Chapter 3 - The Interrogation of Innocence
Officer Sarah Chen rushed down the hallway carrying a warm wool blanket from the locker room. Within seconds, the precinct was alive with radio chatter, crisp commands, and the frantic shrill ring of desk phones as an ambulance was dispatched to the station.
Miller sat on his heels in the middle of the hallway, holding the bundle wrapped now in the dry wool. The baby let out a thin, thready cry as her skin absorbed the ambient warmth of the building.
Miller looked up at the boy sitting against the wall.
Leo was shivering uncontrollably, his chin tucked into his collarbone, tears pouring down his mud-caked cheeks in steady, clear rivers that washed clean tracks through the grime on his throat. His bloodied knees were pulled tight against his chest, his hands clenched into tight fists.
"Where did you find her, son?" Miller asked, his voice dropping into a soft, low register—the careful tone a negotiator uses when standing on a bridge ledger beside a jumper.
Leo’s head snapped up. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with deep purple rings of chronic sleep deprivation and physical trauma. He opened his mouth wide, his jaw quivering so hard he could barely articulate the consonants, his lungs expanding in a ragged gasp.
"In the trash!" Leo screamed, the words tearing out of his throat with the raw power of a child who had reached the absolute end of his sanity. "In the metal bin behind the old lumber yard! She was in a plastic bag under the wet drywall!"
Miller felt a cold, metallic taste spread across his tongue. "The lumber yard on 12th? Son... that's over two miles from here."
Miller leaned closer, his dark eyes searching the boy's battered face with a terrifying mix of awe and dread. "You carried her across town in this storm? On foot?"
Leo closed his eyes tight, squeezing out a fresh rush of hot tears that tracked down his bruised cheekbones. He shook his head slowly, his small chest convulsing as he spoke the words that would haunt Miller for the rest of his natural life.
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"I know what it feels like to be thrown away," Leo choked out, his voice dropping into a whisper that carried more pain than the storm raging outside. "I wasn't gonna let her die in the dark."
Miller stood frozen in the hallway, the newborn cradled against his tactical vest, staring at the shattered nine-year-old boy sitting on the cold floor.
