Detective Chen didn’t let me speak to Connie immediately.

She took her statement separately, and I waited through an entire afternoon of ticking monitors and doors opening along the corridor.

Waiting had never been my gift.

In my business, if a drilling rig stopped working, I could dismantle a pump and look for the problem.

Here, every important answer existed inside another person’s memory or another locked file.

When Chen returned, she brought a small digital recorder and a tired expression.

“Your sister says Leticia offered her money two weeks before the wedding,” she told me.