Dateline shows up a few weeks later. They’ve shut down the store for a reenactment of a kidnapping that took place at the store years ago. Dateline claims they want to shine a light on the sex trafficking that’s been happening at stores around the state. They’ve done four other episodes all featuring stores within your county. The county known for its high rate of trafficking. You’re the fifth to be on the show. They still have another six to go.

Dateline has brought in their own actors. A young woman who can’t be older than 15 and two old men with baseball caps and greying beards. People are camping outside the store to peer in and see what’s taking place within. Lined up against the glass doors. Some have signs.

The young woman is directed around the store, moving through aisles unaware of her surroundings as the camera crew follows her movements. You are told to stand in the middle of the aisle and busy yourself. You pretend to zone the items and ignore the other people in the aisle. Ignore the instinct to turn around and try to stop what is going to happen. You weren’t there the day the young woman was originally taken. You were the same age as she is now. You can feel the fear radiate off her as she moves through your aisle and up to the registers and out into the parking lot.

You can see the girl try to get in her car, struggle against the two older men. The camera crew nowhere in sight. She cries out. The bystanders watch and wait. No one moves. The girl is thrown into a small sedan that peels out of the parking lot. When the episode airs weeks later it features two kidnappings.