“So, you’re the new guy here, eh?” Officer Gregor greeted me. I arrived in Harwich a week before for my new job as a police officer. My coworkers told me Gregor was the boss around here, even though he had the same rank as us. Nobody knows the higher-ups.
“Yes, officer, it’s my first day,” I answered.
“Well, you’ve made a bad choice coming here, but it is how it is, eh?” he smiled. I think he was in his mid 40s, judging by his graying beard.
“It can’t be that bad.”
“It is. There’s a serial killer in the city, we have been trying to get him for months. People call him the Crystal Killer. It’s because he has some shitty skull mask made out of some black crystal. I think it’s some cheap plastic, but a coworker said it’s bulletproof, ‘cause he had shot him in the head, but the bullet didn’t go through the mask, you know.”
“So, he’s just a psycho?”
“Not exactly. He claims he only kills people who deserve it. Killers, rapers, thieves, that kind of stuff. Multiple people said they were saved by the Crystal Killer from a robbery.”
“So, he’s kinda like a more extreme version of Batman?”
“Hell no, he killed like five cops so far.”
“So he kills people who deserve it, and those who try to stop him?”
“And he kills everyone who knows about his identity. If you see his face, you die. It’s that simple. So if you manage to capture the guy, don’t take his mask off, until he’s locked in a fucking cell.”
“I see. So how should we capture him? Any clues about his whereabouts?”
“Nothing. We know he’s over 6 feet tall, has dark-brown or black hair, it’s hard to tell ‘cause he’s always active at nighttime. He usually wears a black hooded jacket, black jeans, black leather gloves, he sure loves to blend in the dark. Anyway, as your first task, you have to interrogate this woman, Mary. She claims the Crystal Killer saved him from some drunk, fat man.”
“Is the man alive?” I asked.
“The Crystal Killer killed him. He ended the guy’s life with a quick stab in the throat.”
So yeah, it was a tough first day as a cop. The woman was already in the interrogation room when I arrived. She was probably in her 30s, had messy brown hair, to be honest, she looked shocked, I’m sure the incident affected her. It’s not easy to witness a murder.
The interrogation room was just like in the movies, with a camera in the corner of the room, and a gigantic one-sided mirror on the wall.
“I’m officer Allston,” I introduced myself. “If you’re cooperative, it’ll only take a few minutes, then you can go home.”
The woman stayed silent, sitting on an old chair, with her hands on the table.
“I want to know what happened yesterday. We know you’re innocent, but we have to know what had happened,” I said. Yeah, I lied, we had no idea if she was innocent or not, but officer Gregor told me how to manage an interrogation. I had to lie if I wanted to know the truth.
“I… I don’t know,” she shook her head after a few seconds of silence. “Everything happened so fast.”
“Let’s start at the beginning. The guy, the victim. He was drunk. Did you know him?”
“Of course. Oliver, an alcoholic, everyone knew him. He was a soldier before he started drinking after he came home from deployment. Poor Oliver, he lost his home last year.”
“Yeah, go on.”
“I was walking towards my car, on that narrow road between the tavern and the forest. Oliver approached me. I saw a knife in his pocket, I was scared. Then he asked for money. But I didn’t have any money, so I told him I was sorry, but he started arguing. And that’s when the… the killer appeared.”
“The Crystal Killer?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, he came out of the forest. Oliver started to argue with him too. Then the killer just stabbed him in the neck.”
The woman started crying. A few seconds later, Gregor walked into the room.
“Seems like we won’t get any useful information from her, come with me,” he whispered to me.
It was already around 10 PM, but Gregor sent me and my coworker, James, to the crime scene to investigate further. It was already dark when we arrived near the tavern. James had already visited the crime scene the day before, so he showed me the victim’s blood on the ground.
“Damn, that’s a lot of blood,” I said.
“Yep, poor Oliver was dead within seconds,” James nodded. “The woman dialed 911 really late, about ten minutes after Oliver was already dead, that’s why Mary is a suspect. We can’t confirm if it was actually the Crystal Killer or not.”
Just as he said this, I glanced towards the forest, which was only about twenty feet from us. I saw some dark figure standing between two tall trees. As my eyes had slowly adjusted to the darkness, I could see that person looked just like the Crystal Killer. Hood, black jacket, black skull mask. And he walked towards us.
“Hands in the air,” I grabbed my handgun and aimed at his head. James noticed him too and did the same.
The killer didn’t follow our instructions and walked even closer to us. He walked slowly, it was terrifying how confident he was while we were aiming fucking guns at him.
“Stop, for fuck’s sake,” James shouted. He was panicked. Just like me…
The killer was around ten feet from us when James pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the Crystal Killer in the head. We saw the sparks coming from his mask, and the mysterious figure collapsed on the ground.
“Hah, I can’t believe it,” James started laughing. “I killed the fucking Crystal Killer. Haha, I’m gonna be in the history books, haha. If officer Gregor hears about it…”
“Be careful, Gregor said the mask could be bulletproof,” I warned him.
“No chance, see?” he walked closer to the seemingly dead body of the Crystal Killer.
He kneeled beside the body, and with a quick move, James took the killer’s mask off. I was still standing in the same place, so I didn’t see it. I think I was lucky it was dark, and I didn’t have to see his face.
The killer wasn’t dead. Without any sign, he stabbed a knife into James’ throat. I immediately raised my handgun at him, but James was still kneeling in my line of sight. Before he pulled out the knife from James, he grabbed his mask from James’ hand and put it back on.
As James’ body collapsed, the killer stood up and looked at me.
“I’m serving justice,” he said in a deep voice. “Don’t interfere in my business, or I’ll kill you, and anyone who tries to stop me. If you’re smart, you won’t pull that trigger.”
With the same confidence, the killer turned his back to me, and walked back to the forest. He was right, I didn’t shoot him, and I don’t know why. I just stood there in shock. About half a minute later, Gregor and a few other officers arrived at the crime scene to check on us. Five cops arriving at the scene, and seeing me with a gun in my hand, standing beside my coworker’s dead body… I had no chance to explain what happened.