“Tell me that you did it.”
“Let me the fuck go!”
“You’re a lucky guy, George as I fully intend to let you go. Usually people in your current situation with me don’t get let go. What they do get, you don’t need to know about right now.”
Goodnature was sitting in an old, half-splintered wooden chair, zip tied securely in place. The room he was in was huge, empty and shadowed by a single dangling lightbulb that swung. It smelled dry and musty. A warehouse of some kind—perhaps an abandoned factory. It was industrial, he figured, and in his mouth was the curdling, desiccating taste of sawdust. His now soiled clothes and his body were both saturated with sweat so that, despite being tied up, he still could slide in his seat somewhat.
“Lucky you,” added Null.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in Limbo. A place that doesn’t exist, according to the Vatican. You’re in a unique state of double nowhere, a place of non-existence that itself no longer exists. A perfect place to find yourself no longer existing as well. The end of reality.”
“You’re not going to kill me.”
“You’re absolutely right, George. I’m not. I have no intention of killing you.”
“That bitch cop wants to kill me.”
“That’s true. But don’t worry, she’s not going to kill you either. Kay Boyd has many fine virtues, but cold-blooded murder isn’t one of them. She tried it once, I think, but it didn’t go so well.”
“Chickened out, huh?” asked Goodnature, trying in vain to preserve a brave face.
“Oh, no. She did it alright. Splattered the guy’s brains all over the wall behind him. She just feels bad enough about it to lose considerable sleep over it. Maybe try to drink away the nagging memory of it when she shouldn’t. Now, take me: I’m not like that at all. I could put two in your heart, two in your head, then go somewhere and have dinner without a second thought. Easy-peasy.”
“But you said you’re not going to do that.”
“And mostly I don’t lie. Quite right to call me on that. But as I said, I have no intention of killing you.”
“That’s good, right?”
“It might seem the right thing to say yes, but it really depends on how you look at it.”
“How else can you look at it?”
“Oh, there’s more ways than one, but here you are tied up somewhere you don’t know after having been drugged with enough Thiopental to knock out a moose, then being hammered on by some unsympathetic goon like me. It’s understandable that you can’t see it—amazing you can focus on anything at all, really, after I already just slugged you a couple of times so hard you can’t even remember.”
With that, Goodnature started feeling the pain in his jaw that had been waiting for him to connect with it all along. The reminder from Null made him spit blood angrily at the dusty floor.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter how you see it, George, because this really ends for you only one way.”
“Yeah, motherfucker? And what way’s that?”
“You’re going to beg me to kill you, and I won’t do it.”
Then Null reared back and punched Goodnature straight in the face for good measure.
“Let’s get back to basics, here, shall we? Now, tell me that you did it.”
Goodnature just sat there, breathing angrily.
Null smacked him again with a jab to the jaw, but this time not too hard. He needed Goodnature conscious and his mouth still capable of speech. Goodnature laughed a laugh that was much closer to a sob. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!”
“The Thiopental left you a bit groggy, perhaps desensitized to pain. I’ll have to put a little more into it, I think.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Anything. Ask away.”
“Just don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Be honest. Your life doesn’t depend on it, true, but your sanity might.”
“I need to piss.”
“Do it in the chair. I don’t mind.”
“What if I have to do other things?”
“Do them in your pants.”
“You think I fucked a kid—okay, so I did. Big deal. I fucked a lot of kids. Which one do you want me to conjure up for you?”
“You tell me.”
Null nonchalantly walloped Goodnature in the midsection, snapping his head forward, causing him to heave and gag both at once, pathetically. Miraculously, he managed not to vomit, but only drooled copiously.
“I think I went a tad too far on that one, George. Oh, well, maybe while you’re busy recovering, you can start formulating an answer for me.”
Null made a move toward him, which inspired Goodnature to bounce in his seat and force himself to speak in a stertorous, halting way. “Th-the—the! Cop! The cop—the one with that kid. The bitch who was with you when you torched my f-f-fucking house!” Goodnature again spat blood.
Null clapped. “Grade A, George Goodnature, just grade A. Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
“I didn’t because I was unconscious and when I woke up you were beating on me, for fuck’s sake!”
“That’s a very good reason. I can’t argue with your logic there. Tell me more. Tell me in detail. Spare nothing. Don’t be shy.”
“I’m n-n-not f-fucking shy!”
“I didn’t think you were. Please continue.”
“What more do you need to know?”
“All of it.”
“Then what? You kill me?”
“No, George, as I said before, I’m not going to kill you. Even when you beg me to. And I guarantee you that you will. Now, continue, please.”
“Sure. Okay. The kid—he was pretty banged up by the time he got to me.”
“He had a name.”
“Ya. They all have names.”
“His was Rudy. Rudy Boyd.”
“Rudy, okay, whatever. Anyway, Rudy was all played out when they gave him to me.”
“Tell me who they are.”
“You know. Everybody knows—Hebe Group. They did it to protect the business.”
“The business that ran your cozy little house in Belmont.”
“That’s right. The business. So, since I’m cooperating, maybe you can see your way to getting me out of these bonds? My hands and feet are losing circulation already.”
“That’s a shame. We’ll see how far that goes. Back to the point. Played out from what, pray tell. By whom?”
“You know what they did. They whored him out. They made him a dark web Internet superstar—movies galore. The poor kid was damaged, drained, and out of it by the time he came to me. Docile, beaten.”
