Chapter 1 - THE RESCUE AND THE RECORDING
The snowplow’s massive yellow headlights pierced the blizzard like twin suns. I waved my arms frantically, clutching Maya tight against my chest. The heavy truck groaned to a halt, the air brakes hissing violently over the howling wind.
The driver’s door swung open. A burly man in a neon-orange jacket jumped down into the snow.
“Jesus, lady! What are you doing out here? It’s twenty degrees!” he yelled over the engine.
“My parents,” I gasped, my teeth chattering so hard I could barely speak. “They kicked us out. They drove away. My daughter needs her medicine.”
He didn't ask another question. He scooped Maya up, wrapped her in a thick thermal blanket from his cab, and hoisted us both into the heated passenger seat of the plow.
“I’m Ben,” he said, slamming the door shut against the storm. “And we are going straight to the state trooper barracks.”
The drive took twenty minutes. When we arrived, the station was quiet, manned by a desk sergeant and a single detective. I told them everything. At first, the detective, a sharp-eyed woman named Miller, looked skeptical. Parents didn't just dump their children in a freezing canyon at 3 AM.
“Mile Marker 82, Detective,” I said, my voice eerily calm as I held a mug of hot tea. “There is a state traffic camera right above the shoulder. Pull the feed.”
Detective Miller typed at her keyboard. Ten minutes later, she called me over to her monitor.
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There it was. High-definition, night-vision footage. The SUV pulling over. My father physically dragging my bag out of the car. My mother sitting in the front seat, looking back at us with a cold, calculated smirk. And finally, the car speeding off, leaving a woman and a child to die in the snow.
Miller picked up her radio. “Dispatch. I need an APB on a silver Lexus SUV. Attempted murder and severe child endangerment. Let's hunt these monsters down.”
