Cut Down To Size: A Sebastian Cork Novel

by Neal Davies

  Before he can get to his feet, Joe has a lot more to say, “Don’t you go anywhere Cork, you arrogant pig; I haven’t finished yet!” Sebastian has both hands on the seat and is ready to push himself up but on hearing the desperation in Joe’s voice, he screws his head back in his direction and glares at him out of the corner of his eye. “Two minutes, Joe, and then I will definitely be done, so don’t waste anymore of my time.”

  As Sebastian swings back around to face Joe, Joe glares directly into Sebastian’s determined eyes. “Once I bought the place, business began to drop off and even after taking on additional hours at the gym, I still couldn’t keep up with my payments, so I made a deal with that mongrel Mike; I told him if he bought the property from me and let me use it, I would buy the old farm back as soon as I can and at double the amount he paid me for it. He agreed and we shook hands on it. No sooner had I sold him the property then Kate tells me she had picked up a huge new chain of stores in the area and she wanted me to do all the deliveries for her. Once I signed the big new contract with Kate, the banks were only too happy to offer me whatever I wanted to borrow but when I went to buy the place back off him, that dirty lanky piece of shit said he wouldn’t sell it to me. He told me that a developer had offered him a million dollars for it and that he had put himself in debt to help me out, so he deserved to keep it!”

  “Now I will tell you one thing… when I shake hands with someone on a deal it’s as good as putting it on paper, so I went away and thought about things; a deal is a deal and I was going to get that property back one way or another. Anyway, Anyway, couple of weeks ago I found out his business was going into liquidation, so I approached him at the gym and said I would take over his payments and he could still remain on the deed as half owner. I just couldn’t let the place get into someone else’s hands but he told me he had already paid the hundred thousand he owed on it and I didn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell.”

  “So I did what I did to any scumbag that runs Kate or me up the wrong way; I took him out to the farm and demanded he tell me where the deed was but he wouldn’t and he ended up getting cut down to size like the rest and I know their punishment is nothing in comparison to where they are now!” he says as though he is some sort of necromancer and then continues, “All you have to do is check with my bank and you will see where my loan was paid off. Kate knew nothing about any of it. So if you don’t believe me just check it out, Mr Brainless bag of crap.

  Joe looks at Sebastian with total contempt and continues, “You can do what you like to me but Kate doesn’t deserve to go through hell when she hasn’t done what you’re saying she’s done. I don’t care what you think you can do to me because I know that somehow, someday I’ll get out and then the two of you will be punished for this travesty of justice. But the books have to be set straight about her so-called father, who was nothing but a scum bag and the lowest animal on the earth,” he hisses with indignation.

  Joe lets out a small gasp of pleasure and begins relating what he saw as his most brilliant moments. “Kate told me how her father treated her and I knew what that felt like so without telling her I went and confronted him. He pulled a gun on me and told me if I didn’t get off his property, I wouldn’t be leaving at all. So that evening I rolled up to his farm with a baseball bat; I didn’t need a gun to take care of things. I saw a bright light coming from the barn and as I got closer I could see the wall had elevated at the rear and the light was coming up from the cellar below. I sat there for over an hour waiting for him to emerge and when he finally did, wham!”

  Sebastian and Paul watch as Joe’s eyes light up from the sense of overwhelming power and control he is feeling as he relates his spine-chilling tale. They are also aware of his cold, calculating, demeanour and there is definitely no hiding of guilt, as pride for his heinous deed is mockingly written all over his face. Paul who’s catching on fast to Sebastian’s objective responds, “That still doesn’t prove you killed him; all it proves is you knocked him out.”

  Joe sways his head from side to side and curls the corner of his top lip. “I wish the two of you would shut the fuck up and let me finish. A few days prior, Kate and I had been discussing a headline in the paper about this guy who had given this woman a date rape drug and I said to her ‘how do these guys know how to make this shit?’ Kate, being a chemist, couldn’t help but tell me how easy the ingredients were to get. So I thought I’d give it a shot – you know just for the fun of it –there are some pesky cats in my neighbourhood that I thought may enjoy a dose or three if you know what I mean.

