“Do you remember how long you were there prior to her being removed?”
Phoenix looked at the ceiling…calculating, I suspected. “A month, I think. I tried to track time. It was hard, though.”
“And was the other person, the man, taken after her?”
“Yes, but he was there maybe two months with me. They’d both been there awhile before me, I think.”
Agent Rose took the photos away, wrote something down, and then continued. “Can you tell us anything about the man who took you?”
We knew it was a man because Phoenix was referring to him as such, but that could be what he’d wanted Phoenix to think.
“He had a deep voice, was tall and wide. Like Shep, but I knew he had short hair. One time his hoodie fell, and I saw short black hair.”
“What about his face?” Rose asked.
“I don’t know what his face looked like. He wore this mask. He had different kinds, but they were all painted to look like porcelain dolls. They were quite beautiful.”
This man wasn’t stupid. He knew in the back of his mind that there was always a chance his victims could escape, and he made sure that if that happened no one would be able to identify him.
“Black hair.” Agent Rose sighed. “Eye color?”
Phoenix cocked his head. “Maybe green, maybe blue. Light, though—I know that much.”
“One in five hundred people have black hair with blue eyes, rarer for green eyes. It’s actually something to go on,” JJ said.
“Perhaps.” Rose wrote more things on his pad. “Did he ever talk about what he did with the two people when he took them away?”
“No. I inquired once, but he told me to mind my tongue.”
Agent Rose looked over to Aziza before asking his next question. “What kind of things did he say to you?”
Phoenix’s shoulders slumped, and his knee began to move up and down. “Just the truth.”
“And what’s the truth, Phoenix?”
He swallowed, wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. “About who I am, what I am.”
Agent Rose had to tread very lightly because if he didn’t structure every question carefully, he could do more damage to Phoenix’s mental state.
“What did he say you were?”
I glanced at Aziza, and all her focus was on Phoenix.
“You know, you see it. You look at me,” he whispered. “I’m pathetic. A person chasing an uncatchable dream, too stupid for this world, and there’s nothing worse than someone who thinks they’re beautiful. Because I’m not. I try to trick the world into thinking I am. That’s my dumb brain, though. Not pretty, not smart. Pointless.”
Hazel went to grab Phoenix’s hand, but he pulled away and looked at her sharply. “No, Hazel. Don’t say I’m none of that. He said that people lied to me my whole life because they felt bad for me. Poor little gay boy, wanting to be a ballerina. Wanting my face on billboards. My vanity is unjustified. My face doesn’t thrill, it’s made for pity, remorse. Everyone always lied to me. For what? He told me the truth, made me understand what I am.”
Tears poured from Hazel’s eyes, and Phoenix wasn’t better.
“That’s enough,” Aziza interjected.
“I have a few more questions.” Rose faced her, not even affected by Phoenix’s breakdown.
“And she said he was done,” I stood, reached for the recording, and hit Stop.
“Don’t touch my things.”
JJ walked over to the study door and opened it. “It’s time for you to leave, Agent. If or when Phoenix wants to speak to you again, you’ll be informed. For now, you have a lot of information. Go do your job.”
