“What did you copy?” he asked.
“Statements,” Crystal said. “Invoices. Work orders. Deposit logs. A spreadsheet showing owner payouts before and after the charges. I didn’t know what all of it meant yet, but I knew enough to be scared.”
“Where is it?”
Crystal’s mouth opened.
I stepped closer to the table. “Not yet.”
Dex turned to me. “You’re still trying to control the room.”
“I’m doing a fantastic job, considering you’re the one standing by the door.”
“You don’t get to hold back the evidence location and ask me not to call this in.”
“I didn’t ask you not to call it in.”
Crystal’s voice came thin behind me. “I did.”
Neither of us answered.
She faced Dex with my face and none of my armor. My grip tightened on the chair.
“I made bail because my aunt’s friend knew someone who knew someone,” Crystal said. “I was supposed to stay, hire an attorney, and be reasonable. Then someone broke into my apartment. It wasn’t the police. It wasn’t anyone official. They went through my desk, my closet, the bathroom cabinet, everything. They didn’t take jewelry or cash. They took the laptop bag I’d already emptied.”
Dex’s hand flexed once at his side.
Crystal saw it. So did I.
“They were looking for the records,” she said.
“Did you see who?” Dex asked.
“No.”
“Did you report the break-in?”
“And say what? That someone searched my apartment after I was arrested for stealing money from the same place I’d copied records from?” Crystal pressed her fingers to her mouth, then lowered them. “I panicked. I called Jade.”
I felt Dex’s attention come back to me.
I didn’t turn.
Crystal went on. “She told me to get out. I said I couldn’t. She drove here anyway.”
Dex’s voice lowered. “And became you.”
“She bought me time,” Crystal said.
“No,” I said. “I made a choice. Don’t dress it up for me.”
Dex studied my face for one long second. “Fine. You made a choice. It put you in cuffs, in my truck, in Pine Shadow, and then behind the wheel of my pickup before dawn.”
Crystal’s head snapped toward me.
I kept my face still.
Dex noticed that too. His mouth tightened, but he didn’t hand Crystal the rest.
