Chapter 27 - The First Honest Lie
Elias pulled the truck beneath an overpass and turned the engine off. "Are you going home?" I asked.
"My sister lives in another state. I'm calling her. She won't answer an unknown number, but she'll answer mine."
He told her to take her children to their grandmother's, ask a local deputy to check the house, and tell nobody why. "They know you're helping us," I said.
"They knew before I picked up your text."
Luz arranged to meet us at a legal-aid office in Somerset, forty miles away. Before we went inside, Elias made a call to an attorney he'd used for his company. He said every fact out loud: he'd collected two minors from a burned cabin; one needed medical care; a deputy might have committed arson; their mother was missing. He wanted a lawful temporary placement, not a secret kidnapping.
The attorney, Sonia Bell, arrived with rain in her hair and a briefcase held together by a strap. She was blunt about what she could and couldn't do.
"You are not June's guardian because her mother knew you," she told Elias. "We get a judge involved. We document where the children are. We make a safe plan that doesn't hand them to the people threatening them."
"Will a judge take Milo?" I asked.
"Maybe a court will decide on a different placement while we find your mother," Sonia said. "But you have a voice. I'll make sure it's heard."
While Sonia made calls, Luz laid eighteen photocopied housing applications across a conference table. All were stamped REFUSED ASSISTANCE. Beside each stamp was the same misshapen letter R.
"Your mom noticed the handwriting," Luz said. "She tracked who approved the refusals."
"Deputy Crowley?"
"He delivered notices. He didn't sign them."
Luz turned over the last sheet. Written on the back was a name in Mom's handwriting: DO NOT TRUST THE SECOND SIGNATURE.
May you like
Beneath it was the neat approval of Bellwether County Judge Malcolm Vane.
Sonia leaned closer, losing color. "He's the judge assigned to your emergency custody hearing."
