Chapter 4 - THE BASEMENT ROOM
The police search of my house continued through the night.
At 3:20 in the morning, Detective Olivia Reyes arrived at the hospital.
She placed photographs on the consultation table.
I almost refused to look.
Then I remembered Leo had lived through every image.
I could survive seeing them.
The basement storage room had been converted into a punishment space.
A child-sized mattress lay beside the furnace.
The windows were covered.
A plastic bowl sat on the floor.
The leather collar had been attached to a short chain secured to the wall.
Scratch marks surrounded the anchor.
There were no toys.
No books.
No blankets.
Only a small security camera pointing toward the mattress.
“Who had access?” I asked.
“Dominic.”
“Victoria.”
“Brooke.”
“And two household employees.”
“Where are they?”
“One is cooperating.”
“The other disappeared six months ago.”
“Maria?”
Detective Reyes nodded.
Maria Santos had cared for Leo from infancy.
Dominic told me she resigned.
Police records showed she never returned to her apartment.
Her bank account had not been used in seven months.
“She may have witnessed something,” Reyes said.
“Or they harmed her.”
“We do not know yet.”
The cooperating employee was a young kitchen maid named Kayla.
She told police that Leo was moved into the basement whenever guests visited.
Brooke did not want him seen near Liam.
Victoria referred to the room as the kennel.
Dominic knew.
He entered more than once.
“Did he hurt Leo?” I asked.
Reyes did not soften the answer.
“Kayla witnessed him strike the child on at least two occasions.”
The room moved around me.
I gripped the edge of the table.
“What about the videos they sent me?”
“We recovered a folder from Dominic’s computer.”
“Eighteen recordings were created during your first month overseas.”
“They reused them.”
Every nightly call returned to me.
Dominic smiling into the camera.
Brooke appearing in the background with papers.
Victoria saying Leo had already gone to bed.
I had believed the company needed me abroad.
They made certain I stayed.
Reyes showed me an email sent from my corporate account.
It instructed the household staff not to permit Leo to speak with me directly because seeing him distracted me from negotiations.
I never wrote it.
Brooke had access to my calendar and email as Dominic’s secretary.
She controlled every attempt to reach me.
“Why?” I asked.
Reyes looked at the financial records.
“They needed you working.”
“They needed your son silent.”
“And they needed time.”
“For what?”
She placed another document on the table.
Dominic had purchased a ten-million-dollar life insurance policy on Leo.
The policy became active eight weeks before I returned.
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The primary beneficiary was Dominic.
The secondary beneficiary was Liam Kane.
