The identity and financial counts were straightforward and she was never going to beat them; there were fingerprints, a frozen account in her own name, a notarized deed with a forged signature, and a hospital registration in which she had handed a stolen license to a clerk.

The death of Danae Whitlock was harder, and Maya sat through enough of it to understand why.

Adriana had not cut the brake line.

She had not put that young woman in the car intending her to die.

What she had done was survive a crash, understand what had happened, and walk away in a manner that guaranteed a misidentification — and then maintain that misidentification for two years while a woman in another county called a police line every three weeks asking whether there was any news about her daughter.

The office charged concealment of a homicidal death, obstruction, and a raft of financial counts, and made it clear at the first hearing that they would be seeking the maximum on every one of them.