“Liza.” Maurice stood up in what Liza recognized as his pontificating posture. “Most fraud involves two willing parties. The first is the fraudster. The second is the greedy, willing participant—in this case, WIC. This participant has to believe that a bargain any rational person would believe is too good to be true is actually true. I’m betting that WIC is more greedy than shrewd. We need to promise a ton of money, no questions asked.”

Liza and Janae looked at each other. A small acknowledgment passed between them. It would have to work.

Liza dialed Deya.

“Hey, Deya, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for how I acted. This is a really cool opportunity for you to learn how to be an entrepreneur. I saw your Insta story. It’s really well done. Who are you going to chat with?” Liza asked, breathing deeply to control her temper.

“Um . . .” LeDeya’s voice was shaky. “They haven’t really let me sit down with anyone yet. I’m waiting for my turn. I just have to do a few other things before I can really get into the learning portion.”

“What other things do they have you doing?”

“I’m practicing my entrepreneurial skill by putting small sums here and there,” Deya answered quickly.

Liza brightened up her voice. “Are you in a fancy hotel?”

“Liza, of course, we’re doing it big over here. We have about four hotel rooms. But the women are just sitting around. The men are investing the money. I just thought I would get a chance to do some investing by now.”

“Is your hotel dope?”

“I mean, it’s nothing like the place we stayed at in Philly. It’s just a regular Marriott by the airport.”

“Do you all have a penthouse?”

“No, I told you we didn’t ball all out like we did in Philly. We’re, like, on the third floor, but the place has free breakfast!” LeDeya laughed. “Liza, if what I plan here works out, though, we can live like Philly every day.”

“Wow, Deya. I hope it works out for you.” Liza was actually grinding her teeth, but she hoped like hell it sounded like a smile.

After hanging up, she turned to Maurice. “All I got was that they’re on the third floor at the airport Marriott.”

“That’s plenty.”

“Maurice, leave your video call on and put it in your front pocket so we can see and hear everything. We’ll be recording just in case we have to turn this over to the cops.” Janae fussed with his jacket, and Maurice squirmed impatiently.

“I’m going. Do I have everything?” Maurice asked.

“If we can stop somewhere first, I can get some rope and some stuff to make chloroform. What do you have?”

“Liza, what the fuck? I was just asking about IDs.” Maurice looked appalled. “What are you trying to do?”