Payback (11 page)

Brian was in better spirits now and finally in the right frame of mind to talk to this asshole. The chief was expected to make a full recovery and he had learned that John had only suffered a concussion in the blast. He had leapt to safety just out of the blast zone when it happened. It was a lucky break. The rest of the crew, including those outside of the home had been killed either by the force of the blast, the fire that was flying through the air, or falling debris.

“We have your ass nailed to the wall. We know you killed those people. Darla Fields told us everything that you told her you were going to do. We have your DNA at that crime scene. You aren’t as clever as you think you are.”

Trapp continued to smile that shit eating grin of his. Brian decided to try a different tactic. He was just going to relax and let the man stew around for a bit. That would help take him down a peg or two. Trapp wanted attention. He wanted the fame that was due him but he would not give Brian the satisfaction of answering any of his questions, at least not yet. This was going to have to be done on Trapp’s terms.

Brian took a deep breath as he shifted gears to try another method of execution here. The silence of the room was deafening and it definitely gave off a sense of claustrophobia if you just sat there without saying anything. He knew that the officers watching the interrogation behind the glass were probably bored out of their minds.

The time ticked by slowly. Brian and Trapp were together in a power struggle right now. He was proving to Brian that he was in control and that he just did not have to talk to him if he didn’t want to. It was almost as if he was trying to tell them all that he was there voluntarily. They didn’t think they could really catch him and put a stop to his awesome murder spree did they? Of course not. He was just too damn good for that. He was the best that there had ever been.

Brian had dealt with these narcissistic egos before, but few were as strong as Trapp’s was. That was ok. Brian could wait the bastard out as long as it took. He could keep this up as long as he needed to. Brian just stared at Trapp the whole time looking deeply into his empty eyes. The bastard was still smiling and trying to intimidate and control. Brian had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

Finally Trapp spoke. His voice was jovial and friendly, as if he was still speaking to a customer on the phone at his call center job. It was that phony nice voice that said I am paid to pretend to be your best friend right now.

“So, you think you can get information out of me? That is rich,” Trapp said.

Brian had to laugh. He couldn’t hold it in. He didn’t mean to because it would be devastating to the interview, but he could not resist.

Trapp didn’t get mad though. He just laughed back and continued with his speech.

“You want me to admit to killing and skinning several people, is that it? You want me to admit that I am the one you have been looking for –the Copycat he is called—well what is in it for me if I admit to such a thing?”

“You might get a reduced sentence from certain death to life behind bars. But I doubt that means much to you. You don’t value your life at all,” Brian said.

“What a silly thing to say. You believe that I don’t value my own life? If I didn’t value my life then why would I care to go on breathing? I would have ended my life long ago. You are totally mistaken.”

“Well, enlighten me then,” Brian said.

“I value the life that I want, but if you want to take that life away from me until I have a life I don’t want then I won’t value that. That is the reason I do what I do. I value the life I have created for myself and I hate anyone who dares to get in the way of that.”

“Ok, so basically you are only wanting to live a life where you can be free to kill and skin people to your heart’s content?”

“I have not admitted to killing anyone,” Trapp said.

“Why deny it? You want fame? You want recognition right?”

“You don’t know a damn thing about me,” Trapp said. “I hate fame and I hate recognition. I prefer to be left alone.”

“Really? You seem like you are getting off on this right now. You are totally hamming it up for everyone watching—and I know that you know they are watching—and you relish being in control.”

“Everyone relishes being in control, don’t they.”

“Well, some more than others I guess.”

“Do you have children, detective?” Trapp asked.

Brian felt his heart skip a beat and he almost responded properly but he caught himself before he even opened his mouth or batted an eye. He had been trained, albeit a long time ago, to never divulge any information about himself that was accurate during an interview or an interrogation. Trapp was trying to turn this around to further control things and prove his superiority.

“We aren’t going to talk about me or ask me personal questions. I will refuse to answer them in any way,” Brian said.

“Oh, but its ok for you to ask me anything under the sun?”

“Well, I’m not the one who is going to be on trial as a serial killer.”

“Neither am I,” Trapp said.

“How long do you think you can try to maintain your innocence in this matter?” Brian asked.

“As long as it takes.” Trapp paused a moment before continuing. “The reason I asked if you have children goes back to your comment about people who crave power. Being a parent is the ultimate power trip. Think about it. You have this little thing that depends on you for everything in life and you can tell it to do whatever you want and it has to obey you or suffer your wrath and punishment. That is why people want to be parents. That is why they pretend to love. They pretend to love each other and they pretend to love the kid, when in reality it is just about power.”

“Is that the way you felt about your parents growing up? Did they abuse you and treat you like you were an object for their wrath?” Brian asked.

Trapp threw back his head and laughed. “Wow, that pop psychology thing you do is really bad and obvious. You need to work on that,” Trapp said.

Brian smiled. Trapp was thinking that his interrogation technique was shit and that was exactly what he wanted him to think. He had to make sure that Trapp felt like he was smarter and better. He had to keep Trapp feeling in control so that he would let things slip later.

“I’ll do that. I appreciate the insight. So, tell me when did you know that you wanted to kill people?”

Trapp looked at him squarely right then and his entire demeanor changed.

“I am not the man you are looking for. I’ll admit I tried to kill Darla Fields, but this whole thing is so much bigger than me.”

Brian was a bit put off by the statement. It wasn’t like Trapp and his massive ego to ever say that anything was bigger than him. What was he thinking? What was his game plan here? Brian did not know exactly how to proceed, so he decided to just tread cautiously and to just go with the flow.

“What do you mean, Mike?”

“There is not just one of us,” Trapp said.

