Paint the town red

Chapter V

It was already noon on Thursday, when Max and I were sitting in the office and, allowing ourselves to be distracted from everyday routine work, we talked about our common and favorite topic – "true crime". Still, it's good when someone shares your dark and, for someone, maybe disgusting passions.

"Jealousy and rage are two of the most common triggers for murder in a state of passion. Well, think for yourself how many crimes were committed because of jealousy? And most of them were committed in a state of affect."

"I agree, Max, feelings, especially personal ones, can always provoke a person to thoughtless actions."

"Are they always thoughtless?"

"What do you mean?"

I looked at my partner and leaned back in my own chair. Max propped his head on his hand and looked at me intently.

"There were cases when the state of affect was simulated. And sometimes very skillfully."

I nodded, because indeed such cases also occurred, but there weren't so many of them, one could say – a few. And then, with a more thorough study of each individual case, all these "states of affect" could be refuted.

"That's true, yes. But many of them were later challenged by professional doctors."

"Yeah, yeah, like the dad who killed the sociopathic teenager who killed his son?"

I don't remember that case. Or I haven't heard about that. I raised my eyebrow questionably, and Max smiled. I bet that he has just noted one "victory" for himself, because at last he talked about a case I haven't even heard of.

"A teenager killed an eight-year-old boy because he saw a guy kill a homeless cat and threatened to tell his parents. He beat a child and shoved rocks down his throat, eventually he died of asphyxia. In court, his lawyer insisted that the crime was committed in a fit of rage and despair, that is, in a state of affect."

"And what does his father have to do with it?"

Now Max copied my pose and leaned back in his chair, then crossed his arms on his chest.

"The father was the psychiatrist of that teenager, he diagnosed him with "sociopathy", because of which the guy was sent to a mental institution for treatment. He was mistreated there, so he ran away and decided to kill the psychiatrist's son to get revenge. Well, at least that's what the investigators concluded."

"Actually, that makes sense."

"Wait, wait. There's more."

I listened attentively to my partner, and he calmly talked about the case, occasionally accompanying his words with gestures. He told in more detail: as a result, after the court hearing, where the verdict was announced to the teenager, the boy's father shot him and was supposed to go to prison, but instead he was sent for compulsory treatment, and the judge ruled that the murder occurred in a state of affect. And it was only by a "happy" accident, namely the fact that his wife came to the police with a statement, doctors were able to prove that the man killed the teenager not in a state of affect, but intentionally. He was a psychiatrist himself and knew exactly well how to behave and what to say to mitigate his punishment.

It's a complicated case, but in the end I felt sorry for the little boy's mother – she lost not only her son, but also her husband. But I didn't feel sorry for the dead teenager's mother, since it was indicated in the case that she herself decided not to treat her son at all, which led to the murder of the psychiatrist's child, and then to the death of her own son.

While we were discussing this case, Frederick came into our office and brought a small folder with some papers. What is this? Some kind of a case for us?