A Dark Secret Past Part Two

 

            After pouring himself into a full forty hours of work on that week, Roger leaned back in his office chair, looked at the time and realized that he had ten minutes left in his day before he could shut down and focus on something else. He closed the data project he was currently working on and reviewed his email before calling it a day. “Now is a good time for a cold beer,” he said to himself, “maybe I’ll pop down into the basement and see if there is a little project I can take on and finish this weekend.”

               Roger sent off a goodbye email to his team mates, logged off his laptop, walked into the kitchen and retrieved a cold beer from the fridge, sat on his front porch for a few minutes to enjoy the sunshine, the gentle breeze, and the beauty of nature. Beginning with his toes, he relaxed every part of his body working his way up until he reached the base of his neck. He finished his beer, entered the house, dropped the empty bottle in the recycle bin, grabbed his flashlight, and escaped through the back door to enter the basement for a reminder of what needed to be done in that unused space.

               “Wow, it is really dark down here,” he grumbled, “I can easily run some wiring with switches and multiple light fixtures so everything can be more visible, giving me the freedom to thoroughly clean this space.” Immediately to his right was a room that he and the real estate agent viewed before he purchased the property, as he entered that space, he realized that there was an unexplained dead space. The wall immediately to his left and behind started about four feet further out than it should have based on the exterior wall on the opposite side.

               “Hmm, that’s weird,” he said, “this looks like I have the chance to uncover what is happening here.” Carefully viewing the exterior wall, he found multiple screws holding what appeared to be new sheetrock in place. “Alright, time to dig in, take this apart, and see what the former owner was trying to hide.”

               After thirty minutes of deconstruction, he uncovered a stairwell loaded with dust and as he shined his flashlight up the stairs, he saw a human skeleton chained to the wall. “Damn, that is not good,” he thought, “time for a phone call to the FBI about this new revelation. This is crazy, here I thought all of this corruption and criminal activity was completely exposed and addressed.”

               He made the decision to remove all of the false wall that kept the stairwell hidden, creating a pile of broken construction material on the opposite wall to then escape the now very dusty space and place the phone call to the FBI. He dialed the number and after the third ring someone answered, he then introduced himself and asked to speak with the agent who had previously helped him with his previous discoveries. After waiting for about ten minutes of listening to very dated eighties music, an agent addressed him by name and asked about the nature of his call.

               “Ah, very good,” Roger said, “I finished my week of work and thought I would spend some time in the basement and see if there was a small project I could undertake and complete relatively soon. Unfortunately, I discovered a hidden stairwell and after removing the temporary walls that kept it hidden, I discovered a human skeleton chained at the top of the stairs, and no I did not touch anything.”

               “Thank you for the phone call, Roger,” the agent said, “we will send a team of agents on Monday afternoon to review, photograph, and document what you have found. This is disturbing new information; we will resolve this and hopefully allow you to move on with your renovation.”

               “Very good, thank you for sending someone out so quickly,” he said, “I look forward to seeing the agents on Monday and genuinely hope that this new revelation is the last one. I will leave everything as I have found it so that nothing is ruined for your investigation.”

               Roger then returned to his front porch to enjoy the fresh air, the gentle breeze and the beauty of nature, wondering how much time the agents would take in their investigation, so that he could put time into cleaning, organizing, and planning for more restoration and renovation for the basement. “Wow, I am really hungry,” he said to himself, “I think I have some corndogs in the freezer and some fresh fruit to go with it, let’s get that started.”

               He immediately began putting his dinner together and watched as the forest grew dark and cooler, somewhat sickened by the idea that a human skeleton had been chained to the basement wall all of this time that he had lived here. After finishing his meal, he escaped once again to the front porch to enjoy the peace, the silence, and the glory of nature for nearly an hour. He repeatedly caught himself falling asleep and occasionally drooling to then force himself to take a shower, and go to bed before it became too late.

               He slept late into the next morning, ate a robust breakfast, and made the decision to walk the perimeter of his property while it was warm with a gentle breeze. He paused at the edge of his driveway, wondering if hiring someone to build a fence and a gate would be wise to keep unwanted visitors from violating his private space. “Yes, I think that is a great idea,” he said to himself, “I suppose I should wait and see how long the FBI needs to complete this investigation and take some more time for myself to clean and organize the basement.”

