The Stolen - Jason Pinter [102]
interviewed Daniel Linwood. I told him about the discovery of Michelle Oliveira's disappearance, our attempt to
follow Dmitri Petrovsky and the doctor's murder. About
the Reeds and how I believed they'd kidnapped a girl
named Caroline Twomey for reasons I still didn't know.
And about Raymond Benjamin, the career thug who was
somehow mixed up in all this.
Jack sat there, resting his head on his hands, his eyes
betraying a sense of worry. When I was finished he stayed
seated for another moment, took a breath, closed his eyes,
and said, "It's not supposed to be this difficult, Henry. You
can't put your life in danger on every story."
"That's not fair, Jack. I didn't choose for this to happen.
I was assigned to the Linwood story, and then--"
"And then what? That should have been the end of it.
Your piece on the Linwood boy was terrific. Case closed.
So what happened?"
"Life happened," I said, feeling my blood pressure
rise. "I can't speak for you, Jack, but I can't just let
things go. As soon as I knew there was more to the
Linwood story, as soon as I realized there were people
who didn't want me digging, it's like...it's like someone
turned on a switch inside me. And I can't stop until I
know everything."
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Jason Pinter
"You know what they call someone who needs to know
everything?" Jack asked.
"A good reporter?" I replied.
"Dead," Jack said. "Every trail leads somewhere. Very
few stories simply end. And if you keep playing Indiana
Jones, at some point your luck's going to run out, and some
very bad people are going to shut you up."
"Thanks for the pep talk," I said. "I'll take it under
advisement." I stood up.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"This story isn't finished," I said. "I have to go make
some bad people upset at me."
I walked back to my desk, happy that Jack seemed
healthy and vibrant, but annoyed that he was still questioning me. He had to know I couldn't just give this up. I
needed to know why Raymond Benjamin got involved
with the Reeds. And if, somehow, through all this he was
connected to Daniel Linwood.
Rule number one in journalism: always start with the
money.
Specifically, where did Raymond Benjamin get it?
I logged in to our LexisNexis terminal and ran a search
for Raymond Benjamin. More than a thousand hits came
up. I narrowed it down by adding search terms like
"criminal," "jail" and several others. A few hits came up
relating to the 1971 riots at Attica. Raymond Benjamin
was named in several newspapers as one of the inmates
involved, though none of them named him as having taken
part in violence or murders. I scrolled down through
several entries, and found one that piqued my interest.
It was printed in the Buffalo News out of Buffalo, New
York. It was an in-depth article, four pages long, and incredibly detailed. It went on record about the horrific
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abuses suffered by the prisoners in Attica, and how the
shoddy treatment was the catalyst for the riots.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence, the article
stated, was the discovery by Dr. Michael Baden that all
twenty-nine of the prisoners and all ten of their prisonguard hostages were killed by Attica guards themselves.
This was a huge blow to the penal system, which for years
had been spreading stories that the hostages had been
killed by the prisoners, who had slit their throats. That the
guards resorted to lethal measures so quickly and brutally
was yet another blow to the system.
According to the article, a prisoner by the name of
Raymond Benjamin was treated for facial lacerations, as
well as severe dehydration and malnutrition. When asked
about his conditions inside the prison, Benjamin stated he'd
eaten only one meal a day the week before the riot, hadn't
showered more than three times a month the prior year, and
had repeatedly been subjected to other forms of torture and
brutality. Strangely, though, Benjamin refused to blame
the prisoners or the guards for his wounds. Benjamin was
quoted as saying, "I got nobody to look at besides