Gods and Monsters

XII

Interview Room 2 -Scotland Yard, London

Mike stood opposite the handcuffed Eddie Brody in one of the interrogation rooms at Charing Cross Police Station. After the crash, paramedics had looked him over and found that, at worst, he'd have a bit of whiplash, and some cuts and bruises. The grey room was cooler than the rest of the building. Mike always asked to have the temperature set higher or lower than room temperature, just to throw off the suspects a little. He wasn't sure if it ever actually had any effect on them, but he had done it enough times now that it was almost a ritual. Eddie was forced to keep leaning forward into his restrained hands so he could push his glasses further up his nose. He was clearly uncomfortable and was not the calculated criminal everyone had expected him to be.

"Look, Eddie, you're going down for this no matter what, alright? The best thing you can do is tell us where you got the chemicals for the experiments from. Give us a name," Mike said calmly. "However, if you don't tell me where you got the chemicals from, I'd be more than happy to let some of the other prisoners know you're a kiddie-fiddler. Now I'm sure you know what they do to paedophiles in prison, don't you Eddie?" At this, Eddie Brody completely broke down. His weeping turned into a kind of wailing that a banshee might misinterpret as a mating call.

"No! No please! It was the man!"

"C'mon lad, I need a bit more than what his gender is."

"The man with the blue eyes!"

"Oh, great! I'm sure that narrows it down to only a couple million people it could possibly be. Next you'll be telling me he has two ears, a nose and a mouth."

"No, you don't understand," Brody tried to continue between snot and tears, "his eyes were the bluest I've ever seen. Like the sky, or the ocean, or a sapphire. Yeah, two large sapphires."

Mike raised his eyebrows, questioning Eddie's response.

"Look we'll get you to give a description of this bloke so we can get an e-fit going round, but what I want to know is why? Why did this guy give you these chemicals and why did you accept them?"

"He said he could cure my brother," Eddie said rather softly, wiping away the remaining tears. Mike flicked through his files quickly now. What brother? His files never mentioned a brother. Mike was going to have to improvise.

"Speaking of your brother, whereabouts is he? Might be good for us to have a chat with him as well, see what he knows about ol' blue eyes."

Eddie paused for a second before starting a rather terrifyingly maniacal laugh. "It worked then! It actually worked!" He let out a little "whoopee" before attempting to regain his composure, his smile carved into his face. Mike was getting a lot of Dr Frankenstein vibes now and he found himself rather uncomfortable.

"Are you saying that your brother is out there on the loose then? Why did you give him the chemicals?" Mike couldn't imagine that Captain Smiley would be too pleased if it was his team that had to get called out to apprehend another suspect.

"You needn't worry about my brother, detective. I'm surprised no one was informed about him previously. My brother, Jared, suffers — well I guess it's now suffered — from motor neurone disease. He's been restricted to a wheelchair since he was 14. I was doing the tests to try and find a cure for him. It appears my last dose was refined enough for it to have the desired effect without the... unfortunate cannibalistic tendencies. If you haven't found him yet, I can only hypothesise that he has been cured and has gone to start a new life, somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of London. I wish him the best of luck."

Mike was utterly stunned at this. How had they not known about his brother? Mike wasn't usually the one to find silver linings in bad situations, but at least, if what Eddie was saying was true, his brother Jared shouldn't be causing any trouble. At least, that was what Mike could hope. The door swung open as a rather pompous middle-aged man strolled into the room.

"My client will not be answering any further questions without me first speaking to him." A lawyer, of course.

"No need mate, he's said all we need already."

Continued in Part 13