Null stared and didn’t blink. He let the silence fill in the blanks.
“You felt sorry for him, you’re saying?” he said softly.
“How could I not? Poor little kid.” Goodnature grinned sheepishly.
“Who gave him to you?”
“You know who.”
“Say it.”
“Legere. Legere gave me the kid, okay?”
“With instructions. He gave you instructions, didn’t he? Tell me what they were.”
“You know what they were.”
“I think if I went at you just a little bit more, it might defeat the whole purpose of this interview, because you’d probably be incapable of further speech. That wouldn’t help either of us. So talk as if your life depended on it, which it doesn’t, of course, but certainly your continued health and well-being does. Count on that.”
“Fine. So, it has to do with me.”
“I know that. Tell me how it has to do with you.”
“I’m a little embarrassed.”
“There’s a time and place for that, and this isn’t it. Spill it.” The words were impatient, the tone was dull if not suggestive.
“It’s like this…” And Goodnature trailed off, chuckling to himself as if at a private joke.
“If I have to start yanking out your teeth, I guarantee you won’t be laughing.”
“So here’s the deal.”
“I have patience, but I don’t see why I need to waste any of it on you.”
“Okay! I like to do it, really. I do. And that’s the truth. It’s a treat. I don’t get much opportunity for it, being what it is. Legere knew all about that, though conniving fuck that he is. He had the four-one-one on me long before we ever met. I was his target as much as you, no matter what you think. Maybe more. It’s a sickness, you know. I can’t help it. But once you do it, once you know you can’t ever really go back, well then, you are there. You can’t undo what it does to you. You can’t take it back and be the same ever—how it takes you, owns you, shapes you.”
“How what takes you? What exactly did you do? Tell me. It’s necessary—so that I know. So that we understand each other.”
“You don’t understand shit.”
Null slapped his face to get his attention, leaving a welt, yet not too hard. It worked. George’s eyes opened wide at attention, and they burned.
“You need to know. Really? Okay. Well, here it is, fucker. I like to feel them die when I climax. I kill them at my orgasm, break their scrawny little necks with my two hands. Their death is my life. It’s fantastic! It’s what I crave, so perfect, so rare and decadent. It’s the best, like it or not. Legere wanted to end your bitch cop’s efforts at busting Hebe Group, as if she really could do that anyway. Put her totally out of commission without killing her. So, he chose the next best thing. How do you go after a mother, right? He gave me her kid as a reward, a present, meant to send her reeling ‘round the bend. It worked. She wound up in the spooky house. Probably where she belonged in the first place.”
“And you think she was the crazy one.”
“Sure! Thinking she could ever stop them. You can’t stop human desire. You can’t stop need, no matter how sick or wrong stupid morals say that need is. It’s undeniable, like god. You’re fighting freaking wind and smoke. Punching out at the fucking holy spirit, for Christ’s sake! “
They glared at each other for a moment. An odd, tenuous connection.
Then Goodnature smirked and drawled, “Are we good? Are you letting me go, now, or what?”
“Sure. I’ll let you go. And I’m also going to hold onto you until you beg me to kill you. We’re not there yet, but we’re definitely on our way. I have some loose ends to tie up first. Then I’ll focus on you.”
“Don’t do me any favors.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“Loose ends. You’re really a stupid fuck. You’ll never wipe out kiddie porn, here or anywhere else. It’s gonna be around forever, getting bigger all the time. You think poor children will ever cease being a commodity for trade on this earth? You actually believe that? Because that’s the way it’s been since the first Cro Magnon man paid for sex with a fish. You admit you’re mentally ill, right? Isn’t that what they say? Well, that’s pretty much a sure sign of it. Legere will finish you off. And if he don’t, they’ve always got the money to find somebody else happy to do the job. Strangle your whacky fucking mouth with your own entrails, you try ending their guaranteed money machine. You got no clue who you’re dealing with.”
“Maybe, but right now I’ve got Hebe cash poor and desperate, and the bitch cop you proudly cite is saner than the both of us put together and she’s out for blood. Your blood, in fact. And I have to tell you, she’s not going to lay a finger on you, but when she sees what’s in store for you, believe me, she’ll be satisfied. After what you did to Rudy.”
“All this drama over one little piece of chicken? Are you fucking serious? Jesus!”
“That’s right. One life. One little, insignificant life is going to make sure you all die in agony.”
“So what I did to the kid you’re going to do to all of us?”
“No, not by a longshot. You’ve all fucked yourselves to death anyway, just like you did to Rudy—the difference is, that, for him, that was it. The end. In your case, however, you don’t really know that it’s the end, and I’m coming to make sure you know it and collect what you owe every single child touched by you in torture and pain.”
“Melodramatic, doncha think?”
“Only if you feel it. And you will.”
“I suppose nobody’s tried buying you off yet, have they?”
“Why would they? What would I need money for?”
“Because that’s why anyone does anything, dipshit.”
“Well, not me. Haven’t you heard?”
“No. I haven’t. Heard what?”
“I’m the meth king of Boston.”
Null moved suddenly close, and he flinched, cut him loose in a few jagged gestures with a bright orange box cutter and left him sitting there in the splintered wooden chair, uncertain, as he limped out the grated security door like a battered machine into the gray and compromised cold light of day.