A seven-year-old girl told the desk officer, “Daddy put something inside my sister’s belly.” Then she clarified, “He made her swallow it and told her not to tell anyone.”

The SUV stopped crooked across two marked spaces.

The driver’s door slammed open.

Richard Hayes stepped out holding his smartphone, already talking, already gesturing aggressively toward the building as if he expected everyone inside to jump to attention.

Paul looked once at the sealed evidence envelope, once at the pharmacy printout, and once at the two children crouched beneath his desk.

Then someone pulled hard on the locked glass door.
PART 2

Richard pulled once on the locked glass door.

Then again, harder, rattling the frame.

“Open the door,” he called out, his voice muffled by the thick glass.

Paul stood where Richard could see him clearly, but kept his body positioned so the children remained hidden below the counter line.

Richard pointed a finger through the glass. “My daughters are in there. They’re both sick and they need to come with me right now.”

Paul lifted the desk phone, bypassed local dispatch, and informed the watch commander that the subject of the missing-child report was now outside the front entrance.