Chapter 17

“But, sir, I can’t tell you something I don’t know,” he whimpered; his thoughts on Taal and how he might never see the man he’d grown so fond of ever again. “I was just there for a picnic. Alone. There was a man there, earlier on. He asked me what I was doing. But then he walked away. That’s on your video. That’s the only person I spoke to. I promise.”

“Yes, we saw him, and interviewed him.”

Julian heard the sound of footsteps retreating.

“Take him away,” said the man.

Julian cried out. “Nooo! Pleeease!”

He felt hands all over him, roughly untying him. One pair of hands slipped something over his eyes before two sets of hands hoisted him to his feet. He was escorted, half-dragged, across the room. He heard a door open. He was taken down a long corridor. They turned a corner and then he heard the sound of another door. Simultaneously the hood was pulled off and he was pushed into a small cell, barely large enough to accommodate the single bed and toilet bowl it contained.