Chapter 18 - A Voice That Wouldn't Disappear
The first hearing was held six weeks later. Owen didn't sit under bright courtroom lights facing the people who had taken him. A trained interviewer had recorded his account with his mother nearby. The lawyers reviewed it under the court's rules, and the judge restricted unnecessary publication of his identity.
Greer's defense argued the boy had misunderstood a staff tour. Then the prosecution played the interview-room recording recovered by Captain Voss.
"My father worked here," Owen's voice said. "I saw him behind the infirmary glass. That's what I know."
The recording ended before Voss switched off the microphone. It was short. It was clear. And it directly contradicted Greer's claim that Owen had volunteered for an innocent tour.
Voss testified next. She admitted ordering the staff to create a false intake profile, helping Greer conceal the child's presence, and only later refusing the transfer. She had lost her position and faced criminal charges of her own.
"You could have stopped it earlier," the prosecutor said.
"Yes," she answered. "I should have."
Andrew testified through the afternoon. He described the transport invoices, the missing workers, and the men who held him when he tried to report the scheme. Outside the courtroom, Iris sat beside him, touching his wrist whenever his breathing became unsteady.
The defense asked whether Andrew had taken documents without permission.
"I made copies of records showing people were being harmed," Andrew said. "I was going to report them. I wish I'd done it sooner."
The state's evidence included public scale logs, bank transfers, Harper's treatment notes, Sol's dated tally, and the altered booking file. No single witness carried the entire case.
At the recess, a court officer handed the prosecutor a newly discovered maintenance report from the pumping station.
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It showed that warnings about unsafe air had been filed months before the first worker became ill.
The warning bore Harlan Pierce's handwritten initials.
