Chapter 3 - THE POLICE RAID
While Maya slept soundly in a hospital bed with an IV line taped to her tiny hand, and Leo rested heavily under mild sedation for his pain management, I sat in the family consultation room waiting for caseworker Marcus Thorne.
Marcus arrived around 3:00 p.m., carrying a thick binder filled with intake forms. He was a middle-aged man with kind eyes and the weary, battle-hardened demeanor of someone who spent his life staring into the darkest corners of human nature.
"Mr. Miller, I've reviewed the medical reports and the police logs from Maplewood Drive," Marcus said, sitting down across from me. "What happened to those children is horrific. But let's talk about the immediate future. You're listed as their uncle. Are you prepared to take both Leo and Maya into your home on an emergency kinship placement?"
"Yes. Absolutely," I said without a moment's hesitation. "My house is fully paid off, I work remotely as a software architect so I can be home with them, and I have the financial means to provide whatever medical or psychological care they need."
Marcus nodded approvingly, pulling out a pen. "Good. We'll expedite the emergency background check and home inspection today. But I must warn you—Rebecca is going to fight this legally once she's caught. People like her rarely go down without trying to manipulate the system."
"Let her try," I said coldly. "She abandoned them in a locked basement. She faces felony child abuse and kidnapping charges."
Just then, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text message from Detective Chen:
We found her vehicle parked outside a Greyhound bus station downtown. She was attempting to buy a one-way ticket to Houston. She's in custody. We're bringing her in for interrogation now. Want to watch through the glass?
I looked at Marcus. "Detective Chen just picked up Rebecca at the bus station."
Marcus closed his binder. "Then let's go down to the precinct. You have every right to witness the beginning of her reckoning."
Thirty minutes later, I walked through the heavy glass doors of the Austin Police Department headquarters. Detective Chen led me past the bullpen and into an observation room overlooking a harsh, windowless interrogation cell.
Inside the cell sat Rebecca.
She wasn't crying. She wasn't shaking. She was sitting upright in a metal chair, wearing her designer sunglasses indoors, casually chewing gum as if she were waiting for a table at a trendy brunch spot.
"She feels no remorse," Detective Chen muttered, standing beside me at the one-way mirror. "During the arrest, she screamed that the kids were 'unmanageable' and that she was 'just trying to teach them discipline.'"
"Discipline," I repeated, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. "She nearly killed my nephew."
May you like
Detective Chen tapped the microphone switch. "Watch this, Mr. Miller. We're going to break her facade."
Inside the cell, the heavy door clicked open. Two investigators walked in and placed a thick, manila evidence envelope right in front of her on the steel table. Inside that envelope were the physical photographs of the basement lockup, and the terrifying medical X-ray of Leo’s shattered tibia.
