The Mind of a Hero

Chapter Six: It's Love, Your Honor

"The case of The Manhattan Murders, September 14th, 2023. Questioning criminal, Elmer Kasprzak."

Elmer cleared his throat, watching as Davey and Jack settled into their seats, their chairs scraping against the floor. He glanced at the familiar red light on the camera, having missed it, and smiled. "So, what happened between you two?"

Davey looked at him, opening his notebook. Elmer felt his eyes on him, behind his glasses, but didn't respond. "Nothing."

"Really? I could've sworn the both of you were wrapped around each other's fingers. Boyfriends, even."

"I have a girlfriend", Jack spit out as Davey chuckled behind his hand, and Elmer raised his brows in surprise. He wouldn't say Jack was someone with a face only a mother could love—he'd do him—but he didn't seem to be all that popular with women, and apparently, men. He turned to Davey.

"You're okay with that?"

Davey shrugged, chuckling quietly. "I don't care. I have a boyfriend."

"Hey", the guard called, breaking the easy conversation. "Let's keep this strictly professional."

"Oh, fuck off, Rufus." Elmer glared at the cop, face full of disgust. "That's why your wife left you with the kids."

Jack snickered, laughing harder when Davey hit him in the shoulder, as if he was a mother scolding her child. Elmer shook his head, entangling his fingers. Davey sighed.

"Elmer, your Polish, right?" Davey tapped the lead of his pencil against the notepad as Elmer nodded. "Me, too. On my mom's side."

"Oh, cool." He turned to Jack, expecting an answer. Jack cleared his throat.

"I'm Irish", he spoke, and Elmer rolled his eyes. Jack furrowed his brows.

"I should've known", he sighed. "You're last name is Kelly. And you", he pointed at Davey, "are Jewish."

"Right", Davey chuckled, rubbing at his nose. "You can imagine how well that went over in private school."

"What, you didn't know it was Catholic, or something?"

"No, we just didn't know that every teacher I had would be antisemitic."

Elmer whistled, nodding. "That sounds rough."

"Hey!" The cop shouted this time, and his brows furrowed ugily. He was known to be Elmer's least favorite person in the prison, was he was working his nerves particularly well today. If he was anyone else, Elmer would've been interested as to why he agreed to be so annoying, but he simply wanted to skin him alive. "Business, or you're out."

"Look, we'll get to it when we do, alright?" Davey spoke up, and Elmer reveled to be shocked by him again. "Now if you would be kind enough to shut up, we'll start the interview portion."

Elmer clapped as best he could with chains around his wrists, and Jack patted Davey's back. They couldn't be more sure that he was raised in Manhattan. "But he's right."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah", Elmer waved him off with his tone, and sighed. "What's up?"

Davey cleared his throat. "The biggest question is what happened after Irving's murder. I can imagine that that situation is hard to swallow."

It wasn't. How dumb could he be. "Ellie?"

He turned at the sound of his name, humming quietly. He felt the pages of his book underneath the pads of his fingers, the corner of the page he just finished scratching between his pointer and middle fingers. He watched Albert's every move as he sat next to him on the carpeted floor.

"Um..." Albert stuttered, opening and closing his mouth like a gaping fish, out of his own element. Elmer couldn't say he knew how Albert felt, as he felt nothing but love at this moment, but he could see the fear and worry in his eyes, and those feelings filled him, too. "Hey, babe. You okay?"

Elmer raised a brow. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Yeah", Albert nodded, adjusting himself. Elmer dog-eared his page, closing the book and placing it beside him. He looked into his boyfriend's eyes, not daring to look away. "I just...I don't know. I feel sorry. Like, I'm so sorry."

"He told me he didn't mean to kill him", Elmer retold, wiping his nose against his shoulder. It itched. "He even cried."

"Did he?"

"Yep." Elmer stared at the table. "It was so weird for me. I'd", he chuckled dryly, "I'd never seen him cry before."

"I love you", Albert whispered as tears fell down his cheeks and dripped into his mouth. "I love you so much and I don't want to hurt you. I didn't mean to do that! I'm so, so sorry, Ellie. I'm so sorry."

"Al", Elmer sighed, grabbing the redhead's hands. He rubbed his back of his palms softly, brows furrowed with worry. Albert sniffled. "I'm not mad at you, Albert. I'm not even upset about it.

"I know that what you did was out of protection", Elmer went on, wiping away Albert's tears. "I'm happy that you're safe, and that you love me enough to do something like that."

Elmer felt his heart swell with twisted admiration, and he smiled warmly, hoping to soften Albert's sadness. "Thank you for loving me, Allie. I love you so much. So, don't worry about Irving."

He pressed a kiss near Albert's lips, lingering there. He pulled away and wiped the last of his tears, wiping his hands against his pants.

"Besides", he started, voice barely below a whisper, "someone was gonna pop a cap in his head sooner or later. He talked too much."

Albert chuckled, pressing a kiss to Elmer's lips. Elmer wrapped his arms around his neck, deepening the kiss.

"We lied low for a while", he told Davey, listening to the scribble of his pencil. "We didn't want to have the police knocking on our door, even though they eventually did, so we missed the next few races. Finch called a few times, but he was uninvolved otherwise."

"So, your love only grew stronger", Jack reiterated. He shook his head in contemplation, and Elmer felt a bit judged. "You guys are fucking lunatics."

Silence filled the room after Davey punched Jack's shoulder and scolded him quietly. Elmer blinked.

He was beginning to wonder if Jack only allowed words to fall out of his mouth for the fuck of it, to get some sort of reaction—a real class clown. But Elmer had to admire his guts to call a serial killer a lunatic to his face, even if it made him want to stab him. "...Okay."

Davey sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Sorry. Anyway, let's stop for right now. You look tired."

Bullshit, Elmer thought, nodding along. He felt more energized than yesterday, and they'd talked for almost three hours. Davey was clearly the tired man in the room, but Elmer had done many things in life; there was no harm in taking the blame for this. Besides, he liked Davey.

"Yeah, okay", Elmer agreed, clearing his throat. "Let's take a break for a while. Cool, Rufus?"

The cop grunted as Davey and Jack got up from their seats, shuffling out of the interrogation room like little ants. Elmer watched them, noticing the back of Jack's shirt that was tucked into his jeans sloppily, contrasting the rest of his outfit. He thought about telling him, but Jack pissed him off today—he wasn't going to waste his breath.

Elmer blew out a breath, looking around the wall boredly. There was a terrifying lack of detail to the dingy prison walls. White paint sat on top of what had to be gallons more of white paint, and it chipped in corners and cracks. It was disgusting.

He looked away from the walls, looking back at the camera. The bright red light shone just as proudly as it always did, glaring right at him. Elmer held strong however, and stared back.

He stared at the red dot for minutes at a time, never blinking. His waterline grew wet with tears from the air hitting his eyeballs, and the coolness made his rises itchy. He's sure many would dictate him crazy if they ever saw this, a title he'd grown comfortable with.

He stopped trying to deny it.