why didn't you go?"
Delia's answer was barely audible.
"I did."
The room became still.
"What did you find?"
Delia looked up.
"Blood."
No graphic detail followed.
May you like
Just one word.
And a memory Delia had spent five months pretending she could survive.
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