Jackson cleared his throat before he began. ‘Well, some people – quite a lot of people actually – believe you have committed many murders. That you are in fact one of the most prolific serial killers there’s ever been in this country.’ Gibran went to speak, but Jackson held his hand up to stop him. ‘Obviously I’m aware that even if this were true, you’d hardly be likely to tell anyone about it. But perhaps you would give me your thoughts on what it would be like if you were a serial killer. What do you think might motivate such a person? What would be going through their mind? How would they kill and not get caught? No need to mention any specific crimes that may have happened. We could keep it more … generic.’
Gibran considered him in silence for a few seconds. ‘I see,’ he eventually responded. ‘And what would you do with such … information?’
Jackson shifted in his seat before answering. ‘My intention is to serialize the interviews in the paper. One a week. Maybe more. We’ll see how it goes, but I believe readers will be fascinated.’
‘Even though I’m not discussing details of real crimes?’ Gibran queried.
‘Trust me,’ Jackson smiled. ‘The readers will fill in the blanks for themselves. It’s your … unique background that will sell it. The fact you’re locked up here in Broadmoor won’t hurt either.’
‘And how do you profit from all this, Mr Jackson?’ Gibran asked. ‘To increase your standing with your editor doesn’t strike me as sufficient motivation for a man like you.’
‘No,’ Jackson agreed, once more squirming uncomfortably. ‘The pieces in the paper would be largely to draw people in. A few weeks after they stop I’ll release the book of our interviews. The bigger picture. What it’s really like to be someone like you.’
‘Someone like me?’ Gibran questioned, leaning in as close as the table and restraints would allow. ‘How could you or your readers ever know what it’s like to be me?’
‘They might,’ Jackson argued. ‘If you tell them.’
Gibran leaned back in his chair before changing tack. ‘Why do you want to write a book about me when you’ve already had one published? One that contained a great many unsubstantiated allegations, I may add.’
‘Allegations made by the police,’ Jackson explained. ‘Not me. I was just reporting on the investigation, working on what the police gave me. There was no opportunity to put your side of things across. But there is now – if you want to.’
‘And why would I do that?’ Gibran asked. ‘Why should I care what the police or public think I am or what I’ve done? What makes you think they’re anything to me?’
Jackson knew Gibran would never be enticed into cooperat-ing by the chance of helping others understand what he was. Gibran existed to satisfy himself and no one else. Jackson knew his psychological profile well. Gibran was as pure a sociopath as had ever allowed themselves to be caught – totally incapable of feeling remorse or guilt. He’d most likely been that way since the day he was born – a killer created by nature or God. Not some sorry case of a normal man turned into a monster by tragic circumstances of child abuse or mental illness. He’d had a privileged background and an apparently happy childhood, although even then he probably knew what he really was. He was well educated and went on to have a successful career, a wife and children, yet it had all been a smokescreen, cultivated to provide cover for the real Sebastian Gibran: a psychopath who killed for the pleasure of killing.
The only way to persuade such a man to play ball would be to convince him that doing so would benefit him.
‘Do it for yourself then,’ Jackson told him. ‘Do it for your own … amusement.’ Gibran said nothing. ‘You would be able to see the final manuscript before it’s published,’ Jackson tried to persuade him.
‘If I was the type of person you think I am,’ Gibran responded, once more changing the subject without warning, ‘why would I have to kill? Tell me, Mr Jackson: why would I feel compelled to kill?’
‘No,’ Jackson answered, the excitement swelling in his stomach. ‘You tell me.’
‘Because, if I was like that,’ Gibran explained, ‘it would be in my nature to kill. It would be as instinctive to me as breathing is to you. I would have to kill to live. I could survive without it, but I wouldn’t be alive. I wouldn’t kill to satisfy some sexual urge, or because voices in my head told me to, or because I’d grown to hate a world that had spited and tortured me. I’d kill simply because it is in my nature to do so. That is, if I was the person you think I am. You see, Mr Jackson,’ he continued, leaning into the table, ‘people like that aren’t mere human beings. They’re superhuman. Gods amongst mortals. It is their right to take the lives of inferior beings at will. Is it not a basic principle of evolution that the superior branch of a species eventually brings about the extinction of the inferior strain? Read Friedrich Nietzsche’s Superman philosophy, Mr Jackson. Since God is dead it is necessary for the emergence of the Overman, who is to replace God.’
Jackson stared at Gibran, opened-mouthed, before recovering his senses. ‘I’ll look it up,’ he answered. ‘Sounds very … interesting.’ Jackson blinked unconsciously as he cleared his mind. ‘So … how would a person like this select their victims?’ he asked. ‘Would they be attracted to a particular type of person? Do their victims unwittingly draw these … Overmen to them?’
‘To the Overmen, everyone is a potential victim, Mr Jackson. But enough for one day,’ Gibran insisted, his mouth suddenly smiling – his teeth straight and white despite years of incarceration in a mental hospital. ‘I’ve enjoyed our chat. Make another appointment and we can speak again. But for now, could you do me a favour and summon my protectors.’ He pointed with his chin to the intercom attached to the wall. ‘I’m afraid I can’t quite reach.’
‘Of course,’ Jackson agreed, getting to his feet while trying to control his excitement at having potentially hit the jackpot. ‘And you can be sure I’ll make another appointment.’
‘Well then,’ Gibran closed the interview. ‘Until next time.’
Sean took one last hard look at the two photographs he’d selected from the files. One from each murder scene – both showing full-length body shots of the prostrate victims lying flat on their backs, arms limp and straight at their sides. He suspected they were dead or as good as dead before the killer set to work removing their teeth – stretching his victims out before him to make the task easier. Or was there some other reason for the positioning of the bodies? Some ritual act of the killer or killers? He shook the thoughts away before they led him to a path he could end up following for hours – trying to get an early glimpse of the man he was now hunting. That was how it happened. He’d woken that morning just another man. A detective investigating serious, but not unusual crimes. Crimes that any good detective could handle. Over the last few months, investigating those everyday crimes, he’d grown calmer; happy to be at home with his family, working to earn money to pay for the mundane things all families need, leaving it all behind when he left the office instead of being haunted night and day by the crimes he was investigating. But the instant Featherstone had handed over those two folders, all that changed. Now he was a hunter of men again.
Already he sensed there was something about this killer. Something that made Sean feel their destinies had been set on a collision course. He took a deep breath before snatching up the files and heading to the office next to his where his two deputies, DS Sally Jones and DS Dave Donnelly, were both staring intently at their computers, swearing and moaning as if they were competing with each other in a profanity contest.
Sean rapped on the open door and instantly their fingers froze over their keyboards as they looked up in unison. ‘I’ve got something for you,’ Sean told them.
‘Saw you with Featherstone earlier,’ Sally told him. ‘Please tell me he gave us a proper investigation. I can’t stand working with Anti-Terror again. It’s doing