Chapter 2
The room started spinning.
Nine years.
Nine years of searching, hoping, praying that Daniel was still alive.
Nine years of holidays with an empty chair at the table.
Nine years of my mother crying herself to sleep.
And now this bruised eight-year-old boy was holding the proof that my brother was out there somewhere.
"Officer Marlow?"
My partner Sarah's voice cut through the fog.
She was standing next to me, concern written all over her face.
"Jake, you okay?"
I couldn't speak.
I just handed her the hospital bracelet.
Her eyes widened when she read the name.
"That's your brother."
It wasn't a question.
She knew the story. Everyone at the precinct knew.
Daniel Marlow had been twenty-four when he disappeared.
He was a social worker.
The kind of guy who actually cared.
The kind of guy who got too close to the wrong people.
I looked down at Evan.
The boy was still clinging to my uniform, his small body trembling.
"Evan," I said, kneeling down to his level. "Where is Daniel now?"
Tears streamed down his face.
"I don't know exactly. He was in the basement. But then Ryan found out we were talking. He moved him."
My blood turned to ice.
"Daniel was in your basement?"
Evan nodded vigorously.
"For a long time. I would sneak down there when Ryan was gone. We would talk for hours. He told me stories about you. About when you were kids. About how you became a cop."
My throat tightened.
"He told me if I ever got the chance, I had to run to the police station. He said his brother would be there. He said you would protect me."
I pulled the boy into a hug.
He cried into my shoulder.
And for the first time in nine years, I let myself cry too.
Sarah put a hand on my shoulder.
"Jake, we need to get him to interview room two. And we need to get a CPS worker here immediately."
I nodded, wiping my eyes.
"Right. You're right."
I stood up, lifting Evan into my arms.
He was light. Too light.
Ryan had been starving him too.
I carried him past the holding cell where Ryan was screaming.
"You're making a mistake! That kid is troubled! He lies!"
I didn't stop.
I didn't even look at him.
All my focus was on Evan.
On the boy who had risked everything to bring me my brother back.
We got to the interview room.
I sat Evan down on one of the hard chairs.
Sarah brought him a soda and a granola bar from the vending machine.
He ate like he hadn't seen food in days.
Maybe he hadn't.
"Evan," I said gently, "I need you to tell me everything you know about Daniel. Everything you remember."
He took a sip of soda.
"He was so nice. Even when he was hurt. Even when he was sad. He would tell me stories to make me feel better when Ryan was mean to me."
"What kind of stories?"
"About when you and him were kids. About the time you tried to build a treehouse and it fell down. About how you protected him from bullies at school."
My chest ached.
Those were real memories.
Only Daniel would know those stories.
"Did he say anything about why he was there? Why Ryan was keeping him?"
Evan's face grew serious.
"He said Ryan was a bad man. Part of a bad group of men. They do bad things to people. Daniel found out. So they took him."
"What kind of bad things?"
He looked down at his hands.
"They take kids. And women. They sell them to other people. Daniel was trying to stop them."
My stomach dropped.
Human trafficking.
In Nashville.
My own brother had been investigating it.
And they had taken him.
"Evan, do you know where they moved Daniel to? Did you hear anything?"
He shook his head.
"No. But I heard Ryan on the phone. He was yelling. He said they had to move 'the package' to the farm before the cops found out. He said something about Millersville."
Millersville.
It was a small town about twenty minutes north of Nashville.
Lots of farmland.
Lots of isolated properties.
Lots of places to hide someone.
I stood up.
"Sarah, we need to move. Now."
She was already on her phone.
"I'm calling it in. We'll get a team together. But Jake—"
She paused.
"We can't just go storming every farm in Millersville. We need probable cause. We need something more."
She was right.
As much as I wanted to race out there and tear the town apart looking for my brother, I couldn't.
I was a police officer.
I had to do this by the book.
Even if every second that passed felt like an eternity.
Even if Daniel was running out of time.
"Okay," I said. "But we're not waiting long. I want every available officer looking into properties in Millersville. Any farm that's been purchased in the last five years by someone with ties to Ryan. Any property that's been reported suspicious."
Sarah nodded.
"I'm on it."
She left the room.
I turned back to Evan.
He was watching me with big, scared eyes.
"Officer Jake?"
"Yeah, buddy?"
"Are you going to find him?"
I knelt down again.
"I'm going to find him, Evan. I promise you. And when I do, we're going to make sure Ryan never hurts anyone ever again."
He threw his arms around my neck.
"Thank you."
And in that moment, I made a silent vow.
I would find Daniel.
I would bring him home.
May you like
And I would burn down the entire organization that had taken him from us.
No matter what it cost.
