Chapter Twenty-One
T he court heard three more witnesses after they had taken their break for lunch, the ones that had lived with Gabriel after he had run from Richard and found his way to Seth. They all went by as barely more than blur in Mia’s mind. She already knew he’d run from one kind of monster to another, but Gabriel had been brief on the details. He’d described his time spent with Richard with anger, but his time with Seth had been cloaked in shame. She hadn’t pressed him, knowing the overall picture had been enough, but the story that spilled from the mouths of the witnesses was worse than anything she’d imagined. It was an ugly truth that left them all reeling.
Vincent Russel was the first on the stand and he was tense as Amy approached him with an easy smile, walked him through the pleasantries, and then began. “Do you remember when Gabriel first came to Seth?”
“Yeah.” His face was impassive, as he brushed blond hair away from his face. “Seth found him living on the streets, just like the rest of us.”
“The rest of you?” Amy coaxed. “Who was that, exactly?”
“Seth had a whole house full of kids. Runaways mostly.”
“I see,” Amy said, tapping her finger on her chin as she appeared to contemplate his response. “You all lived in this house?”
He shrugged restlessly. “Better than living under a bridge, lady.”
“I’m sure it was,” Amy soothed. “What was it like to live with Seth?”
“Good at first.” He glanced at Gabriel and then quickly away. “We had the run of the house and did whatever we wanted.”
“And Gabriel had that freedom, too?”
“None of us answered to anyone except Seth.”
“And what happened when Gabriel moved in? How did he react to that?”
Vincent smiled, hard and bitter. “Same as any kid with that kind of freedom. He smoked, drank, fucked, did whatever drugs we could get our hands on.”
Mia listened tensely; her eyes glued to Gabriel’s broad shoulders as Vincent finished his testimony. His words were echoed nearly exactly by David, who took the stand as soon as he was finished.
David Hu was smaller than Vincent, less sure of himself on the stand, but his face was just as stoic.
“What happened once Gabriel got settled into the house?” Amy asked him, waiting patiently as he shifted in his seat. Vincent had been hesitant here, too, but Amy’s practice once again paid off, as both were able to answer.
“He got used to the drugs and the freedom and then Seth yanked the chain. Nothing comes without a price, you know? We ran the streets and did his dirty work. Sometimes it was real violent shit, but that part wasn’t so bad … at least, not for us, I mean.”
“Then what was bad for you?”
He laughed, humorless. “It started out with rich women. Seth was smart and he eased you in that way because how can you say no to getting money for having sex with a beautiful woman? Sure, he’d sold you, but it was easy to justify it.”
“He sold you? You mean that he sold your services sexually?”
“Yeah, and like I said, it wasn’t so bad at first but … then it got worse. Once you were sort of used to it, then he wasn’t so picky about the kind of people he sold you to or what they wanted. Nothing you could do by then, of course, so you just take more of the drugs he’s handing out and pretend it isn’t happening.”
“I see,” Amy said sympathetically. “And were these people ever violent toward any of you?”
He tapped his face, the sliver of a thin white scar bisecting his chin. “The first time Seth sold me to some guy that wanted more from me than I wanted to give. I learned real quick not to say no to something they paid for. If they didn’t hurt me, Seth sure as hell would.”
Chris Mendoza was steely eyed on the stand, body nearly unnaturally still as he watched Amy pace the floor in front of him.
“And how did Gabriel react when Seth started requiring him to do these things?”
“Gabriel was different from the rest of us, angrier and more likely to start a fight, even with Seth. He didn’t like it, didn’t want to do the other things that Seth was asking. He went along with it for a little while, because he was convinced that Seth must know what he was doing, but eventually he decided that he’d had enough.”
“And then what did he do?”
Chris’s mouth was a thin line. “He tried to leave.”
Mia’s eyes flew back to Gabriel, sitting hunched and shrunken in his chair. He hadn’t told her that he’d tried to get away.
“Seth wasn’t having that, of course,” Chris continued, “and when he tried to leave …” He shook his head and looked down at his feet.
“What happened?” Amy prompted when he had been silently staring at his shoes for several moments.
“They dragged him down into the basement,” Chris explained. “Seth and some of the guys who worked for him. There was no one else in the house except for me and even the drugs I took weren’t enough to drown out the screams. I still have nightmares about it sometimes.”
“Did Gabriel ever tell you exactly what happened in the basement?”
“No, but he never tried to leave again, and he did what Seth wanted after that.” Chris said simply. “He knew he’d gotten lucky in a way. There wasn’t much room for second chances and a lot of people went missing. You didn’t ask about it unless you wanted to be next, but we all knew what Seth was doing.”
Chris stepped down and returned to his seat. The courtroom’s anxious energy of the morning was now drained and flat. Behind the table across from Gabriel and Amy, the state’s lawyer fidgeted, shuffling and straightening papers that didn’t need to be straightened.
