The Hunt

Twenty

"I have always taught my children to tell right from wrong." Reynolds said calmly. "And if the system did some wrong, we would have to right those wrongs."

"Playing a vigilante role is never the solution, Mr Reynolds." Mark said. I looked at him. His expression was unreadable and I had the feeling he somehow understood what the man in front of us had done.

"So, should I allow those men to go out just like that? Didn't my daughter deserve some justice too? Are Bennett or Vernon better than her, just because of their money or position? When I joined the Army I was told honor means everything and that's what I did. Honor my daughter and her memory. And that's what I taught my other children, not to forget Vicky and what had happened to her. She didn't commit suicide, she was murdered. And no one paid for her murder." Reynolds took a long sip of water "It was my wife who found Vicky's body, dead in her bed. She had taken a whole box of sleeping pills and left us a note telling us why she had decided to put an end to her life. Do you know how unbearable this was for my wife and me? Those men had abused my daughter and yet there was no consequences for them. As I say, Vicky was murdered and the system was partially guilty." His voice sounded melancholy for the very first time since he had been taken to the precinct." Vicky was a smart girl, she could have done whatever she had wanted. Do you have kids, detectives?" He asked suddenly " And wouldn't you do whatever if they were hurt " Reynolds' blue eyes pierced us. I reluctantly admitted to myself I understood what the man in front of us had done." When Vicky was buried, I swore my wife she would have justice, no matter how long it took. And when my other children were old enough I started to think how to do it. "

"Did they agree with your plan?" I asked, even if I already knew the answer.

"They did, from the very first moment I told them. It wasn't that hard to follow their traces. Vernon was almost every day in the papers, for this or that reason. It was disgusting seeing him going to parties with one different girl every night . I wonder if the did any of them the same thing he did to my daughter. " He let go a bitter laughter "After all, his father's money was enough to cover it the first time, so why wouldn't he try again? Maybe you should dig a bit farther into his life, Detectives, who knows if he abused any other girl."

"What about Bennett and Campbell, how did you manage to locate them?" 

"I never forgot their names, how could I? Besides, my daughter left a note when she...when she took the pills, telling they were the ones to be blamed for her death." Reynolds covered his face with his hands. "We just had to do some small research about them. And seeing them in every social event in D. C just made our hate grow bigger.  We  found out Bennett worked at the National Gallery, he was the easiest one to contact. Martha has always had a thing for computers, since she was a little girl and it wasn't hard for her to email him posing as a Quay d'Orsay employee. She pretended to be interested in some collaboration with the Gallery and arranged a dinner with Bennett to talk about it. Then, they walked to his place , he wanted to have one last drink.  That was Elliott and Gerald's turn. They poisoned him with the same pills Vicky had used.  It was a kind of poetic justice, so as to say." Once again, Reynolds laughed bitterly. "I'm tired, Detectives. Can we take a small break?" 

Mark and I looked at each other and we both agreed in making a ten minutes break. "We'll be back in ten." I said before going out of the interrogation room.

"I would have done the same thing." Mark almost yelled as the door closed after us. He took a cigarette and lit it. "All this shit just reassures me in wanting to quit the force. "

"We've already talked about it, Mark. I know how close this case is to what happened to your sister but don't let your emotions take the control."

"They're not taking the control. Fuck, we swore to serve and protect the people, and what are we doing? The whole fucking system failed to this girl and her family and she died because of it. And now, they will pay for just bettering the system's errors."

"They were vigilantes, Mark. They took justice in their own hands."

"And what should they have done? You heard this man, the investigation about the rape was closed because of Vernon's money.  They bribed Harvard Chief of Police to bury it all."

"Then, let the system arrange its own misdoings. One bad apple can't spoil all the others."

"Detectives!" An officer walked out of the room where the questioning was being recorded and rushed into the interrogation room.

Reynolds had his head resting over the table, a small thread of saliva falling down from his open mouth. By his side there was an empty bottle of sleeping pills.

THE END