Statements began.
Ortega first examined the missing juvenile report.
Then asked why Higgins had located Leo without notifying the assigned child-welfare worker.
Higgins gave an answer involving urgency.
Ortega asked why no emergency documentation reflected that urgency.
He changed the explanation.
She wrote both down.
Hank insisted he had merely come to retrieve a runaway.
Ortega asked why he brought a bat.
“For protection.”
“From a seventeen-year-old?”
“Desert animals.”
Ortega glanced toward Leo.
Wrote that down too.
The child-services investigator was named Angela Ruiz.
She crouched in front of Leo.
“You Leo Gallagher?”
“Yes.”
“You understand I’m with Arizona child services?”
“Yes.”
His tone immediately became colder.
Angela noticed.
“I’m not asking you to trust me.”
“Good.”
“I am asking whether you feel safe returning to Hank Dawson’s home.”
“No.”
Immediate.
“Why?”
Leo looked toward Hank.
Hank stared back from fifty yards away.
A state trooper stood beside him.
Leo looked at Sully.
Sully was not watching Hank.
He was watching Leo.
Waiting.
Leo began talking.
Twenty dollars.
Basement stairs.
Ribs.
Unpaid work.
Missing meals.
Threats.
Other boys.
Mason’s wrist.
Daniel locked downstairs.
Hank’s gambling.
Higgins bringing other runaways back without asking questions.
Angela wrote.
Did not interrupt except to clarify dates.
Leo expected disbelief.
It never came.
When he finished, Angela asked:
“Would you tell investigators the same thing in a formal interview?”
“Yes.”
“Even if Hank denies it?”