McKay cleared his throat. ‘There’s more. Two of the men, Daryl Wainwright and Martin Mendez, you already have in custody, but Yarmini mentioned that the two men generally operated together. According to my client, during one of Tatiana’s drunken tirades, she let loose that Wainwright and Mendez met through the dark web when they were part of a snuff film. He didn’t mention how she came across them.’

Blood rushed from Alyssa’s face, making the room spin. Had that been their plan all along? Had their evil rampage been stopped before they could complete that final act? Her stomach roiled as the image of Rachel suspended from the contraption and Katelyn curled into herself on the mattress flashed into her memory and stayed there.

‘Detective, I’ll need to go through the proper channels, but I’ll have a copy of this recording to you by day’s end. Good luck and goodbye.’

Silence filled the room for several seconds after Alyssa settled the receiver back in its cradle. Liz was the first to break it.

‘Why do you think he did it? Yarmini, I mean? Give up the names and take his own life?’

Cord’s voice was gruff, and his face flushed with anger. ‘Maybe he was afraid, or maybe he did it because he really felt crushing guilt for what he did. Maybe he felt like death is what he deserved – and it is. But one thing remains clear: he robbed Meghan Jessup’s family of justice, of seeing him in a courtroom answering for his crimes, of the opportunity to confront him, to show him their faces and to demand he tell them why.’

Alyssa watched the way her partner’s jaw tightened, how the muscle ticced above his left eye, how every word was punctuated with both grief and rage, and she knew he was thinking about Shelley as much as Meghan Jessup and the others.

She pushed herself to her feet. ‘Cord’s right. However’ – she tipped her head to the list of names in front of her – ‘while we can’t undo Yarmini’s choice, what we can do is find these guys and round them up before they can hurt anyone else or before they get a chance to skip town.’

Hammond jerked his head forward in a brief nod. ‘Keep me apprised; let me know if you need me to intervene with anything.’ He left the door ajar behind him. ‘I’ll contact the local and state police in Arizona and make them aware of the situation.’

‘I’ll notify Lovington police,’ Joe offered.

‘And Cord and I will head out to Builder’s Depot. Liz, can you round up Adamson’s residential address for us? Tony, I need you to contact Judge Rosario and get telephonic arrest and search warrants secured.’

They were already moving. ‘On it.’

Ten o’clock that night, Alyssa sat in her living room with Brock, Holly, Isaac, and Mabel watching the news.

Channel 7 was there when police moved in and arrested Taylor Adamson in connection with the sex trafficking ring organized and run by Tatiana Salazar, previously employed by land mogul multi-billionaire Bartholomew Rosenfelt. Another employee of Mr. Rosenfelt’s, Steve Yarmini, committed suicide in the county jail sometime between the hours of midnight last night and six this morning. We tried to reach Mr. Rosenfelt for comment, but he has yet to return our call.