Chapter 6

Anton emerged from his room about nine the next morning.

Rhonda, Eric and Ken were sitting at the kitchen table having coffee and blueberry muffins and speculating on whether he would wake up better or worse off than when he crashed. Would he feel the relief of unburdening his tortured soul, or would he retreat further into his safe place?

They looked around anxiously when they heard his door open. He shuffled into the kitchen, his boxers, T-shirt, and shaggy hair damp and sticking to his pale skin after a night of tossing, turning and sweating in his sleep. He hadn’t had one of his nightmares in his drugged sleep, but he looked anything but rested.

Anton looked at Eric and said, “I have bad headache. You have aspirin?”

Rhonda jumped up to find something in the medicine cabinet as Ken helped him to a chair and poured a glass of orange juice for him. Anton swallowed three aspirin and asked for coffee. The Eastern European accent was pronounced.

The team was feeling hopeful as they settled around him at the table. Rhonda asked him if he wanted some breakfast and he shook his head no.

He took a sip of his coffee after loading it with the cream and sugar. Then he set his cup down, looked at each of them in turn and said, “I know Sophia is dead. If you want, maybe now I tell you how she died.”

Rhonda, still feeling terribly guilty, put her hand on his arm. “Anton, you know you can tell us anything, but only when you’re ready. Ain’t nobody gonna pressure you.”

He laid his hand on her hand. “I want. Maybe you are right when you say I must face truth. I think I can do that now.”

Ken got up from his chair and said, “Hold on a minute, Anton. Will you allow me to record this for Dr. Widener? She needs to hear everything you have to say.”

The boy nodded and said, “Is okay you record.”

Ken opened his MacBook and set it on the table with the screen facing Anton. He opened iMovie and began the recording, making sure Anton’s was the only face in the recorded image.

When he was ready, he asked, “Is it okay if we ask you some questions as you tell us your story, just to clarify things if we need to?”

“Is okay.”

Ken double-checked that the recording was underway and nodded for Anton to begin.

He took another sip of his coffee. “I think you believe I kill the man and the woman, but I did not.” He stopped, shook his head and began again, “No, wait, I start before that. It is true they keep Sophia and me locked in room, but they did not starve us. We did not know how long we stay in that room, but we know it is years. There is no window so we don’t even know when is day or night. We never leave room except for when we are taken upstairs to bedroom to be used and photographed.”

Ken interrupted, “Um, Anton, I know this is painful, but will you tell us what you mean by being used?”

The boy closed his eyes and released a shuddering sighed, “Yes. They bring in strange men to have sex with Sophia and me, men who pay them money to take pictures while they put their penises in me and my sister. Sometimes it cause much pain and sometimes we bleed, but if we cry or beg them to stop, we are beaten. This happen two, maybe three times every week.

“One time when we are taken back to locked room, Sophia is in much pain and she is bleeding. She tell me she does not want to live and that she will stop eating until she die. I tell her we must believe someday we will be rescued, but she does not believe. I tell her if she stops eating, I will stop eating and we will die together. They beat us to make us eat but be don’t. They try to push food into our mouths but we spit it out. Sometimes choke, then they beat us some more. Every day Sophia is weaker and weaker, and after three - maybe four weeks, she die. Man and woman do not come to room again. I hope I will die soon, but I don’t. I don’t know why; maybe is because I am stronger, or maybe is because I drink more water. No one comes to take Sophia’s body away.

“Maybe two, three days after Sophia die, I hear loud noise and shouting from outside door. Then noise stop. Door open and I see very big man with piece of pipe in his hand. There is blood all over him and on pipe. I think he will kill me and I am happy that I will finally die, but he does not hit me. He say, ‘Get out! Run away!’ I say I must bury my Sophia, but he push me out the door and say I must go, so I go. I see man lying on floor by door. Upstairs I see woman dead in chair when I go through kitchen to back door. I am so weak from hunger that I don’t know if I can take next step, but I walk for I don’t know how long until a man put me in his car and take me to hospital.

“I don’t remember so much after that except I go to Dr. Widener’s home to live. I just want to forget everything. I never want to speak to anyone again. I am just waiting and hoping I will die soon.”

He turned to look at Rhonda. “Until this girl is nice to me. I see much pain in her eyes like I feel inside me. I think she can see how sick I am in my mind. Still, I cannot make myself say what I know is truth until she say it for me last night. She tell me my Sophia is dead. Then I can hide from truth no longer.

Anton broke down sobbing again. He covered his face with his hands and choked out, “That is all I can say now.”

