“I don’t know. But I think he broke Brewer’s neck.” Michael had grown pale again, dangerously so.

Dani tapped the boy’s shoulder. “Breathe,” she told him, and together the two took long, deep breaths. “Maybe you should start with the beginning of this part,” she said once Michael no longer appeared to be on the brink of fainting.

“I woke up to pee that night, and I saw Brewer going into Joshua’s room. So I followed him and . . . I saw him sticking a needle into Josh’s arm. A big syringe. I grabbed Brewer and we fought. He threw me on the floor and I was dizzy. By the time I got up, he was down the stairs, carrying Joshua to the front door. Joshua was sound asleep. I think he didn’t wake up because of the drug.”

“So you followed?” Rex asked.

Michael nodded. “I got Joshua away from him before he reached the front door and we fought some more. He kicked me in the ribs a few times. That really hurt. So I . . . I grabbed a shovel from the fireplace and hit him with it. After he fell down, I grabbed Joshua and ran.”

“Where were you going?” Rex asked.

“I didn’t know, but I needed to get Joshua away from him, so I ran. I was going to the road. I guess I was going to try to stop a car so I could take Joshua to the ER. He was out cold. I didn’t know how much Brewer had given him, or what he had given him, but Josh is so little. He could have died. Anyway, I got to the old orchard and tripped on a branch or something. I went down, but I didn’t drop Josh.”

Dani had stiffened where she sat, her cheeks flushed with anger, and Diesel wondered which part of the exam she’d done corroborated this part of Michael’s story.

Rex shot a questioning look at her, before turning to Michael. “Did your stepfather follow you?”

“Yeah. At first I thought maybe I’d knocked him out with the fire shovel, but he came after us in his car, down the driveway. I hid in the orchard. That’s when another car came up the driveway—an SUV—and blocked Brewer’s car. A man got out, dragged Brewer from his car, and . . . he put his hands on Brewer’s neck and he went limp. But that was after Brewer pulled a gun on him.”

Rex looked up from his notepad. “What did the man do with your stepfather?”

“Put him in the back of his SUV. Then he drove away.”

“And left Brewer’s car in the driveway?” Rex asked.

“Yes. For then.”

Rex’s brows went up. “He came back?”

“Later that night. I was standing guard in Joshua’s room with the gun.”