8

 

Khalil has rented a motel room for the next couple days until he can think things over. When he wakes up the next morning the pain and discomfort are back, it seems the more he replenishes the faster it dissipates and the harder it returns. He needs to feed this addiction so he can think clearly and figure out how he's going to get himself out of this mess. He returns to those he knows will do exactly what he needs when they see the money. But because of a previous victim, he goes to a different part of town for his prey.

You can find the servants of sex everywhere; it just depends on the money you want to spend. Your more expensive ladies of the night will hang out where the money is; casinos and poker rooms. Khalil just needs someone now, show these street walkers the cash and they are ready to go. He walks to the dim corner and approaches the first woman he sees.

Down the block walks up Janis and Red, they've taken a shot in the dark and come to an avenue to speak with these working girls. Red had the idea that he may go back to hitting on prostitutes, and he is sure that he wouldn't go back to the center of town where he attacked Tina Nguyen. He will need a new hunting ground.

"Hey baby, you looking for a good time?" one of the street walkers asks Red as he walks up with Janis.

"How 'bout you girl," another seductively says to her, "I like ladies."

"I appreciate that," Janis says sarcastically, "how about if you just tell us if you've seen this guy."

Janis and Red show the composite drawing. The artist didn't put in the patchy skin and the charcoal shading make the man look like he could be any race; this is more important now more than ever.

"Sorry, I haven't seen anyone like that," the pro tells them.

The investigators walk the block showing and asking anyone who will look and listen.

"I'm gonna head further down and ask these ladies over here," Red says, leaving Janis to deal with the ones closer to her. He takes two steps and then sees a man fitting the description; he looks like he's about to walk off with one of the women. "Hey, I wanna talk to you." The man panics and starts to run. "JANIS!" Red shouts for her as he begins his pursuit, "Police; stop right there!"

 

Janis watches as Red turns the corner but she can still hear his boisterous voice carry, "Don't make me shoot you mother-fucker." When she comes around the corner she sees Red point his gun in the air and fire a shot. The man fleeing stops in his tracks, most likely thinking he would be shot if he kept running. Knowing he won’t go anywhere, Red walks the rest of the way to the suspect and pushes him down to the ground.

"Why are you running?" Red says as he slaps the cuffs on; then he rolls the perpetrator over for a better look at him. Red can't believe his eyes, "Hello Khalil, we've been looking for you."

Sparrow and Burns get him back to the precinct and into an interrogation room.

"I'm gonna tell you right here, right now," Burns smiles at him from across the table. "We have your DNA under the nails of the hooker you left dead in the alleyway. We just want to know why?"

"You will never believe me," Khalil says with his head down in shame.

"Try us," Janis tells him. "Is it because you were born a black male and you sit in front of us now as a white man?"

The blonde sitting in front of him peers up with a distressed look on his face, "Who will ever believe my story?"

"Tell it to us anyway," Red says.

Khalil starts at the beginning, how he's never known any other life but pain and illness. He only remembers a life of hiding, only standing out in school because of the way he looked while his friends would stand out as the handsome athlete.

"You can imagine what it was like when the first girl to show interest in me falls to the floor after she kissed me. The one from the movie theatre was an accident. I had no idea that was going to happen. I was just happy to meet someone that wasn't afraid of the way I looked." He follows up with how he never meant to hurt anyone, all he ever wanted to do was minimize his own pain and discomfort. "That's why I picked the prostitutes."

"What about Barbra Tanner?" Janis slides him a picture of the victim in the night club bathroom, "She wasn't a prostitute."

"Yes she was. She was the worst kind of whore. She had different men paying different bills for her; it came from her own mouth to a friend of hers on the phone. She has one guy pay off her car while another pays her rent. She's the worst kind because she uses men; those that walk the street only use themselves to get their drugs. Barbra had no addiction to feed, just the lust for money and the power over men. I can only imagine what she had in store for me, would I be the one to pay off her credit card bill?"

"What you're telling me is you regret what you did to the street walkers, but you're proud of what you did to the socialite?" Red leans in to look him in the eyes.

"That woman had no idea what she had and that she was taking it for granted," Khalil winces in pain. "She could've had everything she wanted, but she decided to use people instead. Do you think if she was given a second chance she would live a different kind of life? Look at me; I was never given a chance at it. It would be understandable if I was experimented on, filled with some test chemical and turned into this. As scared as the villagers were of Dr. Frankenstein's monster, nobody could blame him for what he was, he didn't create himself, and a mad scientist did. What am I supposed to do when the mad scientist is Mother Nature?" Khalil was already weak when they caught him, but now he is deteriorating in front of Red and Janis. His skin tone begins to fade, his face grimaces in pain, "You tell me I should feel sorry for a woman who has everything when nature does this to me?"

The detectives have no choice but to call the medical staff in to give Khalil aid. Even the paramedics are stunned when the convulsions stop and the prisoner begins to settle down. They wheel him out of the interrogation room unconscious on a stretcher. All Detectives Burns and Sparrow can do now is gather the evidence and proceed to indict him on murder charges.

"This shit is gonna be a fun one," Red says as they watch their prime suspect be wheeled away.