Chapter 6 - THE GREEN DUMPSTER
Toby reached Linda’s booth breathless.
“Mom, we have to go.”
She looked up from arranging repaired toys.
“What happened?”
“The car. The lady said the brakes—”
Owen appeared behind the neighboring stall.
His suit jacket was gone.
He moved calmly, smiling at the vendors.
“There you are.”
Toby stepped behind Linda.
Owen addressed her.
“Mrs. Hale needs to speak with you privately.”
“Why?”
“About reinstating your position.”
Linda did not believe him.
She reached beneath her blouse and touched the cord holding the flash drive.
“Tell her she can speak to Prescott.”
Owen’s eyes moved toward her hand.
He knew where the drive was.
Linda grabbed Toby’s wrist.
“Run to Mrs. Alvarez.”
Owen seized Linda’s arm.
She struck him with a wooden display stand.
Stuffed animals fell across the pavement.
Toby screamed.
Two additional men stepped from the service lane.
They wore market maintenance uniforms.
One covered Linda’s mouth.
The other pulled Toby away.
Toby bit the man’s hand and kicked free.
“Call the police!” Linda shouted.
Owen punched her in the stomach.
She folded over.
Several vendors looked toward the disturbance.
Celeste walked quickly from the main aisle.
Her expression remained composed.
“This woman has stolen company property,” she announced.
Linda pointed at Owen.
“They cut Desmond’s brakes!”
Celeste gave the watching vendors a sorrowful look.
“She has been making threats for weeks.”
Owen dragged Linda behind the stalls.
Toby ran after them.
One vendor caught his shoulder.
“Stop causing trouble.”
“They’re taking my mom!”
“You were just caught beneath the office trailer.”
“I heard them!”
The vendor took Toby’s phone.
Celeste approached.
“He stole that from one of my employees.”
“It’s mine!”
She tried to reach for it.
Toby grabbed it back and ran.
Behind the service lane, Owen bound Linda’s wrists.
She fought until one of the men struck her face.
They lifted the lid of the green commercial dumpster.
Linda saw Toby hiding behind stacked crates.
Their eyes met.
She shook her head sharply.
Do not come closer.
Owen forced her into the bin.
Before the lid closed, Linda shouted one word.
“Prescott!”
Toby understood.
He had to find the attorney.
He crawled behind the dumpsters to avoid Celeste’s men.
Rotten fruit soaked his clothes.
Mud covered his hair.
A nail tore one sneaker from his foot.
When he returned to the crowded market, he no longer looked like the clean boy who had arrived beside Linda.
He looked abandoned.
Wild.
Desperate.
“My mom is in the green dumpster!” he shouted.
People laughed.
One woman pulled her child away.
A security guard accused him of inventing a story because his mother had been removed for theft.
Toby ran from person to person.
“No! They cut the car!”
No one listened.
Then a black luxury sedan entered the parking lot.
Desmond Hale stepped out.
Owen’s men were gone.
Celeste walked toward her husband with a welcoming smile.
And Desmond reached for his car keys.
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👉 Toby had only minutes to stop Desmond from driving—but every adult in the market had already decided the filthy child was lying.
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