“How long were you outside?” My voice came out steadier than I felt, a mask of calm I was nowhere near feeling.

“Maybe an hour,” Jake said, his words muffled by the blanket. “We tried knocking. We rang the doorbell. They wouldn’t answer.”

Tommy just cried, silent tears running down his pale, cold-nipped face, his small body trembling uncontrollably. I looked at the clock on the wall: 4:07 a.m. The weather app on my phone confirmed the outside temperature was a brutal thirty-six degrees. November in Illinois could be unforgiving. These kids had been locked outside for an hour in freezing temperatures, dressed in nothing but pajamas.