“My concern…” Lila paused before taking her next step through the minefield. “Is not who made the video, but when it was made.”

Andi’s expression moved from exacerbation to curiosity, a wolf losing its snarl. She tipped her head to listen, a gesture that inflated Lila’s confidence.

She continued. “The video proves that it was Woggum’s apartment, and detectives took a bunch of pictures when they made the arrest. In the video Woggum made, you can see that the bathroom is being remodeled—the sink is on the floor and there’re pipes and stuff lying around—but in the arrest pictures, the remodel is finished.”

“Okay.”

“I thought…Well, maybe we could look up the building permit to get a fix on the date of the construction. That way—”

“Didn’t the detectives look into that?” Andi picked up the file and began paging through the police reports.

“No.”

“You did?”

Lila could see that Andi had finally synced with Lila’s train of thought. Now bring it home. “The permit was issued three and a half years ago. I called the landlord, and he said he finished the work just over three years ago.”

“Beyond the statute of limitations.”

Lila held her grin in check. “For Minnesota, yes, but the feds have a five-year window. You can refer it out.”

A long silence filled the space between them, and Lila had to fight to keep from squirming with excitement. Andi finally spoke. “I read your résumé. You did some defense work with Boady Sanden.”

“As a second-year, I worked a case with him, yes.”

“I can tell. You think like a defense attorney.”

“I don’t—”

Andi held up her hand to stop Lila. “That’s a compliment. You worked through the case, anticipated the defenses—that’s good.”

“I didn’t like the weak timeline, that’s all.” In truth, she had obsessed over that small detail for hours, but false modesty seemed to be a better response.

“Tell me the truth, Lila. Were you the one who told Ryan to charge out the false imprisonment on the Gray case?”

Lila didn’t answer.

Fitch nodded. “Ryan’s a smart kid, but has no mind for strategy.” Andi handed the file back to Lila. “Please do a referral letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

Lila took the file.

“And they’re bringing Mr. Gray in for his first appearance this morning. I want you to handle the hearing. You have done a first appearance, haven’t you?”

“Mr. Hernandez preferred that I not.”

“Good lord.” Andi closed her eyes and mumbled something under her breath. The only word Lila made out was Oscar’s name. When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Lila and said, “Well, you’re doing one today.”

Chapter 11

By nine o’clock that morning, Gavin Spencer had taken care of most of the tasks on his list, and now he sat in the waiting area of a tire shop, giving thought to what he may have overlooked.

After seeing Sadie get rescued at the power station, he drove the Bronco home and got to work. First, he placed the large storage bin—the one he purchased the day before at Walmart—on the floor of his garage and began filling it with the evidence, starting with the plastic sheathing that he had laid out in the back of the Bronco and on the floor of the bedroom. He added Sadie’s water bottle and his clothing, latex gloves, and wipes. Anything that either of them had touched went into the bin.