Part I-Chapter 27: WHO'S THE MORE EVIL?

 

Chapter 27

Who’s the More Evil?
(Ó 2007)
  

David glanced at his wristwatch and saw that it was now just past midnight. He was alone in the basement of his home, the basement that he had converted into a recreation room after the birth of his first son, E.W. David stood in the storage closet, the light overhead was the only one on and it cast a serene glow through the darkness of the room. He was studying, once again, his copy of Gregior Divic’s “Pink Book”, with all the familiar names it contained, along with each individuals information.

David was experiencing many different emotions running through him, together with the conflict of conscience he began to feel after the attack on Jared Bartholomew. As he thumbed through the papers again, the names, the addresses, their occupations, their “special desires”, all seemed to imbed themselves into his memory. As they did, he repeatedly had one question that kept coming into his train of thought.

Just who is the more evil anyway?

Raul Ortega and Billy Freeman? Two serial rapists? 

Jared Bartholomew, and now it seems, his father Mitchell? Two of the most wealthiest and predominant men in the mid-west? Now, nothing more than narcissistic, low life pedophiles?

Now, this Gregior Divic? A pimp of children, this entrepreneur in human trafficking.

Or, this man, this unknown man. This … phantom?

He leaves nothing of himself behind, except, his … “victims”?

David himself has found it difficult to refer to these men as “victims”.

A conflict of conscience. Ever since he was eight years old, he wanted to be a cop. He recalled how angry he would become with his parents, especially his father, whenever they would refer to the police as “the pigs”. He would watch every television show that had to do with the police. He would go to the library and learn of police procedures and read histories of famous cases. His favorite author was Joseph Wambaugh, and he also went on as many “ride along” programs as he could.

When he was sworn in, it was the proudest day of his life and throughout his career he took the oath he swore seriously, as well as his duty.

His duty. His duty was to find this man, bring him to justice, and end his vigilantism. However, without this mans actions, he even admitted to himself, that Freeman and Ortega would have probably never have been caught, or stopped. 

He realized, that if it wasn’t for this man, Jared and Mitchell Bartholomew would probably be, right now, at this minute, with a child supplied to them by this Gregior Divic.

David questioned himself on just what he would really do if, or when he would catch up to this man.

A conflict of conscience. David had a strange memory come to his mind. A memory of those old Warner Brothers cartoons he watched when he was a boy. Whenever Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck had to make a decision between right and wrong, how their devilish side would appear on one side and the angelic side on the other.

David now imagined a Ken Doll sized figure of himself sitting on his right shoulder, dressed in a complete in a pure white suit with tie, along with wings on his back and a halo. The angelic David, reminding him of the oath he swore to and his duty to uphold the law.

However, there was the devilish David, in a suit and tie of complete red. He had also an arrowhead tail, horns and held a trident as he sat on his left shoulder saying to him, “Aw, I’d let him go, no one will ever know, and know one would blame ya if you did.”

A conflict of conscience. David stood there with the “Pink Book” in his hands, in the silence of the room, lost in his thoughts.

“David?!”

It was his wife Regina calling to him from the kitchen upstairs. It jolted him out from his thoughts, and it caused the angel and devil on his shoulders to disappear in puffs of smoke which color matched each others outfit, just like in those old cartoons.

“Yeah Babe.” He answered, closing the “Pink Book”.

“David? Baby, are you still down there?” Regina asked frustrated. “Come on honey, it’s late, you had a long day, you need to go to sleep.”

“I’m sorry babe, I’m coming right up.” He answered. He then put the “Pink Book” back in the envelope, placed it in the safe, and locked it away.

He exited the closet up the stairwell and into the kitchen, there he was met by Regina, in a white terrycloth robe with her arms crossed. “Come on baby, it’s enough.” She said calmly as she placed her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. “Come on, let’s go to sleep.”

“Yeah,” David said to her, now feeling how tired he really was, “that sounds like an excellent idea.”

He then turned and closed the basement door, Regina then took him by the hand and led him upstairs to their bedroom.

 Moments later, as he lied in his bed with Regina’s head on his shoulder, he thought once more of the names entered in the book that he had just locked away. Some hours ago, the name of Gregior Divic and what had happened to him was broadcast over all the news outlets. David knew that he would be sleeping soundly in a few more minutes. However, everyone in that book was wide awake at that very moment, and there was no sleep on their schedules tonight, and for many nights to come.