“To get Mommy.”

“Yay!” They both cheered, excitedly running out of the house in front of him.

“The police car!” Sue shouted. “We get to ride in the police car!”

“Daddy’s a sheriff,” Jillian reminded her.

Brad closed and locked the door of the house. “You sit up front with me,” he told them. “There are no seatbelts in the back.”

Sue’s eyes widened. “We get to sit in the front?”

“Yep.”

They cheered again, opening the car door and scrambling in.

He got behind the wheel. Maybe he should have left a note, in case Patty returned before they could find her, but he figured it would serve her right if she came home and found the girls gone. Might scare some sense into her.

The sky was purple in the east, although rose-colored in the west, and the buildings they passed by, when not illuminated by interior or exterior lights, were black silhouettes. He drove as a civilian, without lights or siren, but still it took only slightly more than five minutes until they reached the golf course. Condos were on the near side, near the clubhouse, but the failed development they wanted was on the opposite edge of the green. He could see the single home that had been built even from here, a lonely McMansion standing sentry over empty acre lots. The lights were on, and he felt his anger rising as he imagined Patty sitting in there, sipping wine with her yuppie clients, while her children cowered in fear in their own home, calling him at work to come and save them.

He found the turnoff to the winding single-lane road that led around the golf course and took it. The house remained in sight the entire way, a man-made edifice on the border between the flat grass of the green in front and the dark wildness of forest behind. It was well-lit. Even the driveway was lined with landscaping lights, and Brad pulled up in front of the house, parking next to Patty’s Acura. The building itself was oddly designed, with seemingly more windows than walls, and while he couldn’t immediately determine where the front door was situated, he could clearly see into several rooms.

“There’s Mommy!” Sue called out, pointing through the windshield.

Brad couldn’t tell exactly where her finger was pointing, but he scanned the various windows until movement caught his eye. There she was, her back to them, gesturing with her hands as she spoke to someone.

“Come on,” he said, unbuckling his seatbelt. He opened his door and got out, walking around to the passenger side. He opened the door, helped Jillian help Sue take off her shoulder harness, and, holding each of their hands, walked with them up to the house.