Chapter Twelve B: The White Van
Deputy Kent arrived at the hospital wearing a jacket over her uniform.
She had spent the night interviewing drivers from the freight yard and looked as though she had forgotten to sleep.
Emily met her near the vending machines.
“Lucia remembered a white van,” she said.
Kent’s expression sharpened.
“Tell me exactly what she said.”
Emily repeated the girl’s description without adding her own conclusions.
Kent wrote down the red stripe, the empty baby carrier, and the direction the van had traveled.
“The freight company operates six white vans,” she said.
“That detail alone doesn’t tell us which one.”
“Lucia said it went ahead of the bus,” Emily replied.
“That gives you a time and a road.”
Kent closed her notebook.
“It gives us a reason to ask more questions,
” she said.
“I need you to understand that asking questions can put people under pressure.”
“They are already under pressure,” Emily answered.
Kent regarded her for a moment.
“You are right,” she said.
“But I will decide how to approach the drivers.”
A hospital orderly passed with a cart of fresh sheets.
Kent stepped aside and lowered her voice.
“The families from Bellwether Court were not all registered through the same evacuation desk,” she explained.
“Some were told they had to leave immediately, while others were told the building was safe.”
“Who gave those orders?” Emily asked.
“That is what we’re trying to establish.”
Kent showed Emily a public notice from the county health department.
The notice named a temporary shelter near the southern highway.
It did not mention the northern freight yard or the disused fairground where the second group had been found.
“Somebody was making up destinations,” Emily said.
“Somebody was changing destinations,” Kent corrected.
“We don’t yet know whether that began as a mistake or something deliberate.”
Emily thought about the white van and the man with the empty carrier.
“Could the people inside still be missing?” she asked.
“Possibly,” Kent said.
“But we cannot assume every vehicle in that area was carrying evacuees.”
The deputy left for the county operations center.
Emily returned to Lucia’s room and found Nadia folding the girl’s sweater into a plastic bag.
“They say she can leave this afternoon,” Nadia said.
“She’ll stay with my sister until we know what happens to the apartments.”
Lucia looked up from her book.
“Can I have my drawing back?” she asked.
Emily had taken the page to show Kent.
She placed it carefully on the bed.
“Of course,” she said.
Lucia added another red stripe to the van.
“The stripe was crooked,” she explained.
“Like somebody painted over a scratch.”
Emily watched the pencil move.
It was the sort of small detail adults often dismissed because children noticed things they did not consider important.
She asked Lucia whether she wanted to show the drawing to the deputy herself.
Lucia nodded.
“Only if Mom comes,” she said.
“Then Mom comes,” Emily answered.