               He spent the rest of his weekend, relaxing and thinking about how to use the space in the basement and when to start with seeking out a contractor to build the fence and gate. The memories of the middle age man who approached him so many weeks about buying a child still haunted his heart and mind. “You know, if I put up a gate and fence that would cut off every opportunity to catch more people like that, so maybe I’ll wait a couple of months and see if anyone else approaches my home.”

               Roger finished the first few hours of the following Monday and shortly after one o’clock, he heard the crunching of tires on gravel on his driveway, pulling himself from his desk, he greeted the two FBI agents as they approached his front door. “Go ahead and walk around to the back, I’ll meet you at the entrance to the basement,” he said. Passing through his home, he opened the oversized cellar door and led the two agents into the semi-darkness of the basement, gave them a brief explanation how he discovered the stairwell, and then informed them that they were free to explore, photograph and do whatever they needed to do, because he needed to continue working in his office.

               He jumped when he heard his name called out to realize that they had been working for almost three hours, he answered the call, walked outside, and asked if there was anything he needed to do or not do. “Do you have everything you need from the scene of the crime, and if not, will you be coming back to finish your investigation?”

               “Yes, we have everything that we need at this point,” one of the agents said, “we have no need to return, we have taken many photographs and have taken the bones from the stairwell, I wanted to clarify that the bones belonged to a child. You have the freedom to clean the dusty and dirty space if you so desire. Please call us again if anyone else shows up at your door seeking to buy a child from you.”

               Roger shook hands with both agents and watched them drive away.

               In what became a regular pattern, every Friday afternoon came around and he was approached by a different middle-aged man with a handful of cash, seeking to buy a child to be used and abused and then returned. This interaction took place six different times over the next six Fridays and after each event, Roger called the FBI, reported the incident, supplied surveillance footage, a description of the car, the license plate number, and a description of the man.

               One week after the sixth incident report, he was notified that all six men had been arrested, their computer and internet activity was seized which resulted in the arrest of thousands of individuals across the country. Three days later, an FBI agent appeared at his front door thanking him for being diligent and thorough in his attention to detail and his assistance with shutting down so many child abuse rings across the country.

               “Yes, of course,” he answered, “this kind of activity needs to be crushed, stopped, and brought to justice, anyone who would intentionally harm a child needs to be locked away from normal society.”

               “Very good, Roger, and thank you again,” the agent said. “We really hope that you will receive no more people like this but if you do, please don’t hesitate to contact us again, we will stay actively focused on this and bring these men to justice.”

               He watched as the FBI vehicle drove away and knew that he was now in a position to find a contractor to build his fence and gate, giving him the freedom to enjoy the beauty of his surroundings without having to be concerned about these horrible people invading and destroying his peace. By the end of the next week, he began a conversation with a contractor to build a fence across the front of his property and a wrought iron gate to block his driveway, he also asked for a communication device to be installed with a video camera so he could see and speak with whoever was seeking entrance.

               Three weeks of work by the contractor flowed by without incident, giving Roger the opportunity to review that everything was solid and safe and to pay for the work that had been completed. Four days after the gate and fence were completed, a delivery service rang for his attention which gave him the first chance to test the video feed and the auto control opener from inside his home. Thankful for a problem free interaction, he watched as the delivery vehicle approached the front of his house, he met the delivery worker and received his package.

               He watched the vehicle disappear down the driveway to then walk out and close the gate with his handheld remote.

               “Okay then,” he thought, “now I can get started with finishing the space in the basement. Time to make a few phone calls to some contractors.”

               He slowly walked back into his home, entered the basement with a notebook, sketched out the space and began jotting down ideas for how to make best use of this massive emptiness. “Oh, I know, I’ll make this center space a game room type of area, I’ll have someone build a wine cellar, a sauna, finish the newly discovered stairwell to open up into the living room, and have a contractor rebuild the exterior entrance so that it is weather proof and beautiful.”

               Three months of noisy construction passed, leaving Roger feeling very good about the quality of work that was being done and giving him the opportunity to make a large-scale purchase of wine. Now that the sauna was complete, he began to gather firewood from his property. The bookshelf in the living room hid the entrance to the basement, which he had the contractor rebuild to adjust to slide to one side, using a weighted system to make the transition as effortless as possible.

               Thrilled at the now fully complete and remodeled home, he spent an entire afternoon walking from room to room on every floor, in awe of the shiny beauty he now owned, realizing that his dream of owning a glorious Victorian home had become a reality.