He’d even asked whether the medicine needed refrigeration, because he still planned to stop for groceries before heading back to his daughter.

That one detail turned the whole investigation. Andrew hadn’t driven off meaning never to return.

He’d been doing exactly what he’d promised Ella he would do. A grocery receipt from that same afternoon listed rice, chicken, soup, electrolyte drinks, crackers, and a small box of Ella’s favorite cereal — bought less than an hour after the pharmacy.

The claim that he had abandoned his daughter no longer matched the evidence.

The question was no longer why he’d left. It was what had stopped him from getting home.

Chapter 8 — Something Beside the Road

Dispatchers pulled the storm reports. Several roads had flooded fast that afternoon, including a low stretch Andrew often used between the shopping district and his neighborhood.