CHAPTER 9
Two days later I received a call from Detective Skye. She had been trying to find excuses for further postponing the trials of the kidnappers because none of us felt that Vera was stable enough to testify yet. Vera had already been through one traumatic trial and reentering the courtroom under these circumstances seemed like we were asking for trouble.
"Apollo? I wanted to let you know we found something when we went through the wreckage where Vera was held. Seems she was under surveillance the whole time she was there. There was a camera in one of the vents which means we may not need Vera to testify…but it also means there's some pretty disturbing footage. Do you want to talk to her or you want me to?"
I assured Ema that I'd let Vera know when I thought the time was right and Ema surprised me by saying, "You're a good guy, Apollo."
But I wasn't feeling like a good guy. I found myself thinking a lot about those tapes. It wasn't unreasonable that they would have been watching her, but I found myself wondering specifically who had been watching that camera and I found myself wanting to see the footage for myself.
That afternoon while Maya and Trucy kept Vera company Phoenix and I met in the office to discuss the progress of the case against the kidnappers and the associated charges against the Rivales gang members and Freedom Party members and, of course, to talk about Vera.
"How's Vera?"
"She's ok, I guess, but she keeps blaming herself for all this. It can't be rational, but I keep hoping I can get through to her."
"Ema called me earlier today and told me that they found a video camera in the wreckage of the warehouse, some kind of webcam or something."
"Yeah, she told me that, too. I guess it's good in a way. Vera won't really need to testify if they have the film of what happened to her."
I wasn't sure if what I was thinking made me fit the profile of an obsessive boyfriend, but I figured Phoenix would understand. He looked at me.
"Is something wrong, Apollo?"
"Yeah. Maybe I just need to get over all this and quit being paranoid, but something's been bothering me. Vera's hiding something from all of us. One of her captors in particular scared her more than the others and I know that the paramedics and the detectives and her all say that she wasn't…" I couldn't even say the word. It choked too much in my throat. "But, Phoenix, something happened something bad. Has Ema watched the tapes yet?" Maybe I was just seeing something sinister where there was nothing, but Vera wasn't complaining about the cold or her shoulder being torqued to tape her to a chair or being ordered around. She was scared to death of the way a man looked at her. Something this one guy did to her or acted like he would do was making her lie and that wasn't ok with me.
Phoenix got up from the couch and paced for a moment or two.
"You say she's lying to YOU?"
"To all of us. I don't know why. I don't know if she's protecting me or she's ashamed or what, but she's definitely covering something up."
"Well, that's not right. Vera has done nothing wrong. I'm sure of that and if any of these assholes did something to make her feel that way they deserve to be punished for it- to the fullest extent of the law. Wouldn't you say, Apollo?"
I nodded. He and I were on the same page. Phoenix didn't like to see anyone innocent suffer and Vera was just about as innocent as they come.
"Come on. Let's go do some investigating."
It was kind of funny me and Phoenix heading out to investigate together, because I realized that while I felt like he helped me with cases he didn't that much. More than anything he offered a sympathetic ear when I needed to gripe about the endless sea of paperwork associated with being a lawyer and how Klavier kept calling me Herr Forehead and stuff. Mr. Wright was definitely my mentor, but in a kind of hands-off way. He was there when I needed him, though sometimes it was to do nothing but ignore me thereby convincing me I could figure stuff out on my own.
We walked briskly to the Police Station. Ema wasn't in her office and so we had to ask around to find that she was in a media viewing room. I knew what that meant. She was watching the recordings and we needed to know what was on them.
Phoenix pounded on the door and she let us in.
She looked at me. "I figured you'd show up."
"Look, Ema, we want to make sure these bastards get the book thrown at 'em and we think there may be more charges you can book them with."
"I do to, but I'm in a huge time crunch. They're rushing us to trial and I don't even have enough time to watch all of these." She waved her hand over a pile of CD-roms. I found myself staring at them. Vera's entire captivity recorded. When I heard about their existence it hadn't seemed real. I was focused on Vera. Getting her to sleep, making sure she was eating something, trying to entice her to draw or paint, but now I felt myself drawn to them. Perhaps it wasn't a healthy desire, but it wasn't the twisted rubbernecking people do at the scene of a car accident either. I didn't want to watch them, but I found myself compelled to do so. Vera hadn't talked a lot about her experience. She had said less about it than she did about what she might make us for dinner one night or a book she was reading. She didn't want to talk about it, but I wanted to better understand. I wanted to know more.
Standing by the viewing station I stared down at the disks. Ema needed help viewing so many hours of footage and I needed to find out what exactly had happened that Vera was lying about.
Phoenix put his hand on my shoulder. "Apollo, I know what you're thinking, but don't. I'll do it. You don't need to put yourself through this. I'll help Ema go through them to look for anything and we'll tell you what we find. Go have a good day with Vera. Relax. I know you're not sleeping."
"Thanks." I said, my vision never straying from the shiny disks on the desk. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but Vera endured it. The least I can do is to endure watching it."
I looked at Ema. She had every right to kick both Phoenix and I out. We were probably violating a bunch of laws or rules of some kind. She picked up a Snackoo from a bag of them on her desk and ate it slowly as she pondered what to do.
Phoenix leaned in and spoke quietly into my ear, "Apollo, are you doing this to help Vera or to punish yourself for not being able to stop her from getting hurt? What's done is done."
I pushed him away and said "Phoenix, Ema, I need to know what they did to her and we need to see these guys are locked up for a very long time."
"I respect that." Said Ema taking the last bite of her Snackoo.
"Me, too," said Phoenix. "So let's get to work."
"Agreed."
