The Mind of a Hero

Chapter Eight: Protect the Women and Children

"The case of The Manhattan Murders, October 3, 2023. Questioning criminal, Elmer Kasprzak."

Elmer greeted Davey and Jack politely as he walked through the door. A good air swarmed around his head, and he sat patiently, watching as Jack set the camera up, and Davey sat in his unassigned seat.

"Okay, Elmer", Davey sighed, looking back at the interviewee with tired eyes. "We're gonna have to breeze past today. We've got a deadline for the first half of this book at 7:00, so we can't go overtime. I need honesty."

"Sure", Elmer mumbled, and his good air seemed to configure pollution. "What now?"

"I wanna know about the women", Jack stated bluntly, and Elmer blinked in surprise. They didn't care before, and said they knew everything they needed to, but now Jack has to know about dead women. Elmer chuckles.

"What, there's a hole in your investigation?"

Both men are quiet, playing off as being busy with other things, but Elmer knows awkward silence when he hears it. "Oh. Wow."

"It turns out your boyfriend only managed to write about what he did to those women, not about who they were or how he knew them", Davey stated bitterly, and Elmer nodded along. Albert didn't know most of the victims, and he preferred it that way. For some, Elmer didn't either; but he knew them well enough for Albert to kill. "Our boss wants more detail on them."

"So you come running to me."

"You're the only person we got." Elmer stared at Jack for moments too long, watching the older shifted but never broke eye contact.

He hardly knew these women himself, so he asked for the first one's name. "Nina Soto."

"I have no idea who you're talking about", Elmer chuckled. "You're sure that's her name?"

"Yeah", Davey mumbled, overlooking his notes. He didn't seem like the kind to forget to write things down, considering he's been writing about Elmer's life like a scribe for the gods, but he looked helpless here. Elmer was beginning to wonder if they made a mistake in the system—Albert didn't have the best handwriting. "We were told you knew her."

"Soto, Soto, Soto", Elmer sighed. Davey stared at him pointedly. "Oh. Red Solo."

"Sure."

"She was the best racer in the area", Elmer continued, a remembering grin on his face. "She beat this guy one night, and it made her a legend. I had a lot of respect for her."

Jack furrowed his brows. "Then why did Albert kill her?"

"Quite honestly? I found out she had a thing for twelve year old boys. That's not cool, obviously, so I told Albert."

"Elmer, don't lie like that", Albert immediately doubted, and Elmer stood with raised brows. Albert never spoke to him like this.

He always seemed to hang on every syllable that fell from Elmer's mouth, believing whatever he said like his mother believed in the Bible. There was pure confusion in his eyes replacing the admiration once there, and Elmer didn't love it. "I'm not lying. It's true."

"How, how would you even know that?" Albert crossed his arms, glancing at the woman he raced fifteen minutes before. Elmer could tell he wasn't upset at the money he lost from losing, and was more excited to have raced Red at all. Elmer felt jealousy grow inside of him.

"Could you listen to what I'm saying for one second?" Elmer snapped, and tugged on Albert's shirt. The redhead sighed and nodded once before Elmer continued. "I saw it on the phone!"

"I walked past her", he continued, tapping the table. Davey scribbled in his notepad. "And she had this kid on the phone", he closed his fist and opened his thumb and pinky finger, "and she was...giggling. It sounded like a kid on the phone, so I thought it was her son.