The Demon Hunter

1: "Do you regret?"

Lauren Miller was lead into the small room where the defendant was already waiting for her. Cuffed and chained to the chair, as he was, he didn't have much choice in that anyway. But still, when she entered the room, she was greeted with a warm, friendly smile from that criminal. And she couldn't help but feel that this wasn't a fake smile, but an honest one.

"Hello!" she greeted him and stepped forward to the empty chair opposing the prisoner on the other side of that blank metal table. "I'm Dr. Lauren Miller, and I'm here to evaluate you." She put down her notebook and pen on the table, next to a pretty big file. The prisoner watched her doing this, lowering his head in a respectful nod.

"Good morning, Dr. Miller," he returned the greeting. The he watched silently as she sat down and browsed through the file quickly. It was an act on her part. She knew the file already. But sometimes it helped to seem a bit unprepared to the defendant, so he might open up some more.

When she looked up again, she found that he was waiting for her patiently. She could as well start the interview now. "Could you give me your full name for the record, please?"

Without any hesitation, the prisoner nodded. "Simon Robert Weisa. Born on the 30th of June 1984."

Lauren gave him a small lenient smile. "You didn't have to state your date of birth with it, but thank you."

Simon shrugged. "I thought it couldn't hurt to be thorough," he replied.

"True." Lauren browsed a little more through the file. There were some things in it however that would give her key words, so she would know what to address. "Could you tell me some more about you?"

The look in Simon's face changed a bit - he seemed confused. "What exactly would you like to know?"

"Oh, I don't know..." That innocent ignorance was an act, and Lauren hoped that the prisoner would not look right through it. Somehow she already had the feeling that this interview would not go the same way all the other interviews and evaluations had gone with the other prisoners during her career. There was something odd about this one... "Maybe your childhood?"

"Hmm..." Lauren saw that he gave it serious thought. Other prisoners in his place had mocked her or had turned on her, becoming outright aggressive. But not this one. Interesting... "Come to think of it, I had a very happy childhood. I grew up in a big house, had more than enough to eat. We never had financial troubles, I had some good education. Some friends I liked to spend my spare time with - we were chasing each other around the block, playing cops and robbers and such stuff..."

Lauren put that down in her notebook. "And after you graduated, you made a living for yourself." She stated that right from his file.

"Yes, I found a job as a technical consultant," Simon confirmed. "It was a good job, the pay was average enough, and I had the chance to help people with problems."

"Oh, so you like to help people?" Not that the file didn't state that, too, but the honest tone in which Simon had said it did surprise Lauren once more. This whole impression she got from him here didn't fit with the horrendous crime that he was in here for.

Simon nods. "It feels good to help someone in need."

Did he know already? Or did he at least have a hunch about what this sort of questioning was aiming at? There was one question on Lauren's mind, and it became bigger by the minute. For a moment she considered that she had the wrong file here... that this man, as polite and friendly he was, without showing any signs of hidden thoughts, could not be the murderer that this file described him as.

Also... she couldn't really describe it, but he seemed to... radiate something. Some kind of positive energy that she had never felt around any of those other criminals she had dealt with. And she noticed that she hadn't been the only one. The guard that had escorted her into this room to talk to Simon had regarded him with a short glimpse and a nod that seemed to express some sort of respect and understanding. That was really rare for a prison guard.