So Dean hadn’t had the chance to investigate Durant’s mother yet. Damn that vice-captain, leading me astray! It was confirmed that Durant’s mother was a suspect, which reassured Dean. He called Carnif, who was waiting outside, into the room. After whispering a few words to him, Dean returned to the nearby prison guard’s break room.
"Robert, Harry, you two will stand behind me in a bit. Just keep that icy expression and act as my backdrop."
Robert nodded and immediately adopted a poker face.
"What does an icy expression look like?" Harry, who was always all smiles, asked with some perplexity.
"Imagine this: a five-hundred-kilogram woman blocks your way, trying to court you, and the face you make when you want to reject her," Dean explained vividly.
When it came to women, Harry understood instantly. His expression immediately became one of firm rejection, a clear ’keep out’ to strangers.
A mild-mannered, affable-looking man with glasses, followed by the icy-faced Carnif, walked into the break room. This man was Durant—a beast in human flesh. On his way out of the cell, Durant had already sensed that something was amiss. Carnif, the prison guard he had bribed and fed well, not only didn’t respond to his probing questions but also glared menacingly, as if ready to devour him. This filled the guilty Durant with even more apprehension.
"Mr. Durant, hello. I am Detective Dean from the Homicide and Robbery Division," Dean said, sitting in Carnif’s chair with his legs crossed.
"May I ask what this is about?" Durant seemed somewhat restrained.
"Bad news," Dean said somewhat mockingly. "Your parole hearing definitely isn’t going to pass!"
"What?" Durant thought he had misheard. He had managed to bribe Carnif, forged an exceptionally good prison record, and had Howard, the only obstacle, eliminated. The hearing was supposed to be a mere formality. How could there be any change!
"What I mean is, you still need to serve fifteen years. By the time you get out, you’ll probably be fifty-five years old. Tsk, tsk. The best years of your life, eh?" Dean said, a smirk playing on his lips. "But don’t worry. Your wife is very beautiful, and in a few years, your son will be able to live on his own. I’ll persuade her to find someone else. If you’re worried about them being with others, then, considering your inevitably lonely future, I could even help take care of them myself."
What man could endure such provocation! Durant immediately dropped his disguise and lunged at the seated Dean.
But before he could reach Dean, Carnif kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying to the side. Carnif then pulled out a baton and brutally beat him while cursing furiously, "Get lost! How dare you frame me, Durant! I swear, you won’t survive here for fifteen years. I’ll have you carried out in a coffin in less than a year!"
Durant clutched his kicked stomach and screamed miserably. He couldn’t understand what was happening. Everything had been fine; how had it suddenly come to this?
Robert was also dumbfounded as he watched everything unfold. He didn’t understand Dean’s methods. Shouldn’t they start with questioning and then gradually apply pressure? Why had it suddenly escalated to threats of silencing someone?
Harry, on the other hand, was much calmer; he had even witnessed Dean go on a shooting spree. This little incident? Just a minor scene, really.
After beating Durant until he was black and blue and had vented his anger, Carnif wiped the sweat from his forehead. He then placed his stinking boot on Durant’s bruised and swollen face. "Scumbag!" he snarled. "Tell me, who did you instruct to kill Howard while deliberately planting my evidence at the crime scene?" As he spoke, his anger grew, and he kicked Durant in the groin once more.
Carnif also had a son, and for his son’s sake, he was willing to risk imprisonment by blatantly taking bribes. If it weren’t for the money, he would never have indulged such a perverted, vile man!
This kick nearly took Durant’s life. Agony twisted his body into a ball. His face was contorted with tears and drool, his breath almost failing him, and he was on the verge of passing out from the pain.
Carnif means business! Durant realized. He really wants to kill me!
"Still not talking, huh?" Carnif swung the baton and smashed it down again. Soon, Durant’s screams grew weaker, and he was beaten until he was barely recognizable as human.
"Dean," Harry came over and whispered, "any more of this, and Durant will really die."
"So what?" Dean propped his feet on the table, stuck a cigarette in his mouth, and said in a deep voice, "We’re just watching; we didn’t lay a hand on him. Besides, re-offenders, having learned from their first stint, are often more cunning and brutal when they commit crimes again. Durant dared to kill Howard for parole. Do you think he’ll behave once he’s out? Don’t tell me none of your relatives and friends have kids! Think about it: what kind of tragedy would ensue if their children encountered Durant?"
Amidst Durant’s dying screams, Harry closed his mouth. Seeing that Dean’s cigarette wasn’t lit, he reached into his pocket, wanting to impress Dean with his attentiveness. But then he saw that Robert, who hadn’t spoken a word, had already deftly lit Dean’s cigarette and was even considerately cupping his hand to shield the flame from any draft.
"’Damn it,’ Harry cursed under his breath." Damn, this competition is intense! he thought. Dean doesn’t just attract women; he attracts men too. More and more people are going to be vying for the spot as my number one partner!
Seeing that Durant was about to breathe his last, Dean finally spoke up, "That should be enough." He walked up to the disfigured Durant, took out a cigarette, and stuffed it into his mouth. "Tell me, who did you call the other day? If Carnif knows who framed him, he’ll definitely forgive you and call an ambulance."
"’I... I called my mother,’ Durant rasped, coughing. ’She... *cough*... she said she’d handle it for me.’"
"And Earl? Why did he have your wife’s stockings?"
"’*Cough, cough*... I used the sleeping pills I got from Carnif to drug my wife,’ he choked out. ’I took off her clothes, then pretended I needed to use the bathroom. I was trying to lure Earl into a compromising situation so I could blackmail him into helping me. But the idiot... *cough*... he just snuck one of her stockings and came right back out! That damn fool! It infuriated me! *Cough, cough*...’"
Dean remarked, "Men with ambition tend to have good luck. Earl, I suppose, was just a fool blessed with a fool’s luck."
Having gotten answers to his two lingering questions, Dean extended a finger. Shielding the action from everyone’s view for just an instant, he lightly pinched Durant’s throat.
Durant struggled to breathe. His eyes bulged, his body twitched twice, and then he vomited copious amounts of blackish-red blood, staining the cigarette that had fallen to the floor a dark red.
Dean stood up unfazed and patted Carnif on the shoulder. "You were too forceful; you knocked him out cold. Hurry up and call a doctor. Also, it’s quite dry around here, so be careful not to start a fire."
"The case—" Carnif looked at Dean pleadingly.
"What case? The Homicide and Robbery Division only handles murders. Other things, like bribery, are none of our business!" After saying that, Dean gestured to Harry and Robert. "Guys, let’s go. Before Durant passed out, he said he called his mother. Let’s go pay a visit to that ’kind’ Mrs. Haas."
「Not long after everyone left.」
Harper Prison, ordinarily placid, suddenly erupted into a fire, reportedly because a prisoner was secretly smoking. Prisoner Durant, having supposedly reformed and shown great courage fighting the fire, tragically lost his life in the flames on the eve of his parole.
When the higher-ups came to investigate, the CCTV footage for those days was found to be conveniently out of order. As for Durant’s body, it had already been cremated by a guilt-ridden Carnif, who paid for it out of his own pocket.
Considering the potential impact, the investigating officers ultimately confirmed Carnif’s account. Afterward, an inconspicuous local newspaper reported the story of the reformed prisoner heroically fighting the fire. This drew many townspeople to Harper Prison to lay candles and flowers outside its gates.
As for the truth, no one cared, including Durant’s mother, Mrs. Haas. Because by that time, she herself was about to face immense trouble.