Chapter 6
By noon, Victor Lang’s name was on every news channel in the state.
Not because the sheriff wanted it there.
Because Brenda’s video spread faster than anyone could bury it.
The polished man in the tan coat.
The terrified girl.
The gun.
My Harley on top of him in the rain.
People finally saw what Lucy had tried to say with shaking fingers.
But videos do not undo damage.
Lucy’s mother, Nora, was brought to the hospital under police guard.
She was deaf.
She was also half-starved, bruised, dehydrated, and so weak the nurses moved her like glass.
When Lucy saw her, she tried to run.
A nurse stopped her.
“Careful.”
Nora opened her eyes.
Lucy signed so fast I could barely follow.
MOM.
MOM.
MOM.
Nora’s broken face crumpled.
Her hands lifted.
My baby.
Lucy climbed onto the bed carefully and collapsed against her mother.
Ben followed, sobbing.
Nora wrapped both arms around them and made a sound no language needed.
I stepped out.
Some moments are too sacred for strangers.
But Lucy’s hand shot out and grabbed my sleeve.
She did not let me leave.
So I stayed by the wall and looked at the floor while a family stitched itself back together one breath at a time.
Later, Nora told investigators everything through a certified interpreter.
Her husband, Mark, had died eighteen months earlier in a work accident.
Victor Lang had been his attorney.
He helped with insurance.
Paperwork.
Estate issues.
Then he began appearing at the house.
At first kind.
Then controlling.
When Nora rejected him, he threatened to take the children by claiming a deaf mother could not care for them.
She reported him.
Nothing happened.
Then he took all three of them.
Kept Nora in the basement.
Told the children she had abandoned them when they disobeyed.
Used Lucy’s signing against her by punishing her hands.
That was why Lucy signed so small.
My fists clenched until my nails cut my palms.
Nora also confirmed the other rooms.
Victor had kept another child months before.
A teenage girl named Harper.
Runaway, they said.
Troubled, they said.
Missing, nobody cared enough to say loudly.
The shoes belonged to her.
But Harper was not in the house.
No body.
No answer.
Only a bracelet hidden beneath a floorboard.
Victor refused to speak.
His attorney arrived in a black SUV and called everything “an unfortunate misunderstanding involving family stress.”
Family stress.
I wanted to break his teeth.
Instead, I went outside the hospital and put my head against the brick wall until the urge passed.
Deputy Marlow found me there.
“Sheriff Harlan is suspended.”
“Good.”
“State police took over.”
“Better.”
“Victor is being transferred.”
I turned.
“When?”
“Tonight. County holding isn’t secure enough.”
That sounded reasonable.
Too reasonable.
“Who decided that?”
Marlow hesitated.
“District attorney’s office.”
I laughed once.
Victor’s brother.
Of course.
I looked through the hospital window.
Lucy sat beside her mother’s bed, drawing on a whiteboard so Nora could rest her hands.
“Where are they taking him?”
“Capital detention.”
“What route?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“You shouldn’t know it either.”
Marlow’s face tightened.
He understood.
At 9:30 p.m., the transport never reached the highway.
The official story came fast.
Storm debris.
Road hazard.
Vehicle disabled.
Victor escaped into the woods while one deputy was injured.
I did not believe a word.
Neither did Hannah from state police, a captain with tired eyes and a voice like gravel.
She arrived at the hospital after midnight.
“You’re Cole Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“You seem to be involved in every major event.”
“Wasn’t on purpose.”
She almost smiled.
“Good. Keep not doing it on purpose. The girl trusts you.”
“She has a name.”
Captain Hannah Reed nodded.
“Lucy.”
I liked her a little more.
She asked Lucy if Victor had ever mentioned a place he would go.
Lucy signed slowly.
COLD ROOM.
PLANES.
LOUD.
I translated.
Hannah’s eyes narrowed.
“Private airfield.”
Marlow said, “There’s one outside Millstone.”
Hannah turned to him.
“Who owns it?”
May you like
Marlow looked sick before he answered.
“The Lang family.”
