“We’ll work carefully.

You don’t have to explain everything tonight.”

Curtis began shouting that the entire situation was a misunderstanding.

An officer asked him to step back while detectives secured the scene.

I climbed into the ambulance beside Owen, and as the doors closed, he whispered something I almost missed.

“Mommy didn’t run away.

I heard her say she was calling you.”

Then the ambulance pulled away, leaving the pool, the bags, and the man at the gate behind us.