The state’s stance that Gabriel had been nothing more than a typical spoiled teen, too rich and pampered to accept it when his parents placed reasonable limits on him, had been called into serious question.
“Your expert witness?” Judge Turner asked as Amy hesitated.
“She was scheduled in a different courtroom this morning, Your Honor,” Amy said with a wince, “and she seems to be running a little late.”
Judge Turner tapped a finger on the wooden stand in front of her as she looked at her watch. “We’ll take a thirty-minute recess then before the next witness is called,” she announced, tapping the gavel so that the sound of it echoed through the room and giving Amy a pointed warning look. “Everyone please be back here by then.”
Mia watched in silence as the guards led Gabriel from the room, her jaw clenched anxiously when he didn’t look at her at all.
“Take that bathroom break,” Amy encouraged. “We still have a long day ahead of us.” She walked out then, leading the way as the rest of them shuffled out awkwardly behind her. They had been cordial to one another, all of them polite if a bit distant, but the morning’s testimony had drawn them together with a forced intimacy that made them quiet and reluctant to meet each other’s eyes.
The witnesses’ wounds and secrets had been laid bare and Mia felt like she’d been an unwanted spectator to something sordid and painful. She was distant and numb as they moved through the crowded hallway, exhausted by the emotions that had buffeted her since Michael had first taken the stand.
They all walked together to the bathroom around the corner and Mia watched Brittany in the mirror as they stood side-by-side at the sink. She, too, looked fragile, her eyes weary and fingers shaking slightly as she dried them on cheap brown paper towels that were too stiff and too thin to absorb the water. She tossed them in the trash, already full almost to overflowing, and wiped her hands on the sides of her expensive black slacks.
Lilly and the others had already left, the door swinging shut behind them and leaving the two women alone as Brittany cleared her throat. “Thank you for sitting with me today. It was difficult to relive those things and to hear about everything that happened to him.”
Mia bit her lip, her teeth digging in harder than they would normally have done. “You still care about him,” she said, “and I understand that, but I love him, and it hurts a little that he still looks at you the way that he does. I just thought you should know that before you thank me.”
Brittany smiled and her perfectly even white teeth flashed briefly in the harsh fluorescent lighting that flickered overhead. “All the more reason for me to say it. You’ve put aside any personal feelings or discomfort about what happened between us years ago because you love him. He’s lucky to have you.”
Mia sighed, the guilt she felt for the flash of jealousy she’d felt in the courtroom easing just a bit. “Thanks,” she said stiffly, but Brittany laid a gentle hand on her arm.
“We went through a lot together and it’s been a little overwhelming seeing him again after all this time. It brings back a lot of feelings we didn’t have time to process back then. If he’s feeling anything right now, it’s probably the same kind of weird nostalgia. I loved Gabriel, but I was a different person then.”
“I’m sorry,” Mia said, shifting nervously from one foot to the other and chewing on the raw spot she was rapidly wearing into her bottom lip. “I know that you’re trying to help us.”
“I’m a small broken piece of his past,” Brittany said, stepping forward to give Mia a gentle-armed squeeze, her arm wrapped around Mia’s waist as they walked out of the bathroom together. “You know him better now than I ever did.”
Lilly was the only one waiting in the hallway when they came back out and she stood up from the bench she was sitting on when she saw them. “Is everything okay? It’s almost time to start so everyone else went back in.”
“It’s fine,” Mia assured her. “It’s just been a hard day.”
“It has been hard,” Brittany agreed, “but it was a long time coming.”
Everyone else—missing witness included—was already seated when they returned to their places. Gabriel was back in his chair beside Amy, his head in his hands as she leaned over close to his ear and spoke to him in a voice that was too quiet for Mia to hear. She cleared her throat quietly when Amy finished speaking and turned to go over her notes, but he didn’t turn to look at her as she’d hoped, and she shifted restlessly.
He was slouched in his chair, back hunched and shoulders slumped, and he refused to look at her.
She had only a moment to wonder before the door at the front opened and Judge Turner resumed her seat, bringing court back into session with another tap of her gavel.
“Your next witness, please,” she said, indicating to Amy to begin before the echoes had faded from the room.
Amy stood, squeezing Gabriel’s arm reassuringly and calling for Dr. Engell to take the stand.
The psychologist appeared to be several years older than Amy, though softer in the eyes and less rigid in her posture. She seemed at ease in the courtroom, with a relaxed demeanor that Mia knew must have come with years of testifying.
“Dr. Engell, can you tell how long ago you evaluated Gabriel for the first time?”
“Thirteen years ago.”
“And the results of that evaluation?”
“His mental state was as expected for the abuse that he’d suffered and the trauma he experienced from killing his father. His time with Richard and Seth had given him a severe form of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD. We tend to associate this with those who have seen combat, but it’s common after the brain experiences trauma of any kind and is often seen in those who have been abused or sexually assaulted.”
