Chapter 11 - The Second Location
Elena checked the digital clock on the dashboard of the ambulance parked beside her. The glowing red numbers read 11:45 AM. Only fifteen minutes left.
"Where?" Elena demanded, grabbing Sergeant Vance’s uniform sleeve with frantic desperation. "What is the address of the secondary location? Look at the ledger, Sergeant!"
Vance flipped frantically through the singed pages of the charred ledger, his fingers black with soot. The heat from the burning house behind them radiated against their backs, but nobody paid attention to the flames anymore. The lives of more innocent children hung in the balance.
"Here it is," Vance said, shining his penlight on a water-stained line of text near the back of the book. "Seventeen-forty Pine Ridge Road. An old dairy farm about ten miles north of town."
The young officer instantly jumped into the driver's seat of her cruiser, slamming her hands on the steering wheel. "I'll call dispatch to scramble state troopers and local fire rescue to Pine Ridge Road immediately!"
"No time to wait for a convoy," Vance said, pulling his keys from his belt and tossing them to the young officer. "Take Leo and Toby to the county hospital right now. Get them checked out by pediatric specialists. I'm taking Mrs. Miller and her husband in my cruiser. We're heading straight to the farm."
"Dad isn't going anywhere," a deep voice interrupted. A state trooper stepped forward, blocking David's path to the cruiser with a heavy hand on his baton. "David Miller is an accessory to unlawful imprisonment and child endangerment. He stays in custody until transport arrives."
David didn't fight back. He didn't argue. He simply stood there with his head bowed, looking like a ghost trapped between two worlds. "Let him come with us," Elena pleaded, surprising even herself. "He was a victim too. If there's another child out there, David might know the layout of that farm better than anyone."
Vance hesitated, weighing the legal risks against the desperate need for local knowledge. Finally, he nodded sharply. "Get in the back, Miller. But if you try anything, the cuffs stay on permanently."
The police cruiser roared to life, tires screaming against the asphalt as it peeled away from the burning wreckage of the suburban home. Sirens wailed into the clear afternoon sky, cutting through the quiet countryside as they raced toward Pine Ridge Road.
In the back seat, Elena held the charred ledger in her lap, scanning the names of the children listed alongside David's childhood entry. There were four other names crossed out with red marker. Four names that the ledger implied had met a tragic fate before Martha could move her operation to the suburban house.
"David," Elena whispered, turning to look at her husband sitting beside her in the cramped back seat. "Who else is at the farm? Tell me the truth. Is there a child down there?"
David slowly raised his head, staring out the window at the blurred landscape rushing past. His eyes were bloodshot, filled with a terrifying realization that seemed to break through his mental fog layer by layer.
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"It's my sister," David whispered, his voice cracking with a choked sob that tore through his chest. "I didn't know until just now. Mom told me she died of a fever when we were kids. But she didn't die. Mom locked her in the dairy silo because she cried too much."
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