Chapter 6 - The Safe Haven
The courthouse holding area was cold, smelling of bleach, stale coffee, and old floor wax. Hayes sat on the opposite side of a laminate table, watching Toby sip nervously from a small carton of apple juice. Across the table, Mark sat with hands unbound, granted an extraordinary twenty minutes of supervised contact by order of the judge.
""You did good, buddy,"" Mark whispered, his voice cracking as he reached out to smooth Toby’s messy dirty-blonde hair. ""You were so brave up there.""
""I was scared, Daddy,"" Toby admitted, resting his forehead against his father's rough, calloused palm. ""The bad man looked at me like he wanted to hurt us.""
Hayes folded his hands, his face grim despite the temporary victory. ""Mark, we cracked the door open, but we haven't walked through it yet. Croft is already filing motions to strike Toby's identification on grounds of juvenile unreliability and lighting obstruction. If we don't have hard proof linking Donald Vance to the docks before five o'clock, the judge will have no choice but to resume standard proceedings.""
""What about the stolen truck?"" Mark asked frantically. ""There must be fingerprints! DNA on the steering wheel!""
""Wiped completely,"" Hayes replied grimly. ""Whoever abandoned the truck in the industrial lot used an industrial solvent. They were thorough. Whoever framed you knows police procedure inside and out.""
Toby paused, setting his juice carton down. ""Daddy... what about the little shiny thing?""
Both men stopped, turning their eyes toward the boy.
""What shiny thing, Toby?"" Hayes asked gently, leaning forward.
""When the truck backed out, the tires hit the curb hard by our trash cans,"" Toby explained, his eyes darting between them. ""Something fell out of the window and bounced into the storm drain. It flashed in the streetlight. I thought it was a quarter, but it had a little red light blinking on it.""
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Hayes stood up so fast his chair screeched against the linoleum. ""A GPS transponder or an encrypted flash drive. If it fell through the grate, it's still down there.""
Before Hayes could reach the door to summon an investigator, the fluorescent lights overhead hummed loudly and blinked completely out, plunging the basement holding room into absolute darkness.
