FOUR
“Am I under arrest?” Dave asked Cortez and Miller.
He was sitting in an interrogation room at the police station. Cortez was sitting in front of him, Miller leaning against the door. Miller had taken off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves to show off his muscles. So that wasn’t only fat but a whole lot of muscle as well. Obviously he was trying to intimidate him. Dave had seen enough movies to know that meant Cortez would be playing the good cop.
“No. We just brought you in for questioning, so don’t start to ask for a lawyer, asshole,” Cortez told him. Maybe she wasn’t going to play good cop after all.
Dave sighed. “Just ask your questions then and let me go. I’m really hungry.”
“If your answers satisfy us we will let you go,” Cortez said. “Where were you yesterday between 22:00 and 04:00?”
“I was watching the movie I told you about. And in bed. Oh, I guess I might have been up at that time, I had a buddy over.”
Cortez frowned. “At 4:00 or what?”
“I have this friend… He can be a bit of a pain the ass sometimes. He was out of beer so he let himself in, waking me up.”
“Does that friend have a name?” Cortez asked.
“Johnny. Johnny Darkness. Well, no that’s what they call him. He was born with the name Goldstein.”
“All right. We’ll check that with him then. So you have no other alibi for your whereabouts?”
“I was online for quite a period of time that evening. I guess your techies could verify that if you had a look at my logs or shit like that.”
“Do you use a laptop?” Cortez asked.
“Yeah.”
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“So you could have used that anywhere. Or someone else might have used it for you,” Cortez said.
Dave put his head on the table. “Now you’re saying I’m not only a psychopathic killer but I’m in a group of killers?”
Dave felt a strong grip grabbing his hair, pulling his head up. He could smell Miller’s breath.
“Sit straight, you fuck!” Miller warned him.
“I really have to object to your way of questioning. Maybe I should get a lawyer!”
“Take it easy. Just give us a good explanation how you knew the details about the murder and we’re all good,” Cortez said. “You will have to understand how strange your story sounds. And we’re really eager to catch this killer. A murder that brutal cannot be left unpunished. I’m sure you agree to that?”
“Hey, I do! To me it sounds look someone is copycatting the video. That’s fucking weird and awful. I will do whatever I can to help you catch the killer. I’m telling you the truth. Listen, I put out some feelers about the movie. Maybe someone other than yourself will react, shining some light on the subject.”
“So you’re saying we should trust you? That you might be helpful to us?” Cortez asked.
“Something like that, yeah. I know all about horror movies. I know a lot of fanatics too. If someone is copycatting an obscure movie like that he is very likely to be in one of the online communities I’m in. He must be someone with a very big interest in hard to find horror flicks to have gotten his hands on that movie. I know a lot of people in the horror community. Fans, creators… I might be able to help.”
“Yeah, right,” Miller grunted.
Cortez leaned back in her chair. Stared at the ceiling. Slapped her hand on the table, startling Dave more than any jump scare from a movie ever had. “All right!”
“What?” Dave said.
“What?” Miller said.
“I’m saying you might have a point there. We’re letting you go for now. We’ll be checking up on you every now and then to make sure you don’t leave the city. You try to find out what you can and let us know,” Cortez said.
That surprised Miller. “You’re kidding!”
Cortez shook her head, arms crossed. “No, I’m not. Slatter has got a point. We know nothing about the horror community. If this movie he’s talking about is real he might have his uses.”
Miller got a bit worked up. “That fucking movie ain’t real! He’s talking shit!”
“Think about it,” Cortez argued. “If he really killed that woman… why would he go online about it like that and incriminate himself like that?”
“He’s a fucking psychopath! How the hell should I know why he did that? That’s what the profilers and shrinks are for. We just catch the killers, not explain their action.”
“What I’m saying is Mr. Slatter is still a person of interest, that hasn’t changed. But he might be useful as well,” Cortez said.
“I really feel uncomfortable about you folks talking about me if I’m not there,” Slatter said.
“Shut up,” Miller told him.
“If you don’t want me to speak I figure I can go.”
Miller got red in the face, clenched his fists.
“Take it easy,” Cortez told him. “We will have to let Mr. Slatter go for now.”
“Guess you are the good cop of the team after all,” Slatter said, smiling.