CHAPTER NINE
Alex lost a lot of his bravado by the time they shackled him to a table and sat across from him. Faith got the impression that he wasn’t used to being in a police station. Despite his history of extreme behavior, this was the first time he had actually been arrested.
He sat in a pose that looked like a cross between a slump and a sprawl, with his legs splayed out in front of him, his back arched and his shoulders slumped forward. His eyes stared moodily ahead above a petulant frown, and his right index finger tapped restlessly on the table. Turk growled at him, and he stopped tapping, giving the dog an injured look.
Faith and Michael watched him for a moment. He refused to meet their eyes.
“Why’d you run, Alex?” Faith asked, breaking the silence.
Alex shrugged.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna work for us,” Michael said. “We ask you a question, and you answer us. Why did you run?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled.
"Yes, you do," Faith said. "You don't want to tell us, but you have a reason."
He shrugged again.
Faith sighed and leaned forward. “You need to start talking to us, Alex. We have evidence that you may have murdered two innocent people.”
Alex flinched. He stared at the two agents in shock. “What? You’re kidding me.”
The agents’ stony faces told him that they were not, in fact, kidding.
He leaned back and whined. “Oh my God. What are you talking about? I’ve been home all day.”
“What about last night? Or three nights ago?”
“Home! I… Oh my God. This is crazy.”
The door opened, and a stoic police sergeant handed Faith a piece of paper. It was a report from Cuthbert. Faith skimmed the document, and her eyebrows lifted. “Okay,” she said, setting the paper face up on the table. She spun it around with her thumb and forefinger and pushed it toward Alex. “Now we’re serious.”
Alex glanced at the paper, and his face went white. “Oh my God. Those are the victims?”
The report was a transcript of a few texts and emails between Alex and the two victims. Alex warned Marcus Reeves that he would tear his throat at and told Alison Chen that he hoped she choked to death on her own vomit.
There were some other flowery threats in there, but those were the two that stuck out in Faith’s mind because of how similar they were to the actual deaths.
“You want to tell me what happened?” she asked.
“Nothing!”
“Definitely not nothing,” Michael said.
“Well… I don’t know.”
His lower lip was trembling, and tears were leaking from his cheeks. Faith resisted the urge to curl her lip in disgust. "Let's start with the alibis. Can anyone confirm that you were home?"
He sniffled. “I mean, not at night.” He chuckled bitterly. “Figures those are the only nights I don’t have a girl over.”
“Life’s a bitch, ain’t it?” Michael quipped.
“Okay,” Faith continued. “So you see our problem here. We have two dead bodies, and we have you threatening to kill them in exactly the manner in which they were killed.”
Alex’s eyes popped open. “They tore the guy’s throat out?”
“Yes.”
Forrester looked sick. “It wasn’t me. You gotta believe me.”
“No, we don’t. We have to determine the truth. Right now, it’s not looking very good for you.”
They fell silent and watched Alex for a moment. The kid’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and he breathed heavily. He was clearly afraid, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a killer. It didn’t take a lot of bravery to murder someone one on one with a weapon.
However, it did take some bravery to let a deadly wild animal out of its enclosure. Faith could see Alex opening the snake cage, not realizing how aggressive black mambas were, but pretty much everyone understood that a jaguar could effortlessly kill you if it felt so inclined.
Alex hadn’t wanted to mess with Turk, but then again, Turk was very clearly being aggressive, and he was wearing a K9 vest and under the command of the FBI agent ordering him to surrender. And he didn’t seem prostrate with fear, just aware that he wasn’t going to beat Turk in a fight.
She needed to probe further.
“Why did you send those messages.”
“Because they were assholes. They treated animals like shit and got away with it. That’s not cool.”
There was no anger in Alex’s voice. He was just stating a fact. Actually, he sounded pretty miserable now that it was dawning on him that there was a solid chance he would end up spending time in jail. Quite a lot of time.
“And you think that justifies killing them?”
Alex sighed. He rolled his eyes and said, “Look, I didn’t kill them. But… if you’re asking me honestly, yes. I think they deserved to die for what they did.” He wasn’t afraid anymore, or at least that fear was masked behind his passion for animal rights. “Think about it: why do we get treated differently just because we’re, what? Smarter than animals? I mean, that’s cool, and it’s how we became the dominant species on the planet, but we have to be good stewards. I’m not even saying we shouldn’t eat meat, just that we should be… you know, not assholes.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if you know what you mean,” Michael said.
Alex sighed again. “What if someone hurt your dog? Turk, you said, right?”
“That’s right,” Faith confirmed.
“Well, what if someone hurt him? What if someone beat your dog or kicked him or threatened to kill him or starved him to death? What would you do?”
An image of West’s manic grin as he held Turk up by his neck crossed Faith’s mind. She heard the sound of Turk’s yelp as his boot slammed into his ribs.
“Honestly? I’d kill them.”
Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but Faith kept her eyes on Alex.
“Exactly,” Alex said, relieved.
“Exactly,” Faith agreed.
It took Alex a moment to realize his mistake. When he did, the color drained from his face. “Wait. No… I didn’t…” He looked up at the ceiling, then lifted his hands as far as the shackles would allow and held them open in front of him, fingers splayed. “I didn’t kill them! They deserved to die, but I didn’t kill them!”
“Why not?”
He blinked. “What?”
“Why didn’t you kill them? They deserved to die. You tell your sycophants in the Knights of Nature to stand up violently to animal abusers. Why didn’t you kill them?”
