Safeword (26 page)

He went back to shredding a new napkin. “You’re probably right. Okay, you can call them. But I’m not going back home until I’m ready.”

“Fair enough. Shall we go to the station?”

He scooted out of the booth and piled our trash onto the tray, wordlessly agreeing it was time for him to get off his chest what had sent him back to the lion’s den, the city in which he’d suffered so much.

Transcript of Interview

March 12, 2013.

Witness: Marshall Schofield, age 17

Conducted by: Detective Gavin DeGrassi, badge 6458

Detective Myah Hayes, badge 9643

Consulting Psychologist: Dr. Benjamin Haverson

Case #s: 13SL-HC73842 Stevenson, Arnold

13SL-HC73902 Halloran, Douglas

13SL-HC74025 Ditmar, John

DeGrassi: This is the interview of Marshall Schofield, dated March 12, 2013, 10:14 a.m., St. Louis County Second Precinct. Marshall’s parents have been contacted and informed of the witness’s whereabouts and have agreed to allow this interview to proceed prior to their arrival in St. Louis. Present in the room are Detectives Gavin DeGrassi and Myah Hayes, and Dr. Ben Haverson, who is consulting on behalf of the witness.

Okay, Marshall, whenever you’re ready.

Schofield: Okay. Um, we were watching TV in the house my parents rented in Florida when I saw the picture of Alex pop up on the news. The reporter said you guys were looking for him so you could question him about some cop’s death. Then they switched to a picture of the guy who found us in October, and said something about him being murdered. I got a real sick feeling in my stomach because that can’t be coincidence, you know? I mean, I hope it is, but there’s no way the police would figure it out without the whole story. So I got on the internet and booked a flight here.

Hayes: You think Alex had something to do with Arnold Stevenson’s death?

Schofield: I’m not positive, but it scares me that he did, yeah.

DeGrassi: How do you know Alex?

Schofield: He was there when Dave took me. We were....

DeGrassi: David Strange?

Schofield: Yeah. He made Alex....

Hayes: Take your time. Do you need something to drink? Water or a soda?

Schofield: Yeah, thanks. Coke, if you have it.

DeGrassi: So Alex Dennan was present when David Strange abducted you. What was his role?

Schofield: At first, I thought they were in it together, and I was scared of them both. I already told you what happened when I was taken.

Hayes: It’s okay. We have your previous statement on file, so you don’t have to recount those details. But if you could fill in the blanks about how Alex was involved, that would help. Why didn’t you say he was with Strange in the first statement?

Schofield: Look, it’s complicated. If I can just tell you the whole story, you’ll understand.

DeGrassi: Okay, in your own words, from the day you were abducted, what happened?

Schofield: I was walking to the park to play football with friends when this car pulled up. You already know that. A young guy in the passenger seat asked me for directions to a store that had recently been moved to a bigger building. That was Alex. They had the old address, and I told them how to get to the new one. They didn’t seem to be getting it, so Dave, who was driving, asked if I could get in and show them. I told them no, my friends were expecting me, and they could always go up the street to get a map or directions from the gas station. Alex had his arm in a sling and he said they needed to get to the pharmacy in that store to get his prescription filled. He was sweating and didn’t look like he felt good. He said, ‘please’ in this real pathetic voice and promised me they’d drop me off right at the park by my friends. Told me they wouldn’t even make me wait while they got the pills, but would do that after they dropped me off. Alex was obviously bothered by his arm, or so I thought at the time. So I got in the backseat.

We drove to the store, and when they said they were taking me back to the park, they went the wrong way. I thought they were lost again, but Dave sped up and wouldn’t tell me where we were going. I tried the door, but it wouldn’t open. He said it wouldn’t help, the child lock was on.

That’s when I really started to panic. We stopped on a side street so they could switch places, and Alex took off the arm brace and I knew it was all fake. I started to cry, but then Dave got in the backseat with me and warned me he knew where I lived and if I didn’t do what he said, he’d hurt my family. He forced me to lie down, and then covered me with a blanket. He said if anyone stopped us, I wasn’t to move.

