Chapter 5 - THE RECKONING AND THE NEW DAWN
The private room on the fourth floor of Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis was quiet, save for the steady, reassuring beep of the heart monitors and the soft hum of the air conditioning unit set to seventy degrees.
Tyler lay in the center bed, an IV drip hooked to his arm, delivering fluids and electrolytes. His fever had broken eighteen hours ago. His face was no longer gray; color had returned to his cheeks, and he was currently sitting up in bed, a brand-new sketchbook resting on his lap, drawing a detailed illustration of a golden retriever sleeping under a wide oak tree.
In the smaller bed beside him sat little Leo.
The seven-year-old boy was wearing clean cotton pajamas, eating a bowl of strawberry ice cream with a plastic spoon, his eyes wide as he watched a cartoon playing on the wall-mounted television.
The door to the room opened quietly.
I stepped inside, carrying a cardboard box filled with fresh clothes, three new sketchbooks, and a legal folder given to me by my brother’s family law attorney.
Behind me walked two state police detectives and an investigator from the state Attorney General’s office.
"How are they doing, David?" the lead detective asked softly, looking at the two boys.
"They're recovering," I said, setting the box on the window sill. "Leo’s state protective custody papers were finalized this morning. My brother and his wife have already filed for temporary emergency foster placement so Leo can come home with us to our farm as soon as he’s discharged."
Tyler looked up from his sketchbook, a bright, beautiful smile spreading across his face. "Leo’s coming to our farm, Dad?"
"He sure is, buddy," I smiled, walking over to squeeze Tyler’s shoulder. "We're fixing up the spare bedroom downstairs for him tomorrow."
The detective nodded grimly, pulling a sheet of legal paper from his coat pocket.
"We thought you should know the legal status before we proceed with the depositions, Mr. Vale," the detective said. "Garrett Voss and four of his senior staff members have been formally indicted by a federal grand jury. The charges include child endangerment, felony assault, human trafficking across state lines, and operating an illegal residential detention facility. Voss’s bail was set at five million dollars this morning. He’s not getting out."
"And my wife?" I asked. My voice was completely flat.
The detective hesitated for half a second.
"Lauren Vale was taken into custody at your residence in Osage County at eight o'clock this morning," he revealed. "She has been charged with felony child endangerment, conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint, and filing false legal instruments. The prosecutor is refusing any plea deal that doesn't include mandatory prison time."
I stood by the window, looking out over the St. Louis skyline.
I felt no satisfaction. I felt no joy in hearing that my wife was sitting in a county jail cell. I only felt a cold, clean sense of finality. The life I had known for fifteen years—the marriage I had tried to save by working eight-month shifts away from home—was dead.
I turned back to look at the bed.
Tyler had set his drawing pen down. He was looking at me with those deep brown eyes—the eyes of a boy who had survived ten days of hell in a plastic furnace, but who was looking at his father like he was the strongest thing on earth.
"Dad?" Tyler asked quietly.
"Yeah, buddy?"
"What are we going to do about your truck in Texas?"
I let out a soft, low laugh—the first real laugh that had left my chest in two weeks. I walked over to the bed, pulled a chair up beside him, and took his hand in mine.
"We're going to leave that truck in Texas, Tyler," I said softly. "I'm turning down the New Mexico contract. I bought a small diesel repair shop down the road in Linn yesterday. I'm going to be working ten minutes from the house every day."
Tyler’s face lit up with a warmth that no hot summer sun could ever match. He leaned back against his pillows, holding his fresh sketchbook against his chest.
Over in the secondary bed, little Leo set his ice cream cup down, looked at me, and spoke his very first full sentence since I had pulled him out from under that potting table in the dark.
"Can I have a hound dog too, Mr. David?" Leo asked, his small voice clear and hopeful.
May you like
I looked at both of my boys—the son I had saved, and the son who had found me when I needed him most.
"We're getting two hound dogs, Leo," I said, leaning over to tuck the warm blanket around both of their shoulders. "Two hound dogs, a whole yard of grass to cut, and all the time in the world."
