Chapter 1 — The Door That Shut
My nine-year-old daughter was preparing to leave the school bus when its gray-haired driver stepped in front of her and shouted, “You’re not taking her!”
I stood just outside, desperately explaining that I was her mother, but he closed the doors before me and drove off as my daughter cried beside the window.
I immediately called 911, insisting that he be arrested.
But then a deputy asked me something I couldn’t explain: “Ma’am, who was the man standing behind you?”
Before that afternoon, a school bus had never frightened me.
My daughter, Ellie, had traveled on Route 24 since kindergarten.
Every school day, I waited for her at Willow Lane and Briar Street, barely a minute from our home.
She was normally the final student to leave.
On most afternoons, she would descend those steps already talking, even before her shoes reached the pavement.
