Psycho Candy

by Steven Hunter

  The door slammed behind the two detectives.

  "The truth. Are you fucking kidding me? Come on-"

  "I'm not saying It's the truth. she's saying it is. And that's where she's got us by the balls. If she said, yeah I'm insane, I was out of my mind when I did it, then okay, we might have had a chance of proving she's lying to avoid the chair. But she's saying she's sane and that this is real, which if a jury believes her, which I just think they might, then It's the fucking loony factory and our case is fucked."

  "What, all those bodies? All those girls-"

  "We don't know for sure that-"

  "Oh, we know. I can smell it on that bitch. I guarantee it, two months down the line and she's suddenly gonna remember all the other poor bitches she's killed in the name of whatever holy ass crusade she's on. We found the girl in her the hotel she was staying at for fucks sake. What do forensics say?"

  "They say for some reason there were no prints whatsoever found, which they say is strange as they also say it was a set of bare hands that strangled that woman and that caved her head in as skin cells were found. All in all, we've got circumstantial but no real evidence other than the fact that the chick sleeping down the hall is a serial killer."

  "Okay. But, what the fuck are we gonna do, huh? Make her say it was all her own free will? How the fuck do we do that in a court room? How is your ventriloquist skills these days? Come on Marks, she's got us beat, you know it, I know it and she fucking well knows it. That lawyer of hers is practically salivating he's so fucking happy. And why? Because he knows the outcome just like you do. I mean he's a fucking public defender. To him this is the case of his life. Gets her a cushy sentence, and all the while the fucking publicity the fucker is going to get. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

  "My sentiments exactly. Come on. I'll buy you a drink.

  CHAPTER SIX

  A DAY IN THE DOCK FOR CANDY

  It was two in the afternoon and the courthouse was mobbed.

  Candy sat in the dock, relishing the emptiness of the courtroom, trying to ignore the police guards who sat near. She had asked to appear without the handcuffs and her request had been denied, however she had been given the choice of waiting in the holding cell until the case started or sitting quietly in the dock, and she had chosen the latter.

  Her lawyer was outside making statements on her behalf. She wanted to plead guilty to the murders and her lawyer wanted an insanity plea, stating that Gods who make you do thing generally come under that category and as no Gods had been arrested or questioned and would not be making an appearance in the witness stand this really was the only way to avoid lethal volts of electricity being passed through her body until she was dead. Candy had asked for a compromise. She said she intended to tell the truth as she saw it. If they accepted this as an insanity plea then so be it.

  Johnson had sighed, gotten in touch with a psychiatrist who he asked to question Candy about the murders, his conclusion giving Johnson full rights to plead insanity on Candy's behalf without her consent.

  She didn't know this now, and he wasn't sure he was going to tell her.

  So now they were waiting for the case to be heard. Candy would testify, and would be cross examined by a host of professionals ranging from top psychiatrists to clinical psychologists and had agreed to take a polygraph test during the trial, not because anyone believed what she was saying but because they wanted to see if she did.

  The door opened and the lawyer appeared.

  "Did you tell them what I said to? That I didn't kill Sarah and Rich and that the I was forced into the other killings?"

  "I told them. Yeah I told them."

  "And?"

  "They had a field day. Evil Gods, murder; man those journos fucking lapped it all up."

  "It's the truth Johnston and don't fucking forget that or I'll cave your fucking eyes in."

  Johnston blinked and his face visibly paled.

  A nasty look crossed his eyes. "Listen, I don't have to represent you, you know. I can quite happily toss you over to some other lawyer, but a lot of them cost money and I'm the only public defender that was free to take your case today. Don't you forget, I could quite easily leave you in the lurch here, so make one more threat and I might just do that."

  Candy smiled."Fine. And turn down this publicity? I don't think so Johnny, old boy. You've never had a case like this in your life. I can smell the excitement washing off you like fresh shit, or maybe that's just your smell, I don't know, but I'll tell you this. You walk off this case and you're not only making the worst career move of your life, I can promise you that when I get free, I'll hunt you down and cut the soles of your feet off. And that is not a fucking threat. That's a statement of fact. Speaking of which, you'd better have stuck to exactly what I told you in the my other statement of fact you just read or I'll do that anyway and I'll kick you off this case so hard you'll land so sorely back in your shitty dreary mundane work day you'll wish you'd never met me. I bet there's a hundred high paying lawyers who would do this for the profile It's gonna get them, and I bet they'd take the shitty pay the legal aid in this country doles out for doing it. Your choice, Johnny."

  Johnson was not a stupid man. He merely nodded his head.

  The bitch had him and he knew it. "Then Miss Stevens, let me do the best job I can for you and let me walk the earth in peace with my soles intact. We're both under pressure here so please forgive my rudeness. I just get a bit sweaty with people when I'm threatened with mutilation. You'll find most people are."

  What he didn't add was that she was probably going to spend the rest of her life a medicated zombie staring out some metal meshed window talking to shrinks about nonsensical Gods within the confines of a locked ward from which the chances of her release were practically zero. Still, why antagonize the cunt any further. A happy psycho was better than an angry one. And he needed her to get off on this insanity plea.

  She was right.

  This case was going to change his life.

  Thirty minutes later and the judge had had his standing ovation to the request of - "all rise," and the prosecution had started presenting their case.

