Chương 10
James exhaled and looked toward the window.
The lawn mower had stopped again.
Across the street, a woman in pink scrubs was unloading bottled water from her trunk.
She had no idea that police were in the house.
Tasha envied her for about three seconds.
Then Morales turned toward her.
“I also need to ask about the account created in your name.”
Tasha handed over her phone.
Morales read the suspension email.
“Do you have any other evidence someone used the account besides your brother’s admission?”
“Login notices, maybe.”
Tasha searched.
There were security alerts from devices she did not recognize.
One listed a login from a browser on a Windows laptop.
Another showed a location across town.
Devon leaned closer.
“That second one might be Malik.”
Tasha pulled the phone away from him.
“Do not touch it.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Back up.”
He did.
Morales noticed the movement but said nothing.
She asked Tasha to forward the relevant emails to an address she wrote on a card.
Tasha did.
Then she noticed something.
An email dated February 11.
Password changed successfully.
She opened it.
“Devon.”
His shoulders dropped before she even turned.
“You changed my password?”
“Only on that account.”
“This is my email.”
“No, I mean the sneaker account.”
Tasha looked again.
He was right.
The message referred to the marketplace password, not her email password.
She felt embarrassed by the accusation.
Then annoyed that embarrassment had found room inside all this.
“Fine.”
Devon looked surprised.
“What?”
“I said fine.”
“That sounded like you were apologizing.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Yeah, I could tell.”
For the first time all day, Renee laughed.
Just once.
Then she covered her mouth.
Tasha looked at her.
Renee shook her head.
“Sorry.”
James gave them both an incredulous look.
Tasha felt something almost normal move through the room.
It lasted perhaps five seconds.
Then the second officer returned.
He spoke quietly to Morales.
She stood.
“Mr. Reed, Mrs. Reed, may I speak with you downstairs?”
James looked at Devon.
“About what?”
Morales chose her words carefully.
“We may have identified the storage facility.”
Devon stood immediately.
“Which one?”
“The description matches a place called Grant Self Storage.”
“That’s it.”
Morales looked at him.
“You are sure?”
Devon nodded rapidly.
“The sign was blue.”
“You did not mention a sign before.”
“I forgot.”
“Was it blue, or are you remembering because I gave you the name?”
Devon opened his mouth.
Then stopped.
“I don’t know.”
Morales nodded.
“Good answer.”
Devon looked frustrated.
“So what now?”
“Now nobody goes there.”
James stepped forward.
“Why?”
“Because if this is connected to stolen property beyond Tasha’s computer, we do not want anyone alerting whoever is using the unit.”
Devon’s face tightened.
“I already texted Malik earlier.”
Tasha looked at him.
“You did?”
“I started to.”
“You sent it?”
“No.”
Morales’s attention sharpened.
“What did you type?”
Devon unlocked his phone and showed her the unsent message.
I need my sister’s computer back before my dad calls the cops.
Morales read it.
“Do not send this.”
“I know.”
“Do not contact him at all.”
“What if he contacts me?”
“Do not respond until we tell you otherwise, unless there is an immediate safety issue.”
Devon nodded.
James’s jaw worked.
“What happens to him?”
Morales looked at Devon.
“That depends on facts we do not have yet.”
“I mean my son.”
The room changed.
Devon stared at his father.
James did not look at him.
Morales paused.
“You are asking about his exposure for taking the property?”
“And the account.”
“And the money,” Renee added quietly.
Morales nodded.
“I cannot give you a legal outcome in a bedroom conversation.”
James’s face hardened.
“But he admitted it.”
“Yes.”
“So what happens?”
“We document what happened.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the answer I can give you right now.”
James looked dissatisfied but stopped pressing.
Devon sat again.
His face had gone blank.
Tasha watched him.
She had spent the last hour wanting consequences.
Now that they had entered the room in uniform, consequences looked different.
They looked less like justice and more like a machine that no one in the family controlled.
Morales looked at Tasha.
“Are you asking to make a report for the property and cash?”
Everyone looked at her.
Tasha froze.
She had assumed the answer existed without her.
James’s expression shifted.
Renee stared at her hands.
Devon looked at the carpet.
Morales waited.
Tasha’s mouth went dry.
“If I say yes, what happens to him?”
“I cannot promise a specific result.”
“Can he get arrested?”
“It is possible.”
Renee inhaled sharply.
James said nothing.
Tasha looked at Devon.
He finally met her eyes.
There was fear there.
Not the manipulative kind.
Not the exaggerated little-brother panic he used when he wanted someone to rescue him.
Real fear.
Tasha hated him a little in that moment.
She loved him too.
Both feelings occupied the same space without canceling each other.
Devon rubbed his palms against his jeans.
“I took it.”
Nobody spoke.
He swallowed.
“I took all of it.”
Tasha’s throat tightened.
He looked at Morales, not at her.
“She should report it.”
Renee whispered, “Devon.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Then he looked at Tasha.
“I keep making everybody lie for me.”
Tasha felt something inside her shift.
Not forgiveness.
Nothing that easy.
Devon’s eyes were wet.
“I don’t want you to do it again.”
Morales stayed silent.
James looked down.
Tasha stared at her brother for a long time.
Then she turned to the officer.
“Yes.”
Her voice shook.
She made herself say it again.
“Yes, I want to make the report.”
Devon closed his eyes.
Tasha gripped the edge of the desk.
Outside, somewhere down the block, a dog started barking at nothing anyone in the room could see.
Morales uncapped her pen.
“All right.”
She looked at Tasha.
May you like
“Then we are going to document everything from the beginning.”
Officer Morales pulled the desk chair closer and sat with the notebook balanced on one knee.