  Anyway, after Kate’s old man pulled the gun on me, what better opportunity to test it out? So I dragged his unconscious body into the house, got a funnel and forced the shit down his throat. Then I laid him on the floor near the blinds and made it look like he’d knocked over the oil lamp. Of course, before I set it on fire, I waited long enough for him to regain consciousness and then I sat there as long as I could so I could watch him suffer the way he made Kate suffer. The only thing I regret is, although he was semi-conscious, the drug hadn’t worn off enough for him to scream. I would have loved to have heard that,” he scoffs at his ludicrous indignity of Kate’s father.

  Paul looks at him with utter disgust and contempt. “Tell me something else, Joe… what was the point of dressing like Kate?”

  Joe’s arms are now crossed, his eyes glazed and his nose wrinkles from the sneer on his face. “Seriously? You really are stupid, aren’t you? Kate and I are one; she is the kind, gentle side and I’m the strength who takes care of the tough stuff,” he jeers in a snake’s hiss.

  Paul looks at Sebastian curiously as Sebastian signals with his head to leave and Joe is left there with his brow raised and a large grin on his face as if he’s in his happy place. Sebastian swings around and pushes to his feet, then looks back down at Joe with a half-cocked smile. “Well, Joe, it looks like you’re going away for a long, long time and from what you have told us, you will be doing it alone.”

  Joe flicks his head back and smirks. “I’ve been doing it alone most my life, so I’m good with that. Just make sure you watch your back my fat friend; you never know what the future holds for pieces of crap like you!”

  Sebastian has already turned to walk away but he stops, glances back over his shoulder and replies, “Whether it’s long or short, Sir, it will at least taste of freedom; best of luck to you, my friend.” Sebastian smiles confidently, turns and walks out with Paul.

  After letting Jim know the outcome of the interviews, they arrange the release of Kate and her sister. Michelle is quickly on her way but on the other side of the coin, Kate says she wants a minute alone to collect herself; so the boys leave her and walk down the corridor to wait outside the interview room for someone to come and pick up Joe and take him to his cell. Paul stands there quiet and withdrawn and Sebastian is concerned.

  “What’s wrong, Paul? You seem out of sorts.”

  He looks at Sebastian blankly. “I guess I’ve just come to the realisation that there’s a fine line between someone turning into a serial killer or focusing their anger toward a better life. Tell me something, Seb… what makes a hideous creature like Joe do the things he’s done? You know, there were times in my life where others would say offensive things to me and when I had had enough I would walk away and there have been other times where I have felt so angry, it wouldn’t have been hard for me to wrap my hands around their necks and throttle them; So why not me?”

  Sebastian can see this case has aroused something in Paul that’s been suppressed and is now surfacing as unfinished business, so he tries to explain, “Apart from all the events from childhood and onward that occur in a person’s life, genetics can also have a bearing on the emotional tolerance one exhibits. Take Joe for instance; something snapped inside him like a weak limb and it sent him hurtling head first into a world that only he could understand. I had an idea that Joe was our culprit when I interviewed people from his old neighbourhood. Even in his childhood, he
presented with narcissist and psychotic traits. In his case, we have both childhood events and genetic traits at play. His father was a cold heartless human being with narcissistic traits and on top of that he treated both Joe and his mother cruelly. The worst thing of all was, unlike Kate, there was no escape for him at school either, as he was constantly bullied by bigger children about his size. Eventually the bullying roles became reversed into a psychotic perversion of reality. There was never a lot of hope for him to rise above it all.”

  “Then when we look at Kate’s life, even I find it hard to believe she hasn’t inherited the negative and cruel traits of her father but there are sometimes exceptions to the rules. Perhaps the difference in your and her life may be as simple as you both had solid grounding and boundaries; in your case, your mother provided you with love and encouragement and her adopted parents may have done the same for her.”

  Paul’s brow creases and he looks directly into Sebastian’s eyes, as a son would to his father, and says, “I can see now why you were the best of the best when it came to psychology.”

