Chapter 6 - Caleb Rowe Had Created the System He Pretended to InvestigateMarissa Rowe refused to believe it.
Ava told her carefully.
No accusations beyond evidence.
Caleb's flash drive contained spreadsheets.
Financial projections.
Lists of stolen identities.
Payments to shell businesses.
Roadside incident dates.
The metadata tied many files to Caleb's personal computer.
Marissa stared through the interview-room window.
"He was investigating."
"Maybe he started that way."
"He worked for attorneys."
"He did."
"He hated fraud."
"People can hate something and still become part of it."
Marissa shook her head.
"No."
Ava slid a payment record across.
Caleb received $186,000 through a consulting company over two years from an Easton-related entity.
"Maybe they hired him."
"They did."
"Then that's his work."
"Possibly."
Another document.
Caleb had calculated which stolen identities were most valuable.
Not by giving instructions for fraud.
By ranking victims based on financial profiles.
Marissa stopped reading.
"No."
Ava waited.
"There's an explanation."
"Maybe."
"You don't believe that."
"I don't get paid to believe."
Marissa looked at her.
"What do you get paid to do?"
"Find what happened."
That landed.
Marissa began crying quietly.
She had spent six months imagining her husband injured somewhere.
Now investigators were asking whether he had helped choose people for robbery.
Ava hated that part of the job.
Truth could rescue someone from uncertainty while destroying what they hoped to find.
Delia was brought in again.
This time the Caleb photograph went onto the table first.
"You said you never met him."
Delia stared.
"I didn't."
"His notebook says he knew you."
"I didn't know him."
"Don't play with wording."
"I'm not."
"Then explain."
Delia closed her eyes.
"Eli told him about me."
"How do you know?"
"Caleb emailed me."
Ava leaned forward.
"When?"
"Before Eli disappeared."
There.
Another concealed fact.
"What did he say?"
"That Eli was in trouble."
"Why not tell us yesterday?"
"Because I didn't know if Caleb was good or bad."
"Now you do?"
"No."
Delia laughed weakly.
"That's the problem."
She gave investigators access to an old email account.
One message from an anonymous address.
Your brother has been helping men who will blame him when this collapses. Tell him to leave Omaha.
No signature.
Then another.
Royce is not the person he should fear.
Then:
If Eli gives you a brass key, keep it.
Ava stared.
"Why assume Caleb?"
"Because Eli told me."
"When?"
"The day he gave me the key."
"What did he say?"
"Caleb sent those."
"Then you knew Caleb was involved."
"I knew he was talking to Eli."
"Not that he ran the scheme."
"No."
Ava believed the distinction was possible.
"What did Eli think Caleb was?"
"Someone trying to shut Royce down."
"Why?"
"Caleb told him Easton was using Royce."
"In what way?"
Delia looked ashamed.
"Eli thought Royce was just buying stolen IDs."
"And?"
"Caleb said the identities were being used in bigger fraud."
"Caleb was correct."
Delia nodded.
"What did Eli do?"
"He started copying things."
"From Royce?"
"Yes."
"Then?"
"He found payments to Caleb."
"That changed everything."
"Yes."
Delia finally looked at Ava.
"Eli realized the man warning him was being paid by the same company."
"Did he confront Caleb?"
"I don't know."
"What happened in Room 214?"
"I told you."
"You told me what you saw."
Ava leaned closer.
"What happened before you arrived?"
"I don't know."
"Did Caleb ask Eli to meet there?"
Delia hesitated.
"Yes."
There.
"What time?"
"Ten."
"You arrived near midnight."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Eli stopped answering."
"And Royce somehow knew you were there."
"Yes."
Ava sat back.
"Maybe Royce followed Eli."
"Maybe."
"Maybe Caleb told him."
Delia's eyes filled.
"Maybe."
"Did you ever see Eli after that night?"
"No."
"Did you ever see Caleb?"
"No."
"Then why join Royce afterward?"
Delia's answer came slowly.
"Because Royce said Caleb took Eli."
Ava frowned.
"He blamed Caleb?"
"Yes."
"And Caleb's wife thinks Royce took Caleb."
Delia nodded.
Two missing men.
Two sides blaming each other.
One could be hiding.
One could be dead.
Both could be alive.
Ava asked:
"What did Royce tell you happened?"
"Caleb betrayed Easton."
"How?"
"He kept records."
"Why would the person running the names keep evidence?"
"Insurance."
Ava understood.
Criminals sometimes kept leverage against partners.
Not because they intended justice.
Because mutual destruction could feel safer than trust.
"What did Eli steal?"
"The key."
"From Caleb?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He thought it opened the locker with Caleb's evidence."
"And it did."
"Yes."
Delia swallowed.
"Then maybe Eli found something Caleb couldn't let him keep."
Ava stared.
Delia's face crumpled.
For five months she had tried to believe Royce was responsible.
Because if Royce was responsible, joining him made a twisted kind of sense.
Stay close.
Listen.
Find Eli.
But if Caleb had orchestrated Eli's disappearance—
Delia had spent months robbing strangers for the wrong man while the right one watched from somewhere else.
Then her attorney spoke quietly.
"Delia has another piece of information."
Ava looked at him.
Delia wiped her face.
"Royce called someone after we escaped one robbery."
"Who?"
"I never heard the name."
"What did he say?"
Delia looked at Ava.
"He said, 'Rowe wants the phone untouched.'"
Caleb.
Alive after his own disappearance?
"When was this?"
"Two months after Caleb vanished."
Ava went completely still.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"Could Rowe mean someone else?"
"Maybe."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Delia whispered:
"Because that was the night I realized Caleb might still be alive."
Ava leaned forward.
"And you thought what?"
May you like
Delia answered:
"That Eli might be too."
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