We got to Dave’s house and parked in the garage. They wouldn’t let me out until after the garage door was down, and that’s when Dave punched me on the side of the head. It made me dizzy and feel like I was going to puke, and weak so he could carry me into the house and down to the basement without me fighting much.

I was so scared, and he locked me in this room with just a bed and said he’d be back in a little while. He told Alex to get me something to eat, and then they left. A little bit later, Alex brought me a sandwich, and left me alone again.

That was how it was for the first couple of weeks. Alex would bring me food, make sure I was okay. He showed me where the bathroom was and gave me a walkie-talkie to use when I had to go so they’d know to come down and let me out of my room. The only other time anyone came downstairs that I could tell was when Dave wanted....

Hayes: Take your time.

Schofield: When he did what he did to me. I found out much later Alex was in another part of the basement, that he was locked down there with me. Dave had taken him, too, but he’d gotten too old for Dave’s tastes, so he made Alex help grab me. He was terrified the whole time that I would replace him, and Dave would kill him because he didn’t need him anymore. I didn’t understand what he meant until last year, when he started talking about picking up another boy.

DeGrassi: ‘He’ being Strange?

Schofield: Yeah. It fucks with your head because you don’t want to need this person who has made you so miserable. You don’t want to need their approval, but when you’re depending on them for your survival, you have to need it. You have to want to please them, because if you don’t, you’re just a body in a field for the birds to peck on. And if you’re lying, he’ll know.

Hayes: And Alex talked to you about this?

Schofield: Yes. The first year with Dave, Alex and me didn’t talk much. He was waiting for the day Dave would decide I was all he needed and take Alex out back to put him down. That’s how he said it, “to put me down,” like he wasn’t worth any more than a dog.

I don’t know what changed, but one day, Alex let me out of my room and said I didn’t have to stay in there anymore, that I could come out to the TV area and hang out with him. The door from the basement to the upstairs was always locked, but at least there was stuff to do besides stare at the walls. We had movies and video games. Nothing on the internet, but it was cool. Sometimes, I could pretend we were just two guys hanging out after school before our parents came home and fed us dinner. I didn’t trust him yet. I kinda expected him to get handsy with me, too, but he never did. I asked him why I didn’t have to stay in that room, and all he said was, ‘I talked to Dave.’

After that, we kind of became friends. He told me there were times he tried to lure Dave away from me because he hated hearing me cry. He was stuck down in that basement with me and was afraid the person who kept him alive would get bored with him, that I was going to be the reason he got killed, but he still felt bad for me. So he’d try to get Dave interested in him instead. That’s when I realized what he’d put up with to help me and he wasn’t ever going to hurt me. He wasn’t in pain that day with the arm sling. He was scared out of his fucking mind.

DeGrassi: Here are some tissues.

Schofield: We talked a lot. Mostly about ways to stop Dave when he came downstairs. Sometimes, we could get him talking, and he’d get sidetracked and forget why he was down there. He seemed to like Alex, would laugh at his jokes, ask him his opinion on people he met, that kind of thing. Me, he looked at like I was a piece of meat. I don’t know what the difference was. Alex said Dave only treated him like that since I came along, so maybe Dave couldn’t let himself be nice to me and still want what he wanted. Sometimes, I wished Dave would decide he loved Alex and would leave me alone. I never told Alex that because it was a fucked up thing to want, but if it meant Dave would leave me alone, sometimes I hoped it would happen. But Dave wasn’t human enough to feel that way. It made me sick, sometimes, to know how much Alex protected me, and how I would have changed places with him in a second. But I couldn’t help it.

Haverson: Marshall, it doesn’t make you a bad person, wanting to be left alone. Humans are hard-wired for problem solving. It’s evolutionary. When we are in a situation we can’t get out of, our thoughts continuously return to the problem in the hopes of finding any way we can of resolving it. The circumstances of your captivity left you little choice but to think of all the possibilities of escape or relief. Those thoughts are the same anyone else would have had in your shoes.

Schofield: Not Alex. He didn’t have those thoughts about me. He protected me every chance he got, even if it meant that monster hurt him.

Hayes: Hey, hey. Marshall, you’re safe now. You’re not with Strange anymore and you’re free to walk out of this room whenever you wish. We can stop right now and simply hang out until your parents come get you, if that’s what you want.