“I understand,” Amy said. “And what effects does PTSD have on the brain and a person’s behavior?”
“The brain changes in structure and function when experiencing trauma at that level,” Doctor Engell explained. “It becomes more sensitive and the neurotransmitters that are associated with stress are produced in greater amounts when the person experiences stress. The person may experience nightmares, sleep disturbances, intrusive memories, or anger and irritability. They may react unpredictably to any stimulus that triggers the mind to remember the events that caused the trauma.”
“So, you’re saying that people with PTSD are dangerous?”
“No, not at all,” the doctor responded. Mia knew that the question was asked to give her more of an opportunity to explain the specifics to the judge. “Most people that experience it are not a danger to themselves or others, but in Gabriel’s situation it may have made it far more difficult for him to react rationally.”
Amy nodded, apparently content with the doctor’s explanation. “Dr. Engell, let’s back up for one moment. I want to ask you about something else that you mentioned a few moments ago. You said that the first time you evaluated Gabriel, he had recently experienced the trauma of murdering his father. Could you explain further what you mean by that statement?”
“Killing his father was an extremely traumatic event for him. His actions were triggered by the situation that he found himself in and the already existing psychological problems that had been created by the abuse at the hands of both Richard Miller and Seth Wiseman.”
“Can you explain the type of reaction that someone that had lived through those experiences might have under those circumstances?”
“The prospect of going back to Richard’s would have been a triggering event in itself. Gabriel had recently escaped from a very abusive situation and the idea of being returned to that environment would have been overwhelming, even without the psychological effects of his time with Seth.”
“I see,” Amy said. “And how would you characterize his time with Seth?”
“It is evident, in my opinion, that Gabriel was a victim of human trafficking. Runaway teens are especially vulnerable to predation of this type, and Seth used many of the tactics that traffickers use to control and manipulate their victims.”
“Tactics such as?”
“They often begin by offering these teens a safe space, somewhere to go where they have freedom and control—both things that would have been intensely important to Gabriel after his escape from Richard.”
“This is intentional on the part of the predator?”
“Very much,” Doctor Engell agreed. “Once the teen feels safe, they offer them drugs and other illegal substances, both as a means of keeping them compliant and as a hook. It creates a physical dependency and is the first of many things that they can use as leverage.”
Amy faced the doctor, her expression one of practiced curiosity. “Why would they need to have leverage over the teen?”
“Each case of illegal activity or morally compromising behavior adds another layer of isolation and embarrassment that prevents the victim from feeling that they would be able to reintegrate into society,” Doctor Engell explained carefully. “First drugs, then, in cases such as Gabriel’s, it may include committing other crimes or acts of violence, and in many cases prostitution.”
“This gives the trafficker control over the teen?” Amy asked.
“It does,” the doctor agreed. “Isolating them with shame can prevent them from reaching out to others for help. Gabriel firmly believed his parents would never accept him, and Seth told Gabriel that he would reveal those secrets if Gabriel ever left.”
“But Gabriel did attempt to leave,” Amy reminded her.
“The tactics used are effective but not infallible. Gabriel’s lucky that he was considered valuable by Seth or it’s very likely that he would have simply been killed for attempting to leave. As it was, he was tortured until his abuser no longer feared he would risk escaping.”
“And when Gabriel’s father came and tried to bring him home? What would that experience have been like for him?”
“He would have felt extremely threatened. He knew what Richard would do to him if he were returned to his uncle’s care and what Seth would do if he tried to leave. He believed his parents would never accept him back if they had learned the truth. There was nothing that he wouldn’t have done in that moment to prevent those things from happening.”
Amy paused, letting the implications of the psychologist’s last statement settle over the room before speaking again. “Doctor, have you evaluated Gabriel recently?”
“Yes, we’ve spoken several times over the past few months.”
“In your professional opinion, Doctor Engell, do you believe that he’s dangerous?”
Dr. Engell looked at Gabriel, taking time to consider the answer to the question, reassuring the judge that she wasn’t rushing her words or failing to properly consider the potential harm he could cause if she were wrong.
“No, I don’t believe that he’s a significant risk to society,” she said firmly. “The conditions surrounding his original offense were unique, an unfortunate combination of the worst possible circumstances, in which an abused young man with severe PTSD was put into a situation where he felt that he had no recourse other than to resort to violence.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Amy said, smiling at her politely as the opposing attorney tapped his pen on the table irritably. “I have no further questions for you.”
Mia watched, lips pressed into a thin line as the prosecution interrogated the witness, but Dr. Engell spent a great deal of time in the courtroom and her answers remained calm and consistent. No, there was no evidence of premeditation in his actions. No, she did not believe he needed to remain in prison for the safety of the public.
“We will resume tomorrow morning,” Judge Turner decided when Dr. Engell was dismissed from the witness stand. The jury looked as tired as Mia felt as they realized they would have to return to the courtroom again for another day of proceedings and they all filed out slowly when the gavel dismissed them.