Page 100 of Asher's Assignment
“Oh.” Asher’s brow wrinkled as his addled brain tried to shift gears. He’d been locked in his thoughts too long. “All right.”
Following Stroud across the waiting area, they settled into one of the consultation rooms.
“Now, I know you’re probably eager for me to dive into what happened today, but I want to start at the beginning. Walk me through the last few days.” Stroud flipped open a pocket notebook and clicked his pen.
Asher took a deep breath, forcing his mind to think back to Friday. “I helped Esther surprise Leah for her birthday. She wanted to do something extra fun and exciting for the girl, so she made her a cake and we bought an inflatable unicorn costume. Everything was fine when we got there. I put on the suit, went in, did some silly dancing, then left Esther to finish the day’s lesson. I was at the car, taking off the costume, when someone—Lennox—bashed me over the back of the head. When I woke up, I was handcuffed in the back of my SUV, and we were in a building big enough for him to drive inside. But it wasn’t a garage.”
“You’re sure?”
Asher nodded. “I couldn’t see the walls. And the ceiling was high. It was too dark to see much of it, but it looked like metal rafters.”
“Okay, so industrial?”
“Most likely. He opened the back tailgate long enough to drug me while we were there. The next thing I remember, I came to in the basement.”
“Was Leah there already when you woke up?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t remember how you got into the basement?”
“No.” Asher frowned. “And I didn’t have any weird bruises, so he either carried me or had me strapped to something to bring me down. Probably the latter. He seemed fit, but I’m not small, and he wasn’t that big. I never asked Leah about it. She might know. Not that it’s important.” He waved a hand. “Anyway, I tried to ambush him on Saturday, but he had infrared cameras placed around the room that we didn’t know about, and he ambushed me instead.” His hand went to his stomach. It still hurt. “He rigged a taser to a pole and shocked me with it. Several times. After that, I didn’t try anything. Not until we heard him leave in a hurry earlier.”
“Why? What made you think you needed to do something then?”
“It was just the suddenness of it. It was quiet upstairs, then suddenly an alarm of some kind sounded and he was running out the door. I knew something was up, so I decided to risk getting caught. I dug into my mattress to get to the springs and I made a hook so I could try to unbolt the door. I made a shiv too.” He reached behind his waist and pulled out the homemade weapon, giving it to the detective. “You should probably take that. I forgot I had it until now.” The only thing on his mind since the farmhouse was Esther. First on keeping her alive, then praying that the surgeons could fix her.
Stroud took the shiv and looked at it, turning it over in his hands. “I found the hook. Twisting the springs together was genius. This is too. How much time did you have?”
“Before he came back with Esther and Connie?”
The detective nodded.
“Thirty, forty minutes, maybe.”
Stroud stilled and blinked several times. “That’s… that’s impressive.”
Asher shrugged one shoulder. “I was determined.”
“I guess so.” Stroud laid the shiv on the table beside his chair. “Do you remember hearing or seeing anything of note while in captivity? Other voices? Phone calls? Lights? Sounds outside?”
Asher stared at a point over Stroud’s shoulder, thinking. “No. That house is pretty isolated, so there wasn’t anything outside. Inside, he never talked on the phone, and he never had any visitors. We could hear him moving around. The pipes would clang when the water heater kicked on, so we always knew when he was taking a shower or doing dishes.”
“He lived there with you?”
“Yes. From what I could tell. He rarely left.”
“And alone?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Explain what happened today.”
“Leah and I were attempting to unlock the bottom bolt on the basement door. I knew if I could get it open, I could bust through the top bolt. But Lennox returned before I could. Turns out it didn’t matter. He called us up. Leah saw her mom and ran to her. That upset him. He revealed who he was to Leah, then demanded she come away from Connie. The girl didn’t want to, rightly so, and Connie couldn’t get her to step away, so Lennox demanded I take her.”
“Did you?”
“Not by force. Connie and I managed to convince her to stand with me.”