  Sebastian smiles with returned admiration and replies, “What do you mean ‘were’?”

  Paul grins, turns to walk away but Sebastian is quick to stop him. “No, seriously, Paul, what do you mean ‘were’?” Just as Paul is about to answer, Joe emerges from the interview room handcuffed and escorted by a burly policeman. He sneers with a curled upper lip at Paul as he is about to start his trip up the corridor toward the holding cells. Coincidently Kate turns the corner and proceeds down the corridor toward them on her way out and Joe’s delighted eyes follow her every move as she works her way toward him. It’s not long before she crosses Joe’s path on the way through and he smiles at her affectionately and she smiles back at him as though she is in friendly company but then puts her head down as she passes Sebastian and Paul.

  Sebastian’s brow folds as a sense of indifference starts stealing over him. He curiously looks back at Paul. “Did you see that?” he says and then casts a glance back down the corridor toward her.

  Paul, still lamenting and staring at Kate’s back as she disappears around the corner out of sight, turns his head slowly to face Sebastian. “See what, Seb?”

  “Kate’s smile just then! Surely you saw it?”

  Paul squints as though Sebastian has lost his marbles. “She has known him for a long time, Seb. It could have been just a nervous grin or one of affection for a sick friend. I don’t know! Anyway, what difference does it make?”

  Sebastian gives a little flick of his shoulders and head and responds to Paul’s reply, “Yes, I guess that’s true but given the same circumstances wouldn’t you show anger, fear or even avoidance towards Joe, knowing what he has put you through or what he has done? It just seems to me that an affectionate smile is oddly strange under the circumstances. But perhaps you’re right… people do react in peculiar ways under peculiar circumstances.”

  Paul grins thoughtfully. “Well, he has confessed to the murders and he has given us a detailed account of how it all went down, so we do know there’s no doubt that he was there when the murders occurred. Now, can I buy you a coffee, Seb?”

  Sebastian smiles as he puts his hand on Paul’s shoulder. “Of course you can. Let’s go! I know just the place.”

  16. AN UNFORESEEN LEGACY – SUNDAY?

  Sebastian finishes his paperwork and makes his way to Jim’s office where he finds Emily on the phone. He places his file on her desk, points to it and then to Jim’s office door but as he is about to turn and leave, Emily’s expression becomes serious and her eyebrows meet while she frantically waves her head from side to side making her slender cheeks wobble. Then she holds up the palm of her free hand and Sebastian sits down and waits until she is off the phone. “Sorry, Seb, but before you go, Jim said he needed to speak to you,” she swings her swivel chair and rises from it, all in one motion. Emily knocks on Jim’s door and pokes her head in his office. “Seb’s here to see you, Jim.”

  An immediate reply comes enthusiastically back, “Good, good! Send him straight in thanks, Emily!” Before she can say a word, Sebastian is right behind her, ready to enter.

  Jim’s sitting forward in his seat signing off on a document as Sebastian makes his way to the chair in front of his desk. He looks up, happily drops the pen and places the papers to the side. “Paul has given me a brief indication on the interviews and Joe’s confession and I just wanted to thank you personally as this has taken an enormous load off my shoulders but you already know that, don’t you?” Sebastian smiles, nods in the affirmative and Jim continues, “Anyway, I have already expressed my appreciation to Paul by telling him he has been promoted off the rookie list. I suggested to Paul that we would like him to partner up with another detective, so we could spread you across other teams.”

  Sebastian’s eyebrows close in. “I’m a bit put out by this, Jim. I’m a man of routine and I’m not sure I would like to be moved around from one team to another, so I may have to reconsider my position here, especially if this is the way you thank someone for their good work.” Sebastian replies uncompromisingly and is about to stand when Jim throws his open palms forward. “Whoa! Hang on a minute before you go jumping the gun, Seb!” Sebastian eases back into his chair and Jim continues, “Anyway, Paul pulled pretty much the same expression on his face as you did and told me that he would prefer to work with you but understood if you would prefer to move on, he would accept your decision. After my conversation with Paul, I spoke to the Commissioner and he believes that the two of you could benefit other teams from time to time but only if you were to agree to this offer.”