Schofield: No. Alex needs help now. If I don’t do it, no one will. I can’t just walk away from him like that. Not again.

DeGrassi: Okay, so you and he became close and had each other’s backs as much as you could. Then what?

Schofield: Alex told me he was afraid if anyone ever found us, he’d be charged with helping Dave, even though he would have been killed if he hadn’t. I promised him I wouldn’t do that to him. After what he did for me? No fucking way was I going to get him in trouble with the cops. We had our story all worked out if we were ever found.

Then we moved from Colorado to St. Louis and things just kind of got normal. Not like a regular kid’s normal, but not as scary. Alex and me stuck together. We talked about what we’d do if we ever got free. We talked about ways to get free. And we promised each other that if we ever did get out, we’d stick together. Brothers. We always thought we’d get away together, you know? Somehow get free and, I don’t know, maybe find a way to live in the same town or something.

When Dave started talking about picking up another boy, I knew exactly how Alex felt. It was fucking awful, waiting to be killed, knowing there wasn’t anything I could do about Dave not being interested in me anymore, which was so backwards to everything I’d spent the last three years hoping for. I mean, I couldn’t stop growing up! Yeah, it was kind of nice not being jumped on whenever the urge struck, but this guy fed me. He made sure I wasn’t out on the streets. I didn’t go to school anymore, so even if Alex and I got away, it’s not like I could have done anything useful. Alex was allowed out of the house on his own sometimes, but only for little things. Dave even let him get a job. It was cutting grass, off the books. The guy running the business had only asked to see Alex’s ID so he could be sure he wasn’t going to get nabbed for child labor or some shit. Dave had an ID worked up with Alex’s fake name on it. We all had fake names, in case anyone was ever around us. Dave made us answer to them so we’d be used to it. Even with all those chances to get away, Alex always came back, because he said he’d never leave me to deal with Dave alone. He wouldn’t leave me behind.

When Dave got Jeremy, I didn’t know what to do. Dave made Alex help again, and that time, it was worse, because Alex was twenty. When he helped pull me, he was only kind of afraid he’d get in trouble. When he helped pull Jeremy, he knew he would. So I never called him by his real name in front of Jeremy. I barely talked to the kid in the first place. He was my replacement. Made me sick what Dave did to him, and I couldn’t hardly stand it, but what could I do? What could any of us do? Alex and me didn’t have any school, so even if we got away, how would we live?

Alex was at the grocery store the day we were found. I didn’t know what was going on, but I was scared Jeremy would blab. He didn’t know anything, and I’d made sure when I did talk to him about anything, I said Carter was just a friend who believed Dave was taking care of his sister’s kids after she died. Jeremy didn’t know Alex was one of us, but I was scared he’d have figured it out anyway.

When we were led out of the house to go to the hospital and Dave was put in the police car, I looked for Alex on the street. To see if he was driving back yet. I had to tell him I’d look for him without anyone around me knowing what I was talking about. I didn’t see him. And at the hospital, my parents showed up, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t tell you guys because he was over eighteen. He wouldn’t get a foster family or go to his parents’ house. I looked up his parents when I got the chance and found out they were dead. The only person who’d looked out for us was in jail, we were split up, and if I said a word, Alex could go to jail.

(Witness requested a break. Interview resumed at 1:15 p.m.)

DeGrassi: So you haven’t seen or spoken to Alex since the day you were discovered and Strange was arrested?

Schofield: No. I tried. I tried so hard, but there’s nothing on the internet about him but old stuff about his kidnapping. He couldn’t get a job for real, and he had no way of making money. I couldn’t find him. I couldn’t find Carter Black, either.

Hayes: You believe he’s responsible for the death of Detective Arnold Stevenson?

Schofield: I don’t know. He could be. Being in that situation for as long as we were, it fucks you up. I don’t trust the people I’m supposed to. I keep thinking my parents are weird for not smacking me around or... whatever else. I’ve been really mean to them, trying to get them to lose their tempers and hit me already, and I know that’s screwed up. I know it’s not how it’s supposed to be, but I can’t stop myself from doing it. I can’t.