Chapter 3 - The Road Jason TookDetective Reyes arrived at the hospital twenty minutes later.
Emily repeated what she had told me.
Jason had forced Sarah into a car Friday night.
He had returned alone Saturday morning.
He had thrown her belongings into black bags and dumped them into the pool.
Then he had locked Emily inside the metal enclosure.
Most important, Jason had told someone on the phone:
She’ll stay quiet until Monday.
And:
I have to go back before she gets loose.
Reyes immediately began asking questions.
“What vehicle did they take?”
Emily frowned.
“Not Jason’s big car.”
“Your mom’s?”
“No.”
“Another vehicle?”
“A white truck.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did it have writing?”
Emily closed her eyes.
“A picture.”
“What picture?”
“A tree.”
Reyes looked at me.
“Does Jason work for a company with a tree logo?”
“He does contracting work. Landscaping too, sometimes.”
I remembered seeing company shirts in photographs.
Something green.
“Evergreen Property Services.”
Reyes typed the name into his phone.
Within minutes, officers discovered the company owned several white utility trucks.
One was assigned to Jason.
GPS records became the next priority.
While investigators worked, Emily finally slept.
I sat beside the hospital bed watching her breathe.
At around four in the afternoon, Reyes returned.
“We have a location.”
I stood.
“Where?”
“A rural property about forty-five miles north.”
“What property?”
“Old nursery and storage land owned by Evergreen.”
“Is Sarah there?”
“We don’t know.”
“Jason?”
“No signal from his phone.”
“What about the truck?”
“The tracking system stopped transmitting Friday night at that property.”
My stomach tightened.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Detective—”
“No.”
“That’s my daughter’s mother.”
“And your daughter needs one parent who isn’t running toward danger.”
Again, I hated him for being right.
Police drove north.
I remained with Emily.
Hours passed.
By evening, my imagination had created a thousand horrible possibilities.
Then at 7:18 p.m., Reyes called.
“We found Sarah.”
I stopped breathing.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
My knees weakened.
“Alive.”
I sat down.
“Where?”
“There’s a storage building behind an old greenhouse. She was inside.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s injured and dehydrated, but conscious.”
I covered my face.
Emily woke at the sound of my voice.
“What happened?”
I moved beside her.
“They found your mom.”
Emily stared at me.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
She burst into tears.
This time I did too.
Sarah was transported to another hospital because it was closer to the property.
Police still hadn’t located Jason.
The next morning, Emily and I were allowed to visit Sarah.
I didn’t know what I expected to feel when I saw my ex-wife.
Anger.
Relief.
Resentment.
Maybe all of it.
Sarah lay propped against pillows.
She looked exhausted.
When Emily entered, Sarah broke.
“My baby.”
Emily climbed carefully onto the bed.
Sarah hugged her.
“I’m sorry.”
She repeated it over and over.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
I turned away.
After several minutes, Emily was taken to get something to eat with a nurse.
Then Sarah and I were alone.
She looked at me.
“You found her.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“Why was she in that cage?”
Sarah closed her eyes.
“Jason.”
“I know Jason did it.”
“You don’t know everything.”
“Then tell me.”
She looked toward the door.
“Daniel, he wasn’t always like this.”
I almost laughed.
That sentence felt painfully familiar.
“How long?”
“Months.”
“How long was he frightening Emily?”
Sarah started crying.
“I didn’t know at first.”
“How could you not know?”
“He never did it in front of me.”
“But she changed.”
“I know.”
“She asked to stay with me.”
“I know.”
“And you kept insisting she come home.”
“I know.”
Each answer made my anger sharper.
Sarah wiped her face.
“I thought she was struggling with the divorce. With sharing homes. I thought Jason was strict and she didn’t like it.”
“Strict?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“Your daughter was locked inside an animal enclosure.”
Sarah flinched.
I immediately regretted shouting.
Not because the words were wrong.
Because Emily might hear.
I lowered my voice.
“What happened Friday?”
Sarah stared at her hands.
“I finally saw him grab her.”
My jaw tightened.
“Emily spilled juice. Jason lost his temper.”
“Did he hurt her?”
“Not badly. I stopped him.”
“But?”
“But I told him it was over.”
“You were leaving?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He became calm.”
That frightened me more than shouting would have.
Sarah continued.
“He apologized. Said he understood. Then he told me we should talk somewhere private because Emily was upset.”
“The white truck.”
She nodded.
“He drove me to the nursery property.”
“Why did you go?”
“He said he wanted to show me where he planned to stay while we separated.”
Her voice shook.
“When we arrived, he took my phone.”
“What happened then?”
“He locked me inside the storage building.”
My hands curled into fists.
“He said I was destroying his life.”
“Why?”
“Because I told him I would report what he had done to Emily.”
There it was.
“He wanted to stop you.”
“Yes.”
“Why throw your belongings into the pool?”
Sarah shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Police think he may have wanted it to look like you disappeared.”
“Maybe.”
“Where is Jason now?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Sarah’s expression changed.
“What?”
She looked afraid again.
“There’s something he said.”
“What?”
“When he left the storage building Saturday morning, he said he needed to ‘finish things at the house.’”
My mind went immediately to Emily.
Sarah saw it.
“He said once he was done, nobody would believe anything Emily said.”
I felt sick.
“But I found her.”
“Yes.”
Sarah looked toward the hospital window.
“And that means his plan failed.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Jason doesn’t handle losing.”
A knock came at the door.
Detective Reyes entered.
His expression confirmed our fear.
“Jason’s been located.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Traffic camera caught the utility truck twenty minutes ago.”
“Where is he going?”
Reyes looked directly at me.
“South.”
My stomach tightened.
“Toward what?”
He hesitated.
Then answered.
“Toward your neighborhood.”
Jason wasn’t running away.
May you like
He was coming back.
And now he knew I had taken Emily from him.
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