  Sebastian looks down at his cane and smiles then pushes his chin up. “So the young fellow wants to stay with the old boy, does he?”

  Jim smiles. “So it seems”

  Sebastian pulls down a more serious veil over his face. “Well, I really don’t see the need for me to change a team that is working well together, but before making a decision on the other matter of working with different groups together, I feel it would be unfair to do so without discussing this with my partner first.”

  Jim relaxes back into his chair. “I’m so glad to hear that, Seb. I wouldn’t want it any other way. There’s just one more thing that you may be able to enlighten me on. When we went through Mike Cohen’s house looking for clues, we came across a locker key so I asked an officer to drop into the gym and bring back the contents but the only thing he found in there was this,” he leans forward and pulls a document from his drawer and slides it over to Sebastian and as Sebastian begins unfolding it, Jim continues, “Its a deed to the farm where the murders were committed. Did you know that Steve Cohen owns that property?”

  Sebastian looks at the deed and without looking back up replies, “Yes, yes, I did.”

  Jim slumps back into his chair. “Okay… didn’t this ever strike you to be important information that I should know about?”

  Sebastian ignores his question, looks back up from the now unfolded paper and deep into Jim’s eyes. “I’m wondering if I can call on that debt that you said you owed me and ask you to forget you ever saw this document. If you will allow me, I will give it back to its rightful owner.”

  “I would need an explanation and a lot of convincing to turn it over, so tell me what this is about and I will do my best.”

  Sebastian explains about the property and how Steve’s son had used the money that his father had loaned him to buy it; he also went on to explain that the money for the land would be enough to pay off Mike’s debt and put his parents back on their feet. He continued to tell Jim that if the creditors found out, they may claim the property, so they can’t know that the hundred thousand for the property was taken from Mike’s business account.

  Jim scratches his head and thinks for a silent moment. “Sorry, Seb. I’m not sure if I heard you correctly; did you say that Mike’s father asked you to bring this deed in to show me because Kate was a suspect and he wanted us to know that she had once owned t
he property where Mike was killed? Look, tell him I said thanks very much but we have proof Kate didn’t do it and we already have enough evidence on Joe to send him away for the rest of his life. Oh and before you go, do me a favour please and make sure that deed gets back to him safely, won’t you, Seb?”

  Sebastian’s cheeks light up with a smile. “Most definitely, Jim. I will drop it off on my way home.”

  Jim smiles back. “So are we even now, Seb?”

  Sebastian rises to his feet. “More than even, my friend. Thanks again!” Sebastian reaches across the desk and shakes Jim’s hand in gratitude and then heads out of his office in the direction of the parking bay.

  On arrival he gets in his car and makes a quick phone call to ensure the Cohens are in so he can make a detour on his way home. A short conversation ensues and once off the phone he makes his way through some fairly heavy traffic to their house. Any other time Sebastian may have felt worn and irritable after such a big day and then having to spend half an hour in the midst of honking horns and exhaust fumes, but on arrival at the Cohen’s house he alights from the car in a spritely manner, works his way up their pathway to the veranda at pace and taps on the door.

  Sebastian’s overly positive mood rapidly develops a new perspective when Steve Cohen answers the door like a man who is only breathing because it is instinctive to do so. Sebastian warmly shakes his limp hand and Steve escorts him into the lounge. “Mary is upstairs, lying down, and I would rather let her be at the moment. We asked the bank if we could have some grace on our loan as I can’t go to work and leave her the way she is but they told me if I can’t make the payments they would have to foreclose.” Mr Cohen’s voice begins to break and he takes some long, slow breaths before he begins again, “Sorry, I shouldn’t be burdening you with my problems. Believe it or not, I used to talk to Michael when I had things on my mind; I really miss that.” Mr Cohen’s sad eyes drift slowly down, then he takes a deep short broken breath and exhales as if blowing out candles. “Sorry again, Sebastian. Can I get you a coffee or tea?