Chapter Ten A: The Second List
The deputy had barely finished reading the rescued passengers’ names when a woman in a yellow raincoat pushed through the diner door.
Her boots left muddy half moons on the tile.
She asked for Deputy Kent before she asked for coffee.
Kent recognized her as a dispatcher from the county’s emergency transport desk.
The woman introduced herself as Rosa Merrick and placed a damp clipboard on the counter.
“I need to know how many people came off that bus,” Rosa said.
Kent pointed to the handwritten list beside the register.
Rosa counted the names twice, moving her lips as she read.
“There should be twenty three,” she said.
“We have twenty one passengers and the driver,” Kent answered.
Rosa gripped the edge of the counter.
“The driver isn’t one of the twenty three.”
Emily stopped stacking cups.
She remembered the small shoes visible beneath the last row of seats when the rescue team had searched the vehicle.
At the time, an officer had said the shoes belonged to a child already outside.
“Who is missing?” she asked.
Rosa unfolded a separate sheet.
“Two people were assigned to the transfer point at the orchard road,” she said.
“Their names are Owen Bell and Priya Sethi.”
Samuel looked up sharply at the first name.
“Owen Bell?” he repeated.
Rosa nodded.
“Do you know him?”
“No,” Samuel said after a moment.
“But I know his mother.”
Adrian took the clipboard and compared its times with the messages on his phone.
“The driver told us he never reached the orchard road,
” he said.
“Then he lied about that too,” Rosa replied.
Kent asked the remaining families to stay inside while she made a call.
The diner had been noisy with relief only minutes earlier.
Now even the refrigerator motor sounded too loud.
Emily looked toward the kitchen where Grant stood with his hands against the stainless steel worktop.
He had seen the transfer vehicle before anyone else.
She walked to the serving hatch.
“Did another car come here this morning?” she asked.
Grant shook his head.
“Not through the front lot.”
“What about the lane?”
He looked toward the back door.
“A gray delivery van waited there before dawn,” he admitted.
“The driver asked whether the bus had already passed.”
“Why didn’t you mention that?”
“Because I didn’t know it mattered,” Grant said.
Emily held his gaze until he added the rest.
“He had a child in the passenger seat.”
Chapter Ten B: The Orchard Road
Kent would not allow Emily to ride in the patrol car.
She did allow her to explain what she had seen at the diner while an officer took notes.
The gray van had a broken rear window covered with clear plastic.
Grant remembered that detail because the plastic had rattled in the wind.
He could not remember a license plate.
He could remember a yellow triangle painted near the handle of the sliding door.
Rosa recognized the triangle immediately.
“That’s a temporary inspection mark,” she said.
“Our contractors use them when a vehicle is waiting for repair.”
Adrian asked for the name of the contractor.
Rosa hesitated because the transport desk had been told not to share vendor information with outsiders.
Kent stepped between them.
“Give it to me,” she said.
Rosa wrote a company name on the back of a receipt.
Emily watched Kent read it and turn toward Grant.
“Does that name mean anything to you?” Kent asked.
Grant’s face tightened.
“They used to deliver frozen food here,” he said.
“They stopped after their trucks failed an inspection.”
Kent called the county vehicle yard and learned that the van had been reported out of service three weeks earlier.
Its last listed location was a workshop beside the abandoned orchard road.
Samuel stood slowly, using the table to steady his weight.
“I want to go,” he said.
Adrian put a hand on his shoulder.
“You can barely stand.”
“Owen’s mother asked me to make sure he got to his aunt,” Samuel replied.
“I told her I would.”
Emily understood then why the old man had traveled alone in the rain.
He had been trying to follow a route that no longer existed on the county’s public map.
“You can help by telling Kent everything you know,” she said.
Samuel sat down again, but he kept his coat on.
