"Oh, come on, Tabitha. Stop giving us this. You knew damn well what was happening in that barn. Trapdoors. Hidden rooms underground."
"You have misunderstood." Tabitha's voice was even. Patient. Rehearsed long before anyone thought to ask the questions. "A lot of people come to the Three Pillar Community to escape bad situations. Relationships gone wrong. Abusive families. We give them a safe place to land. A place where their abusers can't find them."
"In the slop of a barn?"
"From what I recall, it's not a crime to help people. Especially those eighteen and over."
"And all those condoms? Lubricant?"
Tabitha shrugged. "Those who have to hide can't exactly work at the deli, now can they? They have other ways to support themselves."
"But you approve of it."
"I don't oversee it."
"Then who does?"
Tabitha didn't answer. She sat perfectly still with her hands folded and her eyes on Callie and said nothing.
"You know eventually it's going to come out. And this whole show of yours about helping the lost is going to crumble. Now you can either speed up this process, fill in the details, and maybe they'll go easy on you. Or you can go down for a long stretch."
Silence.
Callie pulled a photograph from the folder and held it up. Fiona Spence. The wider shot with the tattooed arm visible in the frame. "Who is this person taking photos?"
"How should I know. Ask Finch."
"Oh, we intend to. But I'm asking you."
"I told you..."
"You don't know," Callie finished for her.
"I'm not saying another word until I get some breakfast. You have been peppering me all night and I've been very straightforward with you. We help people. And sometimes that means hiding them."
"Did you hide Kara Ellison?"
"Who?"
"What about Brooke Danvers?"
Tabitha sat back in her seat and stared at Callie with an expression that was somewhere between patience and contempt. "I want breakfast. Coffee. Food."
Later,McKenzie sipped his coffee as he leaned against the edge of a desk. Callie stood at the counter stirring sugar into hers. Noah sat in a chair with his legs stretched out, running on fumes and caffeine and the stubborn refusal to stop.
"I say we let her stew in her own misery for seventy-two hours and see if she changes her story," McKenzie offered. "Loyalty has a time limit on it. I'm sure hers will end soon."
"What if Fiona is still alive and being held somewhere?" Noah asked.
"Then Finch will show us."
"That's going to be hard since Ray decided to bring him back in. Can't keep him wandering around out there when he's in thephoto." Noah paused and stared at the ceiling. "And of course this all brings up one glaring issue. What if none of them are the killers?"
McKenzie laughed. "Come on, Sutherland. You can't be that naive. It's clear they're running some shady operation."
"Not according to the Strutz Agency," Callie added. "They deny knowing anything about it. And until they show up in those photos, their only tie to the Three Pillar Community is a referral on a flyer."
McKenzie set his cup down. "This is simple two-plus-two stuff and you know it, Noah. I'm not a betting man, but my money is on the theory we came up with earlier. The deli draws in girls. Redirects them to the modeling agency, which is the hub for vetting who wants to make more money. Samuel Bridger connects them with Finch. Finch takes photos, finds out which ones are open to boudoir, feels them out a little. Those that bite, he tells them they can make extra cash doing erotic shoots. All of which funnels them into that Three Pillar farm to do cam modeling or whatever perverted show they were running. Maybe a few get out of hand. And those are the ones that end up being dumped."
