The Devil's Pet

Chapter 21

Monday June 30, 2008

Luis Ortega walked up to Bill’s desk with a file in hand, and Bill thought it was about time, he wanted to know who this mystery man was.

Bill said, “What’ve you got Ortega?” 

Reuben filtered over to join in.

Ortega replied, “We have positive ID’s on Jimmy Moore, Deshaun Barnes and Carl Smith but the last one is coming up a John Doe. He had no ID on him not even a label on his clothes or shoes and let me tell you those were custom made expensive clothes. I can tell somebody must have made those on their own machines. My grandmother used to have a business making custom clothes, you know, suits and dresses for wealthy people and the like. I know what to look for and these clothes our John Doe was wearing were of the highest quality. Anyway, probably no surprise but there was no fingerprint match either, but the DNA test is pending and that should take a few more days. It’s not out of the question that he was involved in drug deals because we found almost two grand in twenties in his pocket. The strange thing was they were all old worn bills, not a one in the roll newer than 1987. Anyway, I’m not sure if that means anything but there it is.”

This was not what Bill wanted to hear, “Shit! Another fucking John Doe! What is it with Collins that he leaves a trail of nameless bodies behind him?” 

Ortega looked puzzled, “Why does it matter? You, we got the collar, he’s guilty as sin--we have eye witnesses that he killed those three men--he can’t wiggle out of this one, this time we’ve got him dead to rights. He’s going to jail for the rest of his life, so if he killed some other people and we can’t prove it, he still has only one life to give to justice, right? After all it’s not like you can give someone the death penalty twice.”

“I know he’s going to jail, that’s not it. I wanted to make the connection between Collins and this John Doe. Maybe then we can get a clue as to why a seemingly normal guy with no criminal history, an educated man with a family, would turn into a ruthless killer almost overnight. I feel like I need to figure this out.”

Reuben said, “You sound like me now Bill. Whatever happened to “Fuck them I don’t care why they did it I just want to make sure they do their time for it?” That’s your usual response to me when I’m looking for the reason instead of just the punishment.”

“That’s because you always start with a low life that would kill his mother for a hundred dollars,” replied Bill, “Who the fuck gives a shit about a scumbag like that, except maybe you? That’s not the situation with Collins. I can’t get past the fact that this was a good, decent man for the past ninety-nine percent of his life. How did it all go so wrong so quickly?”

Bill continued, “I’ve been doing some research on Anthony Fiorino, the other John Doe that Collins called Boss. He was an educated professional man with a wife when he suddenly disappeared and then we find him seven years later with a bullet hole in his head. Now we know he was one of the worst serial killers ever caught. What makes a man suddenly turn evil like that and why are these two connected? The similarities between Collins and Fiorino are scary, they’re just too much to be a coincidence. Both of them were never in any trouble with the law, were educated with good jobs and stable family lives then all of a sudden something out of the ordinary happens and they change into completely different people.

With Collins it started with the attack on him and his daughter—with Fiorino it seems to have been when he got fired. I looked into the background for his case and Fiorino maintained all along that he had no idea how those secret files got onto his personal laptop. If you believed him the conclusion would be that someone planted them to set him up. I think there’s some validity to his story because he had a perfect work record up to that point and was a rising star in the company. It’s almost as if he was pushed to the edge on purpose. But who would do that and why?”