I called 911.
Police arrived quietly. Detective Vasquez watched Mia’s video once and immediately called for a protective response.
Officers headed next door.
No one answered.
Laura’s phone went directly to voicemail.
Then we heard a faint sound of knocking from the back of the house.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Three more.
An officer sprinted around the side.
Minutes later, they found Laura locked inside the laundry room.
Her wrist had been secured to a pipe with a bicycle lock.
Rick had the key.
But the children were missing.
Laura’s expression changed when she heard that.
“He found out.”
“Found out what?” Detective Vasquez asked.
“The copies.”
Then Laura told us something none of us had anticipated.
Mia and Ben hadn’t made just one flash drive.
They had made twelve.
PART 2 — THE CHILDREN’S PLAN
For nearly three months, Mia and Ben had secretly hidden one flash drive every Sunday.
One beneath my bush.
Another behind Mrs. Alvarez’s mailbox.
One inside the stone wall near Mr. Patel’s garage.
The others were distributed throughout the block.
Packaging
The black trash bag was their disguise.
