"I have a room at a motel ten minutes away," Sully answered. "I'm not putting my boots on a hospital chair all night just to prove something, but I'll be back in the morning. I left my number with the desk. If you want me gone, you can tell me that too."
Leo considered the possibility that this man would accept being told no. The thought was as foreign as the offer to return. He looked at the biker's bandaged shoulder and then down at the lighter in his hands. "Tomorrow's good," he managed.
By morning the videos had begun circulating through local social media. A procession of motorcycles large enough to snarl traffic near a neglected highway had drawn attention on its own, but the footage of an injured teenager and an angry foster parent gave the story a sharper edge. The first widely shared clip began with Sully confronting Hank and ended before Sully released his collar. In another, a group of riders could be seen damaging the silver truck while others shouted for them to stop.
Different viewers saw different stories. Some celebrated the bikers as men who had rescued a neglected boy; others saw an intimidating organization taking justice into its own hands. A few commentators claimed the boy was a thief because that was what Hank had shouted, and one local account falsely described Deputy Higgins as being held hostage. By noon the incident had acquired versions so far removed from the event that Leo would not have recognized his own life in them.
Sergeant Ruiz arrived at the hospital with an investigator from child protection and copies of the preliminary statements. She first asked Leo whether he was comfortable having Sully present. When he nodded, she brought a second chair into the small room, sat down without a desk between them, and explained that several different matters were being examined: his safety, Hank's conduct, Higgins's decisions, and the damage to the truck. None of them could be solved simply by deciding one group had been good and another bad.
"I know you're tired of questions," Ruiz said. "But I need your account in your own words, not somebody else's version of it."
Leo looked at Sully before answering. The biker said nothing, which gave him an unexpected kind of permission. Leo began with the money Hank claimed was missing, the clinic visit, and the morning he climbed out the window. He described Jonah and Molly carefully, afraid that telling the truth would put them in danger if the authorities did not act quickly enough.
Ruiz's expression tightened at the mention of the children. She made a note, asked for their full names, and told him a separate team had already been sent to check on the placement in Flagstaff. Leo asked whether that team would speak to Hank first, and she answered honestly that she could not promise the order of every interview. She did promise to record Leo's concern and ask the assigned worker to speak with the children separately wherever possible.