“I don’t… When did I… Are you talking about the essays? That was satire!”
“You just told me that Marcus Reeves and Alison Chen deserved to die.”
“They did! But I don’t tell my people to kill them! Read more of my work. I wrote those essays for a fiction project in literature class. It got published after the demonstration where we wore animal skins because the news likes to make everyone look violent.”
“Telling me that people deserve to die sounds pretty violent.”
Alex dropped his head. A moment later, he started speaking again, going slowly as though trying to make the two of them understand a simple concept that they should have no trouble getting through their heads. “Some people deserve to die. Killing them, unfortunately, only creates more people who deserve to die.”
“Interesting philosophy,” Michael said. “Can you expand on that?”
“Do you support our cause?”
Michael raised an eyebrow. "The Knights of Nature, you mean? No."
“Why not?”
“Because you advocate violence.”
“Exactly my point. We don’t advocate violence, but the media has successfully made it look like we do. So you don’t support our cause because you associate it with violence. I didn’t kill Alison Chen and Marcus Reeves because… well, frankly because I didn’t think I’d get away with it, but also because I knew it would just make more people who don’t give a shit about animals and think we should protect people who treat them like shit.”
“Beautiful speech,” Faith said. “But there’s one little catch. The media didn’t do shit. You did. You threatened them. That’s what makes it look like you’re violent.”
Alex sighed. "Please do more research. I will admit that I harassed them. I'll even go to jail for that if I have to. It's like, what? Six months?"
“Depends. Not very long.”
“Okay, so fine. If I have to do that, I will. I’d prefer not to, but I will. But please look deeper into those essays and into what the Knights of Nature actually stand for. Yes, we say shocking things, but we do that to get people to think. Just like my example of someone beating Turk to death. It got you to think about the animals instead of just yourself. If you check us out, really check us out, you’ll find that we’ve never been violent, ever. We’ve performed peaceful demonstrations. We’ve never even resisted arrest.”
“You resisted today.”
“I evaded arrest. I didn’t resist. I didn’t fight you.”
“You were going to,” Faith said. “You charged me. What were you going to do if Turk wasn’t there to protect me.”
He lowered his head again. “Just please look into us more deeply. I’m not a murderer.”
“Tell me why you ran,” Faith insisted, “and I’ll look into your club more.”
He slumped. “I… I knew that I had said some stuff that was inflammatory. I thought the cops would come talk to me, but when I saw the FBI uniforms, I freaked out. I thought… I don’t know. I’ve heard stories about people who come with you guys and disappear for good.”
“Don’t believe everything you read,” Michael replied.
“Same to you,” Alex fired back.
Michael smiled slightly. “Fair enough. Sit tight, kid.”
The three agents left the room. When they were on the other side of the two-way mirror, Cuthbert was scowling. “He’s lying. Kid’s lying through his teeth.”
“You’re sure?” Faith asked. Uncertainty flickered across Cuthbert’s face, and that was enough for her. “Dig a little deeper into his claims. And look at the real history of the Knights of Nature. Let’s see if there’s any substance to what he’s saying.”
Cuthbert reddened further, but he controlled himself. "All right. I suppose we should be sure before we throw the book at him." He glared through the mirror. "Christ, I wish we could just arrest the prick on principle." Before Faith could say anything, he said, "I know, I know. Work with your brain, not your emotions. We'll do a more thorough investigation. In the meantime, though, I suggest letting him sweat. Worst-case scenario, that'll teach him not to be such a dick when he's released."
“I’m in favor of that,” Michael seconded.
“Fine with me,” Faith agreed.
Cuthbert left to get that started. When the door closed behind him, Michael turned to Faith. “I’m twisting your arm. Is he the killer, yes or no?”
She sighed. “No. I don’t think so.”
“I figured you would say that. Do you believe him?”
“I believe that he didn’t murder Alison Chen and Marcus Reeves. I also believe that he didn’t actually perpetrate any violence or get his group to perpetrate violence.”
“And your reason for that is?”
“He’s a coward.”
“Cowards kill people all the time.”
“Yes, but he’s specifically afraid of arrest.”
“He specifically said he would go to jail for six months,” Michael reminded her.
“Only to avoid jail for two life terms.”
“You’re nitpicking, Faith.”
“The Devil is in the details, Michael. Look, I don’t have conclusive evidence that he’s not our killer. That’s why we’re looking deeper. If it turns out the Knights or Alex himself do have a history of violence, then he’s back to being suspect number one for me. If not, then I’m thinking this is a case of a kid whose bark is far worse than his bite.”
Michael sighed. “Are we sure that everyone in the group is the same?”
“No. And if we clear Alex, the next step for the police will be to look into every other member and associate of the Knights of Nature. But like you said, we’re going to follow this lead to the end.” She shook her head. “I just don’t think he’s our guy.”
Michael nodded. “Well, that’s a valid opinion. We’ll wait and see. Coffee?”
“Sure. Thank you.”
Michael headed to the breakroom for coffee. Faith leaned in her chair and steepled her fingers in front of her. She looked at Alex but saw the victims, murdered for past crimes by someone far more serious about protecting animals than Alex was. Alex might be passionate about the philosophy, but he cared far more about his own skin than animal skins.
Still, a part of her hoped she was wrong. If the nervous college kid she was staring at wasn’t their killer, then their killer was still out there somewhere planning his next kill. And catching him would be far more difficult with no lead to guide them.
And who knew what fate he had in store for his next victim?