Parker

Chapter 91

"Hello Carson." The thirty year old police said as she sat at the conference table.

"Hello Officer Shaw." Carson said pushing away any residual guilt he was feeling. I'm doing the right thing he told himself as he sat at the table.

"Please call me Leah." She said in a friendly tone that set him at ease.

"Okay." Carson said. "Its funny Leah is my sister's name." He thought how she had yet to reply to his message and wondered if he would ever hear from her.

"Was she named after Leah from the Bible too?" She asked.

"No, she was named after our grandmother." Carson told her. "But her dad was a preacher so she probably was."

"Probably." She said with a small smile. "Before we begin I just wanted to tell you how brave I think you are for coming forward." Leah looked at him sympathetically. "I know this can't be easy for you."

"No it's not." Carson said his voice strained with emotion. "Its the hardest thing I have ever done."

"Well you are doing the right thng."

"Thank you." He just wished he could convince the voice in the back of his head of that.

"So tell me about your parents."

"Okay." He said feeling himself become clammy. He swallowed hard as a sick feeling formed in his stomach. It felt like an invisible hand was wrapping itself around him, forcing him to remain silent. He wanted to tell her that this was all a mistake, that his parents were good people and apologize for wasting her time. But then he thought of his younger brother who still at their mercy. Unable to escape their control.

No I have to do this he thought. For him. I have to save him. Not only from my parents but from Mister Gaines too.

His stomach turned as he thought about what Gaines would do to him the next time he is left in his care.

I can't let that happen he thought. I won't let that monster hurt him.

So he told her about his parents. About their crazy rules, the little freedom that they, the extreme punishments that he and his brothers had suffered at their hands.

It all came pouring out and he did not hold anything back.

"I use to think they did all that stuff because they loved us." Carson said as he looked at the wall behind her. "But they don't love us." He then looked at Leah. "They just loved the loved the control they had over us."

"I'm sorry you went through that." Leah said hate for his parents swell inside of her. She wanted to find these people, find them and make them pay for what they did to Carson and his brothers. But she forced the outrage she was feeling at that moment and composed herself. "What about this Mister Gaines."

"He's a monster." Carson said. "More than so than my parents."

Leah shuddered at the thought. "How so?"

"His rules were worse than their's, his punishment more severe." Carson said. "And he made me do things."

"What kind of things." Leah asked but already had a good idea what kind of things she was referring to.

Carson told her about being made wear diapers, the degrading pictures he took of him.

"Here is one he sent me." Carson pulled out his phone. "Its from a blocked number but I know it's from him."

It was a picture of Carson laying over someone's lap, his face red and twisted in pain. The text read "You think you are free of me but you are not. You will always be mine and this will be you when I have you again."

She wanted to throw up. "Tell me about this picture."

"It was taken a year ago." Carson said. His cheeks turned brighg red. "I had come home late from work so he made me strip naked and lay over his lap while he beat me with his belt."

"Who took the picture?"

"My older brother David." Carson said. "He made him take the picture and forced my other brother to watch also." Tears was in his eyes. "I was only two minutes late." Tears began to race down his cheeke as he said. "I was just two minutes and he did that to me."

Carson wiped his eyes.

"I'm so sorry Carson."

"Thank you." He said looking through a veil of tears.

"Did you ever tell your parents what he did to you?"

"We did." Carson said with anguish in his voice. "But they didn't believe us. They said we were lying and would punish us for it. So after awhile we stopped telling them about the sick things he was doing to us and just grinned and beared it."

He then swallowed nervously. "And prayed that he would not take it to the next level."

"And did he."

"No." Carson said shaking his head. "Because somehow I managed to convince my parents to allow me to stay with Mister Gaines instead before he could get the chance." Carson still could not figure out how he was able to do that. He was sure that they would have said no but they agreed. "I   know he liked me more than my brothers and without them things would get much worse for me."

He held his stomach as it twisted in disgust.

"I knew I would be safer with Roger." Carson said.

"Are you?" She asked.

Carson was taken back by the question. He looked at her in confusion wondering how she could ask such a thing. Rodger was nothing like his parents and certainly nothing like Mister Gaines. "Yes." Carson said. "Rodger can be strict himself and I might get my bottom beat but I am sure it will not be for anything trivial little thing like being two minutes past curfew."

"Okay."

"So what happens now?"

"I am going to file my report and a detective will follow up with you and go over your statement." Leah said. "Child protective services will also want to talk to you."

"I look forward to speaking with them." Telling them what awful human beings my parents are. "And after that."

"The DA will file charges."

"And what the homes for troubled teens that my parents hired." Carson said. "What will stop them from abducting me off the street."

"The best thing to do is not to be alone." Leah said. "If they do come after you tell them you are an adult and you don't consent to being taken and that the police will be called."

He felt a lump in his throat. "And if they take me."

"Then you're parents will be complicited in kidnapping and they will be made to by the court to tell who took you." That did little to reassure him. "Don't worry my partner and I will be paying them a visit reminding them about the stiff penalties there are kidnapping." She then touched his shoulder." You're going to be okay."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She said as she patted his shoulder