I was grateful for that and hated it.
“I left the truck where you could find it,” I said.
“That isn’t the part I’m stuck on,” Dex said.
My throat went hot.
Crystal’s attention moved between us, and she was too exhausted to miss what sat in the silence.
Crystal’s eyes flicked from him to me, and I felt the room narrow around everything she hadn’t heard.
Dex let it last half a breath, then pulled us back to the thing that could still hurt Crystal.
“Who else knew you copied the records?” he asked.
“No one. I don’t think.” Crystal gripped the edge of the chair. “Frank found out somehow. Maybe an access log. Maybe he saw a file was opened. I don’t know.”
“Where are the records now?”
I answered before she could. “A storage locker outside town.”
Dex’s eyes came to me.
This time, I let the answer stay in the room.
“Whose locker?” he asked.
“Crystal rented it after the break-in,” I said.
Crystal shook her head. “Under my name. I know that was stupid.”
“No,” Dex said. “It was traceable. There’s a difference.”
She blinked at him.
His face stayed hard, but his voice didn’t.
“Who has the key?” Dex asked.
Crystal reached under the neckline of her tank and pulled out a thin chain. A small brass key lay against her palm, warm from her skin. “I do.”
My stomach dropped.
“Crystal,” I said.
“What? He needs to know.”
“He didn’t need to know it was around your neck.”
Dex didn’t reach for it. He studied the key, Crystal’s hands, and then the window.
“Put it back under your shirt,” he said.
She obeyed too fast.
Dex saw my face. “I’m not taking it from her.”
“Good.”
