Chapter 10 - BEN WAKES UPBen’s first detailed interview happened on day four after rescue.
Detective Vega led it.
I sat in because I had been the first officer on scene, but I did not ask substantive questions unless needed.
Ben looked twenty years older than his driver’s-license photograph.
He asked about Lila first.
“Safe.”
Vega answered.
“Can I see her?”
“Doctors and child specialists are coordinating that. Soon.”
His eyes closed.
Then:
“Shane.”
One word.
Vega waited.
“What about Shane?”
“He put me there.”
No dramatic gasp.
We had suspected him.
Now we needed details.
Ben described Friday evening.
He confronted Shane about missing company funds.
Not twelve thousand.
Thirty-eight thousand he had confirmed so far.
Mostly business debit-card charges and transfers.
Sports betting.
Personal credit-card payments.
A motorcycle deposit Shane later canceled.
Shane begged.
Ben refused to hide it.
He said he would meet their accountant Monday and possibly report unauthorized transactions depending on what records showed.
Argument escalated.
Shane accused Ben of trying to destroy the company.
Ben told him:
“You did that yourself.”
Then Shane shoved him.
Not with a weapon.
Ben fell backward and struck the brick hearth.
He remembered blood.
Then darkness.
When he woke, Shane was crouched beside him.
Panicking.
Ben tried to stand.
His right leg failed.
Shane said:
“You’re okay.”
Ben said:
“Call an ambulance.”
Shane did not.
Instead he dragged Ben.
Toward the section of floor they had opened during a wiring repair the previous winter.
So Shane did know the cavity existed.
That contradicted his interview.
Ben remembered fighting.
Shane hit him once.
Maybe fist.
Maybe tool.
Memory incomplete.
Then:
“He told me he needed time.”
“For what?” Vega asked.
“To fix the money.”
Ben’s mouth twisted.
“He said if police came, everything was over.”
“How did you get chained?”
“I passed out again.”
“Did Shane give you water?”
“Yes.”
“How often?”
“Not enough.”
“Food?”
“Two drinks. Something like protein shake.”
There.
“Did anyone else know?”
Ben’s eyes filled.
“My mother heard me once.”
Judith.
“What happened?”
“I heard her walking. I called her. Then music started.”
Lila’s statement.
Shane music.
Ben whispered:
“Shane came down afterward.”
“What did he say?”
“He said if I kept yelling, Lila would hear.”
May you like
Ben cried.
“She already had.”
