Chapter 6 - The Locked Attic Bedroom
At 1:30 AM, Detective Marcus Stone and a team of forensic crime scene investigators executed a comprehensive search warrant on the four-story Vance manor.
Daniel accompanied the officers through the front entrance.
The dining room still bore the remnants of that afternoon: the shattered tray of glasses on the floor, the splintered walnut cabinet, and the dirty washcloth Sophie had been forced to use.
Upstairs on the third floor, past the luxurious master suite filled with Vivienne’s designer furs and imported perfumes, Detective Stone followed a narrow, uncarpeted wooden staircase leading to the attic storage space.
The door at the top of the stairs was secured with an exterior slide-bolt and an electronic padlock.
A tactical deputy cut the lock.
The room inside was a nightmare of cold, cruel isolation:
A bare foam mattress on the unfinished floorboards, covered by a single threadbare blanket.
No heating vent, with the room temperature measuring a freezing 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
A single plastic bucket in the corner for sanitation.
And on the raw drywall beside the mattress, dozens of crude tally marks scratched with a broken crayon, counting the forty-nine days Sophie had spent locked in the dark.
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Detective Stone took high-definition forensic photographs, his jaw clenched so hard the muscle twitched beneath his skin.
“This is Felonious False Imprisonment, Child Endangerment with Great Bodily Injury, and Aggravated Domestic Torture,” Detective Stone stated with absolute certainty. “They won't be seeing daylight for twenty years.”
