Glen

Chapter 6

Katey was quiet.

She was...too quiet, if you'll pardon the cliché. Katey was in the news for having witnessed the beating death of a homeless teenager; a 16-year-old High School drop-out who had been kicked out of his house for being gay. The perps were never caught because she refused to identify or testify them. She had been the only witness.

As I've stated before, I cannot abide the harming of a child. It disgusts me. What disgusts me more is someone who would rather cover their own asses than help a kid. He needed someone, anyone, and he died alone in an alley.

Cody chuckled, in spite of himself.

"Something funny, Doc?"

"I'm sorry, Glen! It's just...ironic how angry you would get over someone dying with no one to help them."

I found myself taken aback by Doc Cody's behavior. It seemed Doc wasn't as amicable as he had originally seemed after our last visit. I should have probably been understanding, sympathetic, knowing what I knew, but I got angry, instead.

"I told you, Doc! I'm doing God's work, and the bitch committed a sin! They all sinned. Why are you really here, Doc? To capitalize on my sins? To find a body? Or are you here to learn how to kill without giving a fuck?"

He was visibly startled. "What do you mean?"

"I know..." My words caught in my throat. I may have been angry, but I couldn't bring myself to draw that kind of blood. "I know you think I'm just some sicko, but I do have a soft spot for kids, okay?"

Doc stared at me, apprehensively, and then nodded. He gestured for me to continue. I would bring up his son, but not like that.

I was enraged by Katey's cowardice. She could have given that boy's soul some peace, but she flaked out. All she had to do was identify two men and put them in prison.

"Did you consider she may have been thinking of her own self-preservation?" Doc asked, in a hushed tone.

"What was there to preserve? She was in more danger letting them wander free. Then, again, it wasn't really them she needed to fear, was it?"

I planned it out to run into her at her favorite coffee place. It had taken me months to learn her routine and, now that I had, she was going to learn that silence wasn't gold, at all.

She was playing on her phone at a booth, and I approached her with a smile.

"Hi," I said, cheerfully. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

She looked around the room. She seemed satisfied with the number of people. "I...guess."

"I hope I'm not being weird! You just looked kind of lonely!"

She smiled, sheepishly. "I mean, I'm not, but I don't mind the company, I suppose!"

"Great! I was getting pretty bored, honestly! Coffee shops are no fun alone!"

We spent hours talking; more like I talked, she listened. She contributed little, at first, but the more time we spent together, the more talkative we became.

When she had to leave, we exchanged numbers. I was going to play this one, slowly. Considering she had been on the news, I had to tread, carefully.

"When you killed her, the police ended up booking the men she was meant to identify, correct?"

"That's right. They had motive, and the cops were able to match them to the boy's murder. It was a win-win for me!"