I placed the old phone into her gloved hand.
Then I reached for the bars and tried to stand.
My legs failed.
They brought me out carefully, keeping my body covered as soon as they could and protecting the evidence on the floor.
Marcus watched from the concrete beside the cage.
He kept saying my name as though that proved he knew me.
He begged me to tell them there had been a misunderstanding.
His mother changed tactics.
She said she had only obeyed her son because she was afraid of him.
The recordings answered both of them.
They did not contain only screams.
They contained instructions.
They contained choices.
They contained the sound of a key turning, the timing of food being withheld, and the voices of two people discussing what they believed they could do without consequences.
Investigators preserved the phone and the storage beneath the floor panel.
