Chapter 1: The Father Who Never Came Home
County deputies spread across the town before sunrise.
Every gas station.
Every grocery store.
Every roadside ditch.
Every traffic camera.
David Carter's faded blue pickup had vanished four days earlier.
At 6:18 a.m., Detective Ryan Ellis walked into the emergency department carrying a plastic grocery bag recovered from the roadside.
Inside were unopened children's fever medicine...
a loaf of bread...
a carton of milk...
and a stuffed Christmas stocking with Chloe's name stitched across the top.
The cashier remembered him.
"He kept apologizing because he didn't have enough money," she said.
"He put back his own sandwich but kept the medicine."
Ryan's stomach tightened.
A highway camera finally found David.
He had left the grocery store exactly four days earlier.
Then another vehicle appeared.
A black SUV.
No license plate visible.
It struck David's pickup broadside at an isolated intersection before disappearing into the storm.
The damaged truck rolled into a wooded ravine hidden beneath heavy brush.
Nobody saw it.
Nobody reported it.
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David had never abandoned his daughter.
He had been trapped only six miles from home.
