Rose laughed for the first time in days. She called Miller and told him he had managed to display the drawing with the roots in the air. Miller apologized solemnly and promised to correct the terrible error before Nora returned. When the call ended, he stayed looking at the phone, wondering how something as small as a child's complaint about a drawing could make the garage feel possible again.
Detective Ruiz had one more development to share that evening. Rusk, through his attorney, had asked for a second interview. He wanted to clarify what he meant when he said the police would cause the club to lose, and he had offered to identify the person who assigned him to the garage. His attorney made clear that no immunity had been promised and that Rusk was acting to protect his own interests.
In the interview, Rusk was less composed than he had appeared beneath the storage shelves. He said the job had been described as collecting information for a dispute over stolen business property, and that he had been promised payment for photographs and proof of entry. He admitted the materials went well beyond any legitimate business dispute. He also said he had seen a prepared video designed to show the Vultures threatening a child, though he claimed not to know who would release it.
"You knew a girl had been photographed near her school," Ruiz asked. Rusk stared at the table. He said he had noticed the image among other pictures but was told the child was only relevant because her mother was connected to the garage. When Ruiz asked whether he had considered leaving the job, he said he needed the money. She wrote the answer down without treating it as an excuse.
Rusk identified Arthur Keene as one of the men who had given him instructions, and said Keene regularly passed along messages from Denny's office. He did not claim to have received every order from Denny personally. He remembered seeing Denny at a meeting but could not say whether Denny knew the details of the child photographs. Ruiz found the limits of his knowledge as important as the accusations he was willing to make.
Rusk also explained the device Nora had found beneath the metal cabinet. He had been using it to receive instructions while positioned in the garage, though he would not describe everything he heard. He said somebody was supposed to signal when an adult entered the rear storage area alone. When Nora warned Lucas and the room went quiet, he realized the plan had failed and stopped responding.
The information confirmed Miller's most disturbing suspicion. Rusk had not been hiding solely to steal tools or documents. He had been waiting for a moment that could be misrepresented or turned into a confrontation. The plan relied on people entering the storage area without witnesses and on someone outside using whatever happened next as material for a staged accusation.