“Where is my daughter?” she asked again. “You promised to tell me where you left her.”
They looked at each other, then Brock said, “There was an accident.”
Ellen shook her head, not believing what she was hearing. “Where. Is. She.” When they didn’t respond, she pounded her fist against the wall. “I just saved your brother’s life, tell me where my daughter is!”
“At the end of Hopper Road, right where it turns to the one-lane county road that goes to Privett,” Rena said.
Her eyes burned, her gut churned, but she asked as calmly as possible, “Is she alive?”
“I believe so,” Rena said quietly.
“Go get her,” Brock said. “I’m not going to stop you. I’m sorry about all of this, really I am.”
Ellen wanted to scream. Her daughter was out in the storm after an accident and these people had just left her.
Brock continued. “You get Sam to the hospital tomorrow, okay? And we’ll go. We’ll leave. And you can get your daughter.”
“You won’t make it out tonight,” Ellen said. “We live in the middle of tens of thousands of acres of farmland. There are no paved roads. Drainage ditches are flooded. Rock Creek is flooded, so you can’t go that way, and you’ll be lucky to get out to the south, Mule Run that cuts across the valley is also flooded.”
“We’ll take our chances,” Brock said.
“Take me to Avery,” Ellen said.
“And leave you there?”
“You know exactly where she is, I don’t. Please. Hopper Road is miles long. There are at least six intersections. It’s dark. What if I miss her? What if she’s wandering the roads? Please!”
“We have to,” Rena said to Brock. “She saved Sam. We have to do this.”
He looked pained. Ellen didn’t give them the opportunity to change their minds.
Ellen ran to the mudroom to get her jacket, and Rena walked over to Sam. He was still unconscious, but his chest rose slowly up and down, up and down.
Ellen said to Lyla, “If he wakes up, inject him with this.” She put a premeasured syringe on the hutch. “It’s a smaller dose of ketamine and will help with the pain and keep him calm.”
Rena kissed her brother on the forehead. “I love you, Sammy. I’m so sorry this happened.” She looked up at Ellen, her eyes red and overflowing with tears. “He just did what we wanted. He wasn’t part of this, not like Brock and me. Please ask the police to go easy on him.”
“If Greg Baldwin survives,” Ellen said.
“He wasn’t part of it. He was the driver.”
“He would still be considered an accessory.”
Rena turned to Brock, panic in her sad eyes.
“I don’t know that he would survive the drive home,” he said to her.
Rena turned to Ellen, imploring her for leniency.
Ellen said, “I’ll tell the police exactly what you said. But it’s not up to me what they decide to do.”
“Okay,” she whispered. The woman was exhausted, dark circles under her eyes, and Ellen didn’t think she’d slept in the last two days. She had a small tug of sympathy, but it wasverysmall. This woman had left her daughter in the middle of a storm. Ellen hardened her heart as she grabbed the extra flashlight and a pocketknife from the kitchen drawer, hoping they didn’t see her take the knife. She grabbed the radio off the charger, put it in her pocket.
“You love your kids,” Rena said quietly.
“I do. We need to leave to get my daughter. Right now.”
They started for the door. Ellen hugged her grandmother. “I’m going to bring Avery home,” she said.
