And the whole time, Diane had known exactly where he was.

I set the jacket on the table.

“Where in Tulsa?”

“I have the address. He gave it to me in case of emergency.”

“Write it down.”

She did. Her hand shook so badly the numbers were barely legible.

I took the paper.

“If anything has happened to my son—”

“He calls me every few days. He sounds fine. He sounds happy. He misses you.”

“He misses me because he was taken from me.”

I walked to the door.

“Lydia—”

I turned.

“Don’t follow me. Don’t call me. Don’t contact Noah. The next voice you hear will be the police or my attorney.”

I walked to my car with the jacket in one hand and the address in the other.

I called Detective Rosa Chen before I reached the end of the block.

Part 3 — “Six Blocks and Four Weeks”
Detective Chen met me at the station within forty minutes.

She had been assigned to Noah’s missing persons case from the beginning — a patient, methodical investigator who had walked the route herself, reviewed every camera angle, and told me on week two, with the careful honesty I had come to rely on, that the absence of physical evidence along the route was “unusual and concerning.”

Now she understood why.

There was no evidence along the route because there was nothing to find. Noah had walked the six blocks safely, arrived at Diane’s house, and been handed to his father inside the home. The entire disappearance had occurred behind a closed door.

I placed the jacket, the hoodie, the sneaker, and the t-shirt on her desk — still in the condition I’d found them, each item sealed in a separate bag I’d grabbed from my kitchen on the way.

I placed the paper with the Tulsa address beside them.

And I told her everything Diane had said.

Chen listened without interrupting. She took notes in the small, precise handwriting I had come to recognize during the weeks of interviews and updates. When I finished, she set her pen down.

“Garrett Ellison has no custody order, no visitation agreement, and no legal right to remove Noah from your care. What Diane described is parental abduction under Oklahoma law.”

Part 4 — “The Parking Lot Where She Held On”
I drove through the night.

Three and a half hours from Oklahoma City to Tulsa on the turnpike, with the windows cracked and Noah’s jacket on the passenger seat and the radio off because I didn’t want any sound between me and the road that was taking me back to my son.