The Executioner

Hundred and Thirty-One

Tyler threw his head back and laughed a strange, gurgling laugh. Hunter grimaced at the sound.

‘No, she wasn’t a threat, and, no, she doesn’t know who I am.’ His voice was confident. ‘I got close to her, detective. We shook hands. She’s quite a sweet thing.’

Hunter felt a knot start in his throat.

‘Even after touching my hand, there was no recognition. She had no idea who I was. Whatever she was helping you with, whatever she sensed wasn’t clear enough to make her a threat.’ Tyler chuckled. ‘If I wanted to kill her, she would be dead.’

Hunter held his stare with equal determination.

‘You think you figured this out, detective? You have no idea what really happened or what Strutter’s gang was capable of. You didn’t dig deep enough.’ Tyler’s voice had deepened to a chilling tone. ‘This didn’t start in high school. It started on the streets when we were much younger. They used to push and push until we couldn’t take anymore, and then they’d push some more.’ He licked his cracked lips. ‘Almost every day I saw Kate crying on her way back from school. They’d always come up with something to make her cry: name-calling, face spitting, physical abuse, sick humiliation… they didn’t give a fuck. Do you have any idea what being laughed at and treated like a worthless piece of shit every goddamn day feels like? What kind of psychological damage that would do to a terribly shy girl like Kate? They were happy to scar her for life just for a laugh. One day they even covered her in human excrement, just for the hell of it.’

Hunter closed his eyes for a moment. Kate had been the same Katherine that James Reed had talked about that day in his house.

‘And then there was Kate’s father,’ Tyler continued. ‘That drunken and pathetic asshole. She’d come home from school with tears in her eyes and he’d scream at her and beat her up even more. Her mother was never around to care.’ Tyler was grinding his teeth in anger. ‘They shot her confidence to pieces. She was made fun of and called “ugly” for so long and so many times she truly believed she was. But Kate was the sweetest and the prettiest girl I’d ever seen and I’d do anything for her.’ He paused to compose himself. ‘I was intelligent, very intelligent. I figured out very early that I could make a lot of money without having to have a job. I could make money from my bedroom or from the street just by using a pay phone.’

Hunter remembered what Tyler did for a living. ‘From the stock market.’

‘That’s right, detective,’ Tyler agreed. ‘I’m brilliant with numbers, better than anyone you’ve ever seen. And my brain understood the market. It was so simple I couldn’t figure out why everyone else wasn’t making money from it. Soon a few dollars turned into hundreds, hundreds turned into thousands, thousands into tens of thousands, and by the time I started my junior year I had almost a hundred thousand dollars in a bank account.’

Hunter read the satisfaction in Tyler’s voice. ‘You had already created a different identity even before leaving school.’

‘You’re quick, detective.’ Tyler smiled. ‘Just like Kate’s father, mine was another drunken, good-for-nothing bastard. After my mother died when I was thirteen, the drinking and the beatings just got worse and worse. If he ever found out that I had money, or that I could make money, he’d no doubt stab me in the back so he could get his dirty hands on it. But he would never get anything from me.’ He paused and wiped his mouth. He was over-salivating with anger. ‘All you need to get a driver’s license in this country is to pass the test and show a birth certificate, which can be easily forged or obtained from a dead child. With a driver’s license and a false birth certificate you can apply for any other documents you’ll ever need.’ He gave Hunter a proud smile. ‘In school I was still Michael Madden, but outside I had already become Dan Tyler.’