“Good.”
“Station radio traffic is heating up.”
“Pipe it in.”
The room filled with static and broken voices.
Delete.
Transfer.
County.
No calls.
Keep it tight.
It was amazing how often guilt sounded like logistics.
Reyes listened for twenty seconds and felt his jaw lock.
Then he looked at the warrant packet already sitting on the table.
Search warrants.
Arrest warrants.
Seizure authority.
Emergency federal hold.
Months of paperwork had been waiting for the right trigger.
Claire’s arrest had become that trigger.
Not because they needed more suspicion.
Because the three men at Millhaven had just delivered fresh proof with timestamps.
“Move the timetable up,” Reyes said.
“How far?”
He checked the wall clock.
“Dawn.”
Back in Interview Room Three, Claire heard the station change pitch again.
Phones rang faster now.
Doors opened and closed harder.
Nobody laughed anymore.
Hale came in alone.
That was the first smart thing he had done all night.
