As Avery was being pushed through the Institute’s access tunnel between Front Half and Back Half, the Institute’s Challenger jet departed Erie, Pennsylvania with a full assault team en route to Alcolu. At the same time, Tim Jamieson and Wendy Gullickson escorted Luke Ellis into the Fairlee County Sheriff’s Department, where they met Deputies Tag Faraday and Bill Wicklow.

Tim asked for the information Wendy had requested. Tag disclosed that Luke’s parents, Herbert and Eileen Ellis, had been murdered in their Minneapolis home about seven weeks prior. Luke, already suspecting this from his own clandestine internet searches while at the Institute, was shaken but affirmed he had known and called it awful. He explained that the Institute had lied about his parents being fine, and that he had accessed news despite supposed blocks due to staff complacency.

Tag summarized public information: Luke was listed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and was widely reported as a prodigy. The deputies noted police interest in questioning Luke. Luke anticipated police suspicion and the likely question about a gun, then denied killing his parents. He asserted thieves had murdered them to abduct him for his psychic abilities, citing minor telekinesis like blowing out a candle or flipping an empty pizza pan.

When Tim suggested Luke rest in a holding cell with the door open, Luke reacted in terror and begged not to be placed there. Recognizing signs of abuse trauma, Tim and Wendy offered the lobby couch instead. Luke confirmed Tim still had the flash drive from his rescuer and asked them to check on a watcher he called Mr. Hollister, whom he believed might be an “uncle,” a term Luke used for adults monitoring him under false pretenses.

Wendy took Tag and Bill into Sheriff John Ashworth’s office to brief them on Luke’s account, while Tim stayed with Luke, who fell asleep on the couch. Tim, fully alert, called the DuPray Motel to check on Hollister; no one answered, suggesting Hollister had not returned there. Tim examined the flash drive but decided to wait for Sheriff Ashworth before accessing it, noting that the decision belonged to the sheriff.

The chapter closed with Tim letting Luke sleep, reflecting that the boy likely needed rest if he had indeed traveled from Maine by boxcar, while the Institute’s assault team continued toward Alcolu.