Oasis

By: Michael Carta.

Detective Rick Hodge, a seasoned veteran of the force, was in his late fifties and refused early retirement. He was made for this profession and would pursue justice until the day he died.  Rick was stocky and stood just over six feet tall with silver gray hair reminiscent of a silver-back gorilla in the Congo. His teeth were permanently coffee stained and his eyes were piercing blue. Briefly he paused in front of the interrogation room. He took several breaths to calm his nerves and prepare himself like a rock star would do before taking stage. Distant thoughts raced in his mind: “Ruthless and unyielding, that’s how you break ‘em then they tell you everything. Establish dominance, shatter their hopes, and destroy their pride. Weaklings… maggots…” Boldly he swung the door open and entered the room with an angry look on his face.

Rick shot his most threatening glare of hatred towards his subject behind the table. He was anxiously waiting for a response full of cowardice and fear, but it would never come. There was an odd, almost Zen like calmness to the man shackled to the table wearing the standard orange inmate attire. Matt Lewis had walked into the station and turned himself in just hours before. He was a wanted serial killer that had been avoiding detection for months.

“Where did you hide the bodies?” The detective barked after several minutes of silence.

“I do not hide bodies.” Matt calmly responded making cold and playful eye contact with the detective.

“Your ass is ours now, there’s no use lying!” He slammed a packet of paper onto the cold metal surface of the table. “I’ve got it right here, your signed confession. You are now property of the state, you’ll die here maggot.” 

“There’s no use threatening me, I came here on my own accord to help sett-“

“Bullshit. You made a mistake, got caught, and are trying to cut a deal so that you can manage the little time you have left, but I have news for you. You are not going to make it another night without giving us some details buddy. I’ll have them throw you in with the rapists and home boys to introduce you properly to this hellhole. A pretty boy like you might hold out for a few hours, but they’ll get to you I promise you that…” Rick was proud of his speech and paused to let it sink in. “Soon the maggot will tell me everything, they always do.”

“We will get along better and through this conversation much easier if you listen carefully to what I say and give up on your scare tactics.” Matt was amazingly resilient to the boisterous verbal harassment, detective Hodge was dumbfounded. “Like I said; I do not hide bodies.” 

Rick was lost in his thoughts and bewilderment. “Who is this unnatural creature? How can he be so calm after everything he went through murdering those people and getting arrested?” Quickly snapping out of the haze he sarcastically responded: “Then where are the bodies of the seventeen innocent people that you murdered? “  

“They no longer have bodies, I took them to my oasis and helped them to transcended, like a phoenix, never to return. They have now found their own oasis and from their ash, rebirth now casts them into the wind of a new day. Cremation leaves no fingerprints, DNA, or blood for you to do your warmongering with. As for innocence, none of them had any; look deep enough and you’ll find dirt on anyone. I find it rather difficult to have any sort of sympathy for the self depressed social vampires that pollute this planet.” Matt leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. “Oh, there were forty two, not seventeen… and there will be more. I will be leaving early tomorrow to return to my oasis.”

Rick let his badass cop persona slip away. After nearly 30 years on the force, he was caught off guard. “How can he be so bold and calm?” Regaining some composure he broke the silence. “They only way you’ll leave this place is in a body bag and that’s the easy way out. You’re going to pay for what you did and I will take pleasure in orchestrating that comeuppance.” 

With that, Rick turned and moved to the door. He was done with this little exchanged and had an unsettling feeling about being in the room with the psychopath. Right as he was stepping out into the hallway of freedom, Matt interjected. 

“Isn’t it ironic how you, a fine example of the law, takes pleasure in orchestrating punishment on an individual? We are more alike than you will ever dare to admit. The only difference is that I am in here and you are out there… for now...”

Rick walked out into the hall, once the door closed behind he felt instant relief. “His words are poison, I can only imagine the hell he put those seventeen, possibly more people through just by talking. He has a plan; he’s too careful and calm to not have some sort of agenda. There is no remorse or guilt, something’s up… What was with him mentioning his “oasis” over and over? I’ll let him rot in there overnight and pry more out of him tomorrow. If there are more victims, perhaps there will be some evidence at this oasis of his.

It was just after three am. Rick’s bourbon had finally eased him into a restless sleep when his phone exploded with ear piercing cacophony. “This is Detective Rick Hodge.” He stated out of habitual nature not even fully awake yet. “Hey, this is Linda from the intake department, Chief Wilson told me to call you sorry if I woke you.” Her voice sounded nervous and shaky. “That’s fine, what happened?” “Uh, there has been a possible escape. They cannot locate Mr. Lewis. “ Rick’s heart stopped and an icy chill spread throughout his veins. “Matt Lewis, the serial killer? -Are you sure? How?” “Well he nearly killed the guard when he left the interrogation room, but did not take his weapons or keys. No one knows where he went from there. We did an inventory and the only thing missing is a body bag from storage.” Rick interrupted: “Did the mortician do his pickup y-” He was cut off. “Sorry, the chief is here, I got to go- I will keep you updated” She hung up without waiting for a response. 

Rick just sat there defeated like a kid who had just lost his first soccer game. Over and over in his head he heard his own voice from the interview earlier that day: “The only way you’ll leave this place is in a body bag...” An instant of pure rage swept over him as his launched his phone into the wall. It did not shatter into thousands of pieces as he had hoped. “I guess he found his oasis after all…” Suddenly Rick noticed the horrid sound of someone picking the lock to his apartment door. He waited petrified in the silence as the pins of the lock clicked in line, the door was opening.