“Shane…”, I can hear her whispering in a desperate sigh, and I wince, gritting my teeth. I try to get up, I try to turn around, to distract them, and Francois punches me hard in my stomach, and suddenly I can’t catch my breath anymore.

“Hey, hey, hey…”, Jack Sanders says, showing me the palms of his hands, “…You deserved it, Dante…Don’t move…Stand still…I haven’t finished my story, yet…”.

“Let them go”, I croak, coughing and falling back on my knees again, “…Let them go, all of them… Take me…I’ve killed one of your guys”.

Sanders shakes his head, slowly. He looks annoyed by my request and decides to ignore me completely.

“…I am a rich man. A very rich man. I had the means to control my son, and I did my best to help him get back in track. It didn’t work. But I tried, I tried hard”, he says, conversationally, “The shed he used to hide in was monitored. There were cameras everywhere. This is how I found out what you did to my son”.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”, Shane asks, wincing.

“I used to monitor every move Johnny made. I gave him the impression to be free, but he wasn’t. He needed someone to watch over him, and I am his father. So I did what I had to do to keep him under control. He could make his choices, but I was always there, ready to intervene if he needed any help. I was his guardian angel”.

“No, no you were not”, Carmen murmurs, bitterly, “You’re just a raving lunatic with delusions of grandeur, you’re a controlling sicko… That was not the way to help your son”.

“What do you know about parenting, Carmen?”, Sanders asks, coldly, “Correct him if I’m wrong, but your son is dead”.

“Goddamn you”, Shane whispers, and tries to reach for him.

“Serban…”, Francois says nonchalantly, and one of the two bootlickers grabs Shane’s hair and pulls her back violently.

Jack Sanders takes a remote control from the coffee table. He switches on the huge plasma TV on the wall and tilts his head to a side.

“I guess I need to refresh your memory. McCutcheon”, he murmurs to Shane.

And he pushes play on the remote. The TV screen fills with images of that night. Images and sounds of what had happened before Marshall and I arrived.