Chapter 6: Rosa Speaks
The hospital was twenty minutes from the bakery.
Daniel got there an hour after his statement was taken, still in his flour-dusted work clothes, carrying two cups of vending machine hot chocolate because it was the only thing he could think to bring.
Rosa was in the waiting area outside the pediatric ward.
She was sitting very straight in a plastic chair, both hands in her lap, watching the door that led to Theo's room.
A child welfare officer — a woman named Paulson, broad-shouldered and quiet — sat two seats away, close enough to be present, far enough to give Rosa the illusion of space.
Daniel sat down across from her.
He set one of the cups on the seat beside her without saying anything.
She looked at it.
Then at him.
"You're the one who opened the door," she said.
"Yes."
"Is Theo going to be okay?"
"The doctors say yes.
His temperature is back up.
He's breathing fine.
They want to keep him tonight to be sure."
She nodded.
She picked up the hot chocolate and held it in both hands but didn't drink it.
"Rosa," Daniel said carefully.
"You told me this wasn't the first time."
She was quiet for a moment.
"He puts us in there when he wants us to do something and we won't."
Daniel kept his voice steady.
"What does he want you to do?"
"Carry things," she said.
"From the back of the bakery to a car.
Boxes.
At night, mostly.
He says if anyone asks, we're just helping.
He says children don't get stopped."
Daniel felt something cold move through him that had nothing to do with the hospital air conditioning.
"What's in the boxes, Rosa?"
"I don't know.
They're sealed.
Heavy." She paused.
"Once one of them broke open.
There were little bags inside.
Lots of them."
Paulson had gone very still in her seat.
"Did Harlan see you look at the bags?" Daniel asked.
"Yes." Rosa's voice didn't change.
It was the voice of a child who had learned to describe terrible things without flinching, because flinching had never helped.
"That's when he started using the freezer."
"As punishment."
"As a warning," she said.
"He said next time it would be longer."
Daniel looked at Paulson.
Paulson was already on her phone, turned slightly away, speaking in a low, rapid voice.
"Rosa," Daniel said.
"How long have you and Theo been going to that bakery?"
"Since the winter.
Mr.
Harlan said he would give us food if we helped.
At first it was just sweeping and carrying flour bags.
Normal things." She looked down at the cup in her hands.
"Then it changed."
"Does anyone else know?
Any adult?"
She shook her head.
"There was a man who used to check on us.
He lived in the building where we were staying.
He noticed when we came home late.
He asked questions." She stopped.
"What happened to him?"
"He moved away," she said.
"Very suddenly.
He didn't say goodbye."
Daniel thought about Vic.
Harlan's brother.
Always in the back room.
Always in private conversations.
"Rosa, the man who came to the bakery sometimes — not Harlan, the other one—"
"Vic," she said immediately.
"Yes.
Did Vic ever speak to you?"
For the first time, something shifted in her face.
Not fear exactly.
Something more like the memory of fear.
"He's the one who put Theo in the freezer today," she said.
"Mr.
Harlan was at the front.
Vic came in through the back.
He said Theo had been asking too many questions." She looked up at Daniel.
"Theo asked Vic what was in the boxes."
The door to the pediatric ward opened.
A nurse leaned out.
"Rosa?
Your brother is awake.
He's asking for you."
Rosa stood up immediately.
She set the cup down carefully on the seat.
Then she stopped and looked back at Daniel.
"Will they make us go back there?" she asked.
"To the bakery?"
"No," Daniel said.
"Never."
She held his gaze for a moment — measuring, the way children do when they have been lied to enough times to check — and then she nodded once and went through the door.
Daniel sat in the plastic chair and stared at the floor.
Paulson ended her call and turned back to him.
"Everything she just said," she told him quietly, "I need you to be willing to repeat in a formal statement."
"Every word," Daniel said.
"This is bigger than a child endangerment charge."
"I know."
"Reyes is going to want to move tonight."
"Good," Daniel said.
May you like
He looked at the door Rosa had gone through.
"Because Vic doesn't know yet that Theo woke up."
