Chapter 7 — The Sheriff’s Department

The cab took us straight to the Travis County Sheriff’s Department.

On the way I called Javier Montoya, a criminal defense attorney and a close friend of my brother’s, and by the time we arrived he was already pulling into the lot.

I had spent the whole ride braced for the moment a deputy would look at me the way I had learned to fear — the polite, patient look that means a frightened woman, probably overreacting. It was the look Dario’s entire plan depended on my receiving.

What I had instead was Javier, who took one glance at the photographs on Kai’s phone and the mug in its paper towels and did not spend a second deciding whether to believe an anxious wife.