“Officer,” Michael called through the door. “Open it.”
Daniel didn’t move.
Michael raised his phone.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for my daughters.”
Daniel glanced over his shoulder.
Emma was holding Olivia’s hand.
Olivia’s eyes were closed now.
Her breathing was shallow.
“Daddy’s here,” Emma whispered.
Olivia opened her eyes.
“No.”
The word was barely audible.
Daniel heard it anyway.
He stepped closer to the girls.
“Stay right here.”
Michael knocked again.
“Officer Reed, that’s my family.”
Daniel knew that statement was true.
That was what made the situation so complicated.
A parent standing outside a police station was not automatically a threat.
But two children asking for protection from that same parent was not something he could ignore.
Daniel touched the radio clipped to his shoulder.
“Dispatch, this is Reed. I have two juvenile females inside the station requesting protection from their father. EMS is en route. The father is currently outside the secured entrance.”
There was a brief burst of static.
Then dispatch answered.
“Copy. Do you require additional units?”
Daniel looked at Michael.
“Yes.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“You don’t understand,” he said through the glass. “They’re sick. They have been sick all day.”
Emma heard him.
She pressed both hands over Olivia’s ears.
Daniel noticed.
“Why is she doing that?” Michael demanded.
Daniel didn’t answer.
Michael stepped away from the door and began pacing.
His phone remained in his hand.
He was making another call.
Daniel watched him speak.
Then Michael stopped.
Looked directly at the security camera.
And smiled.
It was a small smile.
Almost polite.
Daniel felt a chill move across his shoulders.
He turned toward the computer.
The pharmacy record was still open.
He read it again.
The medication had been prescribed to Olivia Carter.
The prescription had been filled at 3:06 p.m.
The dispensing pharmacist’s initials appeared beside it.
The medication itself was listed under a name Daniel recognized only vaguely.
Not a children’s medicine.
Not something that should simply be handed to a seven-year-old without clear instructions.
He printed the full record.
Then he noticed something strange.
The prescription had been marked:
DISCONTINUED — 2:51 P.M.
Yet it had been filled fifteen minutes later.
Daniel stared at the screen.
That didn’t make sense.
He checked the transaction number.
Then the prescriber identification.
Michael Carter.
He looked at the syringe.
Then at Olivia.
Then back at the screen.
There was another field.
AUTHORIZED BY: DR. HELEN VOSS
Daniel wrote the name down.
He had no idea who Helen Voss was.
But something about the record bothered him.
If Michael had prescribed the medication, why was another doctor attached to the authorization?
He picked up the station phone and called the pharmacy.
It rang six times.
A woman finally answered.
“Cedar Lane Pharmacy.”
“This is Officer Daniel Reed with the county police department. I’m calling regarding a prescription filled today under Olivia Carter.”
There was silence.
Then the woman said, “Is Olivia okay?”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“You know the child?”
“No.”
The woman’s voice had changed.
“Why?”
“Because you just asked if she’s okay.”
Another silence.
Then the woman lowered her voice.
“Officer, I need you to listen carefully.”
Daniel glanced toward Michael.
The man was still outside.
Still watching.
“What happened?”
The pharmacist swallowed.
“That prescription wasn’t supposed to be filled.”
Daniel looked at the computer.
“What?”
“It was canceled.”
“I see that.”
“No,” she said. “You don’t understand.”
Her breathing became audible.
“The cancellation came from the doctor’s office before your suspect ever arrived.”
Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Then why was it filled?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have a transaction.”
“Yes.”
“You have a pharmacist’s verification.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re telling me you don’t know how it happened?”
“I wasn’t working the counter.”
“Who was?”
The woman hesitated.
Then she said a name.
Daniel wrote it down.
“Where is that employee now?”
“He left at four.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at the clock.
4:23 p.m.
The ambulance should have arrived by now.
He looked through the glass.
No ambulance.
No patrol cars.
Just Michael’s SUV.
Then his phone rang.
Dispatch.
“Reed.”
“Go ahead.”
“The ambulance was rerouted.”
Daniel straightened.
“Rerouted where?”
“Unknown. There was a traffic collision on Route Nine.”
“How long?”
“Approximately twelve minutes.”
Daniel looked at Olivia.
Twelve minutes suddenly felt very long.
“Send another medical unit.”
“Already requested.”
Daniel hung up.
Emma was staring at him.
“Is she going to die?”
Daniel crouched.
“No.”
He wasn’t a doctor.
He couldn’t know that.
But the child needed something more than uncertainty.
“You’re not alone,” he said.
Emma nodded.
Then she whispered something that made his stomach tighten.
“Daddy didn’t give her the medicine.”
Daniel paused.
“What did he give her?”
Emma looked at the locked front doors.
“He said it wasn’t medicine.”
“What was it?”
She shook her head.
“He said if I told, Olivia would disappear.”
Daniel kept his voice calm.
“Emma, what did you see?”
She looked at her sister.
Then down at the floor.
“A little white thing.”
“Like a pill?”
She nodded.
“But Daddy didn’t put it in her mouth.”
“Where?”
Emma pointed toward Olivia.
“Inside her.”
Daniel’s expression remained still.
But his mind raced.
“Did you see him put it inside her?”
Emma shook her head.
“He made her swallow it first.”
Daniel waited.
“And then?”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears.
“He said it would make her sleep.”
A knock came from the rear entrance.
Daniel spun around.
The station had two entrances.
The rear door led to the parking lot behind the building.
He moved toward it.
Another knock.
Then a voice.
“Officer Reed?”
Daniel stopped.
It was Michael’s voice.
But Michael was still visible through the front window.
Daniel slowly looked toward the rear camera monitor.
A man stood outside.
Not Michael.
He wore a dark raincoat.
His face was partially hidden beneath a baseball cap.
Daniel reached for his radio.
“Dispatch, I have an unknown male at the rear entrance.”
The man lifted something toward the security camera.
A badge.
Daniel couldn’t read it.
The man pointed toward the camera.
Then he pointed toward the girls.
Daniel stepped backward.
The stranger spoke through the door.
“Officer, you need to give me the child.”
Emma grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“No.”
The stranger looked toward the camera.
“I know what happened to her.”
Daniel stared at him.
“How?”
The man didn’t answer.
Instead, he said:
“Because I’m the reason Michael Carter was able to get the medication.”
Daniel’s hand moved toward his holster.
Outside, Michael suddenly stopped pacing.
He looked toward the rear of the building.