“Are you saying you have a partner? The two of you are working together?”

Trapp sighed heavily as if he was bored out of his mind trying to explain the complexities to a simpleton like Brian. It was amusing to watch.

“No, I don’t have a partner exactly. It is more of a team. And it has existed for a long time.”

Brian stared at Trapp for a few moments trying to determine if this guy was completely full of shit or just partially. He had to admit he was intrigued and he was being a bit entertained by Trapp’s responses. What was the end game he was trying to achieve? Was he really just trying to throw him off guard or to mess with his head? Was he just enjoying story hour here? What was the man’s deal?

Brian had spoken to a dozen or so psychos in his time, but he was having a hard time with Trapp. He didn’t think it was just because Trapp had tried to kill several of his friends but it was more along the lines of the fact that Trapp was going off script so to speak. In every interrogation that Brian had ever done he had for the most part went right along with the formula, or script, that he had been taught. That was the way it had always been done and that was the way it had always worked. And when he operated according to the script he had seen without exception the subject of the interrogation moving right along as expected to reach a desired outcome.

Trapp kept sidestepping everything that Brian was throwing at him and it was keeping him a bit off balance. He was going to have to slow down and reevaluate how this was going down before he could really get a handle on Trapp and what he was all about. The man had to have an end game. There had to be something that he now wanted since he was no longer going to be free to commit multiple murders and workout his inner turmoil in what he considered to be a constructive manner.

“Let me get this straight,” Brian said. He realized that there was an element of sarcasm in his voice, which he was trying to exaggerate a bit for effect. He wanted Trapp right now to feel like Brian thought he was full of shit. This was not hard to accomplish.

“Are you trying to tell me that there is a cult at work here? You expect me to believe that?” Brian said.

“I don’t expect anything of you. I’m surprised that you are following along so nicely, though.”

Brian smiled at the insult. “So, how long has this cult been at work?”

“They do not think of themselves as a cult. It is a high order.”

“A high order? And what is their mission? What are they about? They just worship skin or something?”

“You are too focused on the method of execution and have no idea the why behind it.”

“Well, I’m trying to understand here. You are being kind of vague. You got to remember we are just dumb cops. We aren’t as smart as you are. You have to talk down to us a bit and squat to our level,” Brian said. He realized that he was laying it on a bit thick, but the sarcasm seemed to be lost on Trapp because he really felt that the cops were all so far beneath him that it pleased him to have them acknowledge their shortcomings, even if he knew they did not feel this way. It became an inside joke that only he knew about. The guy was such a damn pig.

“Ian Jeffries was the first instrument. He failed,” Trapp said.

“Instrument? What kind of instrument exactly?”

“Instrument of justice.”

“Oh, so you think these murders are about justice? All of the people you killed and attacked were completely innocent. They never did anything to you. You killed them in cold blood. That is on you.”

“No, you do not see things the way they truly are. It is funny, but when someone who appears to be innocent is murdered in a brutal fashion then it is seen as a tragedy, but if you knew that the person was not innocent at all then it is seen as justice. The system fails people. It fails people every day. The Order was created as a balance to that.”

“I’m still not really following you here. You are saying that The Order is responsible for who knows how many murders? That you are all working for the same guy?”

“No, there is no guy. There is no real group that any of the instruments have ever seen. There are a select group of people who are operating on this. They are orchestrating every single thing. And they have been doing it for years.”

Brian looked up at the camera as if to ask if anyone was buying into any of this. This interview had taken a twisted turn that he had never seen coming. What if there was any truth to this notion? What if there was a group of mad men who recruited psychos to help them fulfill their mission of bloodlust?

“So, how did you come to be in the position to be recruited by this group?” Brian asked.

“They found me. Ever since I was a child I have been different. I have had these urges that I did not know how to deal with.”

“What kind of urges? Like voices or something?” Brian asked.

“No, no voices. It was just a desire to kill things. I have never been able to explain where it came from, but when I discovered The Order I believe that they made me that way. Their reach is vast and far surpasses the laws of man.”

Brian finished the last of the bad coffee and swore that he was going to teach these people around here how to make some decent brew before he left, and he stared deeply into Trapp’s eyes. As he spoke about The Order it was really the first time that he had shown any emotions that appeared to be real in any way. Brian was actually starting to believe the man about some of this. Even if it was total horse shit Trapp believed every word of it. Brian had no doubt about that.

“So, what happened? How did they find you?”

“They were studying me for a long time and they knew about my urges. I have no idea how they knew or what they did to me to make me have those sick urges that I could not control, but they showed me how to make the pain go away. They groomed me to work for them since I was very young. The mission was simple. They showed me where to look for the right kinds of victims and they told me that the method I wanted to use to kill them was up to me. I did not know what I wanted so I decided to use the Carver’s motive. There was something about it that spoke to me.”

“So, now that you have failed in your mission is there going to be someone taking your place?”

“Oh, not for a while. This was an experiment and they are actually using two different men to go about fulfilling the needs of this project at this time.”

“What do you mean? There is another guy out there who is skinning people? We don’t have any reports, except for the murders that you did. Unless you are saying you didn’t do all these?” Brian had to admit he was getting a bit nervous and a bit confused here. This story that Trapp had concocted was messing with him. He could not decide if it was real or not.

“The other man who is operating, he is much more secretive. You were right detective; I did crave the spotlight. That was why I left my victims out in the open and one of the reasons I loved to skin people. It is such a shocking thing to find for most people and it is a great way to instill fear into the hearts of the public.”

“Who is this other guy?”

“I don’t know his name. I just know what he does. He is good. He has been doing this for a while.”