“Wait,” Steph said, “we spoke with Harry not long ago, and he was still professing his innocence to us.” Levinson was nodding.
“I didn’t say he was admitting guilt, sweetheart. What I’m saying is that Harry Lightman is sharing his experiences. The one thing you have to remember is that we aren’t here to extrapolate his guilt or innocence. A court of law has already determined that. You are here to see whether Harry Lightman is still safely locked up and not running around town killing innocent victims again. I’m here to learn from what he has to tell me. The experiences I talk of are from before he was locked up. Harry endured some pretty horrific experiences from an early age. Did you know that he has no penis, for instance?”
“Pardon me?” I said.
“The man has had no penis for the better part of his life. You want to talk about evil, Jim? When he was twelve years old, Harry’s father took him to a whore house. Now before you get all mushy-eyed, thinking his father was giving his son a nice treat, he took him there for his own sick pleasure. You see, Harry’s father had paid to see the lad suffer. Had paid the whore above the normal rate to ‘inflict suffering’ on him while his father sat in the corner masturbating himself. You want to talk about evil, Jim? Once she had him tied to that bed, that whore not only bit him multiple times, the scars still visible, but just before his father climaxed, the whore had bitten the lad’s penis off, the blood spurting over her face as his father squirted over the floor.” I felt sick, my stomach turning. I looked at Steph and saw her face grow pale, her mouth open in horror.
“I…,” I began but couldn’t finish.
“Not what you were expecting? The evil I speak of, was his father. Now dead of course. And by studying evil, I’m talking about the opportunity to learn about Harry’s suffering. Make his life, what little he has left, actually mean something. Whether he is guilty or not is not something I ever think about. If I can learn something from his suffering, am able to use that knowledge to help others, then that is something worth learning, don’t you agree?” I nodded, the nausea finally abating. It wasn’t that I had an overly sensitive stomach, it was just that what he described came so suddenly and unexpected that it caught me completely off guard.
“What does he have?” Steph asked.
“A lung infection that we are struggling to control. I am simply trying to learn as much as I possibly can within the time we have left. That’s why I have been devoting so much time to him. Does that about answer your questions?” I nodded, embarrassingly. I looked at Steph but she was already rising to her feet, holding out her hand to him.
“Thank you for your time, Doctor, I appreciate it.” He shook with her then me, his eyes never leaving mine, as if trying to drum home his words from the previous five minutes. We walked out, closing the door behind us. As we were leaving, I heard his voice, growing fainter with each step.
“Ah, welcome back, Harry. I apolo…” but that’s where his voice grew too quiet for me to hear. Harry had been waiting behind the door. I was wondering whether he had actually been allowed to listen in on us when another voice called out to us. It was the warden.
“Excuse me. Officer Connor? One second, please.” We stopped and turned to find the warden actually running up the hallway.
“Yes, Sir?” Steph asked as he approached.
“You have a phone call. Its Chief Rademeyer for you.”
Chapter 6: Rekindled Passions
1.
As we left the police station a couple of hours later, my stomach actually rumbled so loud that Steph looked around for a dog or something. She looked at me when I started rubbing my belly and laughed.
“I need food,” was all I could manage and she nodded, pointing at her car.
The reprimand from Rademeyer wasn’t as bad as we were expecting. It was actually a vast improvement over our previous meetings with him. For one, it was the warden that had called him, complaining about our unexpected arrival and subsequent pursuit of the good doctor. When Steph explained our findings in the ledgers we reviewed from the prison, the chief actually looked interested, keen for us to get any sort of sense of direction with this case. We also told him about what the doctor had told us about Lightman and he nodded.
“At least it confirms it’s not Lightman. So, that means we have a killer to catch, people. Any ideas?” he said, leaning across the desk, resting on his outstretched hands.
“I think we need to speak to Clancy again,” I said.
“The Janitor? Why?” Rademeyer asked.
“Just him visiting with Lightman for as long as he did. I think he knows more than he’s letting on,” I replied. The chief nodded his head, for once agreeing without some smart remark. Steph and I thanked him for his time then decided to head out and make a beeline for lunch. And at this stage, I didn’t care where lunch came from.
2.
We ended up back at Mrs. McNorton’s a little after 4. She was just beginning to clean out some of her display food when we strolled in, the smell of the place making my stomach rumble again.
“Jim, back again?” I nodded then introduced her to Steph. Steph shook her hand and complimented her on how lovely her café was. Mrs. McNorton thanked
