A notorious serial killer is fatally wounded in a encounter with the police. In his final moments, an officer asks him why he killed all those people. Make me sympathize with the killer.
The man before me was dying. I stood staring at him stunned. We had been trying to catch this guy for years. Every time we came close, he was gone before we got there. So many innocent lives taken because we had been too slow. Finally though, finally we had him. I looked down at the man that was bleeding out on the concrete. He could have been anyone, he looked just like someone you meet in the street. I felt suddenly unsure of my decision to shoot him.
‘Why did you do it?’ I asked, hoping he would tell me something to make my guilt ease. He choked out a laugh.
‘So you want to know now? Typical. Shoot first, ask later, that’s how the system works isn’t it?’ He laughed again, a hollow empty laugh. I stood above him in silence.
‘You want me to tell you it was fun, that I enjoyed it. I can see it on your face.’ He spat blood onto the concrete beside him. I shrugged, uncomfortable that he was able to read me so easily.
‘I didn’t do it for fun. I didn’t enjoy it, I had to do it. Why though, why would I kill innocents? I think you know. We aren’t so different, you and me. You’ve got a uniform and the law on your side. Me though, I don’t do it your way, no one wants to know what these people have done. It’s justice, it always has been. We all die for our dirty little secrets.’ He coughed and closed his eyes.
‘I can see what they did, I can see who they have hurt and I made them suffer like they made their prey suffer.’ He paused for a moment, eyes still closed. I thought he might have slipped into unconsciousness.
‘It was justice.’ He repeated again, finally falling into unconsciousness. My mind was already going over the victims I knew about. Some had been on trial for different sexual offences but none had been convicted. If they were guilty it would have made them some of the worst people alive, but they were all innocent, weren’t they?
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