By this time, Anton wasn’t the only one with tears in his eyes. Ken stopped the recording and closed the laptop. He would edit out the last few seconds when Rhonda dropped to her knees beside Anton and buried her face in his lap, weeping with him.

Eric wiped his eyes with the heels of his palms and whispered, “Fuck me!”

Dr. Widener arrived about half an hour later to find Eric and Ken waiting for her on the porch. Anton went back to his room to lie down, hoping his sleeping pill hangover headache would pass. Rhonda had gone for a solo walk up the dirt road.

Widener asked, “How is he?” as she climbed out of her car looking anxious.

Eric answered, “He’s resting now, but he opened up and told us everything. It was pretty much as we were guessing except for the part about him killing those people. He didn’t.”

Widener breathed a relieved “Oh my!” as she sat next to them on the porch steps. “Tell me what he said.”

Ken said, “Come on inside. I think you should hear it in his own words.”

Anton was still resting, so they didn’t disturb him. Ken set the MacBook on the table and brought up iMovie. She watched and listened to the recording as he made a fresh pot of coffee.

When it ended, Dr. Widener sat with her eyes closed, shaking her head. “My god,” she said, “That poor child! Those poor children!” She looked at Ken and asked, “Will you make a copy of this for me?”

“Sure, but I don’t have a USB drive so how about I just send the file to your e-mail. Don’t you think Detective Haldeman should see it? I know Anton’s statement isn’t proof of his innocence, but it should be enough to get the cops looking in another direction for the killer.”

Widener had some concerns. “Is there any way you can get it to him anonymously? Anton is still in need of protection, and this statement is only the beginning of months, possibly years of therapy to come.”

“Yeah, I suppose I can pick up a clean USB drive at the store and have somebody drop it off at the PD. But Haldeman is investigating a murder, Dr. Widener. He’s no dummy and sooner or later, he’s gonna figure out you’ve got Anton stashed up here and he’s going to insist on interviewing him in person. I think you need to make a decision about when and whether the kid can stand up to some pretty tough interrogation.”

She agreed, “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Look, why don’t you and Eric go find Rhonda and plan to stay away for a couple of hours. I’m going to have a very long talk with Anton and try to get a read on how stable he is. If I think he’s up to it, we can call the detective and try to make arrangements for an interview.

Ken said, “I think I can say with some confidence that Haldeman has nothing but sympathy for Anton. He believes what the McLaughlin couple did to him and his sister be the epitome of evil, and he sure as hell won’t try to railroad the kid into a murder charge, especially now that it’s probable he had nothing to do with it. Besides, you need to get yourself out from under any possible ethical and legal charges.”

“You’re right, of course. Okay, you and Eric get lost for a while so Anton and I can talk. I’m going to hold off talking to the detective until tomorrow. That will give me time to write up my notes and call our lawyer to accompany me to the police station. I’m going to play this video for him and set some ground rules for any access to my patient.”

Ken agreed. “Sounds like the way to go.”

When Sarah got Detective Haldeman on the phone to ask for an update, she wasn’t prepared for what she got instead. The man was pissed.

He struggled to keep his cool as he began, “Ms. Bernstein, don’t you think your piece on the Balan boy was a little over the top?”

Now that she’d had a chance to rethink it, she knew he was right, but admitting a wrong wasn’t in her nature. “I don’t know what you mean, Detective. I only reported what you told me.”

That reached him. “That’s bullshit, Bernstein, and you know it! I specifically told you we had no direct evidence that the boy killed those people! Now your slanted story has the public believing he did. If it turns out he’s innocent, and that’s very likely now, you’re going to look pretty damned foolish; almost as foolish as you will have made this department look. You’re a goddam irresponsible loose cannon, Bernstein! Don’t bother coming to me for any more information! Ever!”

He slammed the phone down hoping she felt it at the other end of the line.

Dr. Widener headed back to her office after lunch feeling satisfied on several levels. Anton opened up completely, giving her details of his and Sophia’s life from the time they left the orphanage in Bucharest. Sometimes it was hard for her to maintain her composure as she listened to the nightmarish trials of two innocent children. Anton, probably feeling somewhat numbed by it all, recited the story in a monotone as she recorded it and took pages and pages of notes. By the time he ran out of memories nearly two hours later, they were both physically and emotionally drained.

One thing she wasn’t completely confident about was how well the boy seemed to be handling it all. In her experience, it was rare that a badly traumatized person could suddenly and simply accept painful memories they had tried so hard to block out.

The last point she asked him about was how he and his sister wound up in an orphanage. He told her they were living with his uncle after his parents were arrested by the state police. A few weeks after they moved in with him, some people came to his apartment and took them away. They gave his uncle money. Sophia and Anton had been sold into slavery.