  Wilson Cummings, the district attorney who was vying to get Candy the electric chair was pacing the room. He was a tall, distinct looking chap, dark skinned with dark hair which was greying slightly at the edges and dressed in a suit which cost at least ten times that of Johnson's. His gaze, which had been fixed at the ceiling for the past minute, now turned once again to the jury.

  "So in summary, we of the prosecution shall prove beyond reasonable doubt that the woman you see before you, sitting in the dock, is nothing more than a cold blooded killer, a killer who took the lives of her friends and that of four others, one of whom was a fine upstanding member of the city's own police department and that she did so of her own volition, that there was no illusory dark Gods egging her on to do so," there was a pause in which he was rewarded by a small volley of titters from the viewing gallery, "and that she deserves nothing more than the most severest of punishments this state allows which is death. She has taken life and nothing more than her own life being taken is going to make up for that."

  "Bullshit!" Candy muttered from the dock.

  "Silence in my courthouse. Silence or I will find you in contempt," the judge intoned to Candy with his severest of tones, something that he liked to practice at home on his children.

  Candy however was not impressed.

  "And what's the penalty for that? A few months in prison before you fry my fucking brains. Don't be fucking ridiculous."

  For a moment the Judge was stunned. Then he leaned forward to Johnson who sat with a grimace on his lips. "You will control your client or I will find you responsible, seeing as how my threats do not seem to bother her in the slightest."

  "Your honour I must object, I-"

  "Silence."

  There was a smirk from the prosecution.

  "Does the prosecution have any more to say?"

  "T
he prosecution has made It's opening statement and now rests your honour."

  "Defence shall now speak. And I hope this time it is without interruption."

  Please God , let her keep her fucking mouth shut, thought Johnson.

  "Ladies and Gentleman, members of the jury, what we have here is no open and shut case as the prosecution would have you believe. What we have here is no simple case at all. It is undeniable my client has killed, that I must point that out from the word go. She took the life of an officer of the law and she admits to killing a drug dealer and a woman from a bar. However, my client maintains she did not kill her friends. And you know what? I believe her. The reason being people, and I want you to really consider what I have to say as another life hangs in the balance here; why would she lie? She has admitted to enough murder that she may be executed. Admitting to killing two more people would not have made it a less serious punishment, only a more serious crime, and after speaking candidly to my client, I truly believe she loved the people who died that night. However, where does this leave us ladies and gentleman. If this is true, and I very much believe it to be, then where are the killers of these other people? Let me put this to you. My client was under the influence of LSD the night her friends were killed. I'm sure you've all heard of this psychoactive narcotic and are maybe even aware of its effects, however if you are ignorant which many may also be, then let me enlighten you. Do you know for example that it is a fact that whilst under the influence of LSD a person is of section-able state of mind, that is to say that this person could be remanded to a mental institution as a person on LSD is legally classified as insane?"

  A murmur arose from the jury stand. Candy sat thoughtfully watching her lawyer with a new found respect. She had to admit, the guy was actually pretty good.

  Just goes to show what a career break will do for a person.

  "And so Candy that night was insane, that is by legal standards. We shall hear from more qualified witnesses in the course of this trial however I can say with as much certainty as I have possible that Candy was hallucinating that night. That she was delusional. That she was hearing voices, something she also mentioned to the police. I put it to you that she saw the killers of her friends and in her delusional state of mind she assumed they were, as she put it, dark Gods, and after watching the murder of her friends something happened. It is also a known fact amongst the professionals in the world of mental health that a minor trauma can cause damage to the psyche when on this type of mind opening drug. A trauma on the scale of watching your friends die... well ladies and gentlemen that itself is quite something else entirely. No, something in Candy snapped that night. She witnessed a murder, whilst insane and what happened next, well, that's still shades of grey, but I will tell you, she not only believed that what she says is true, she still believes it. That is the trauma that has befallen my client. Look to the facts of the case. A happy go lucky medical student, exemplary records of achievement. Someone with a future. Does this sound like the kind of person who would suddenly for no reason kill her friends in cold blood then go on a murder spree across the city? No, it does not. Candy is unwell. That is the only fact that you must consider here. She has admitted to her crimes, not tried to pervert any course of justice. The only untrue statements she makes here are ones she cannot help, and she would not like me saying this, but say it I must. She is only telling untruths because she believes them to be true and for that you must examine the case with that in mind. How badly has she been affected here? How do we help this damaged life? For her life as she knew it is now finished. Do we punish her further? It will not bring back the people she killed, nor the friends she witnessed being murdered in front of her. That is what we have to decide here. Not what the prosecution demands but what justice and fairness demands. Thank you." Johnson breathed a sigh of relief. He could see it on the faces of the jury. He had them. He for once in his fucking life had them.

  He made his way back to his place on the bench where he took his place beside Candy.

  She leaned over to his ear. "You know Johnston, you ain't so bad after all. I'll make you a deal. Spare me the chair and I'll owe you one."

  "I think we just might at that you know. I think we just might."

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  DAY TWO AT THE COURT HOUSE

  Red, blue and white wires protruded from the polygraph machine, patriotic tendrils, each with its own rounded sucker, waiting to feed off the vibrations of honesty or deceit.

  More officers had been brought in and for the moment Candy's cuffs were off. She was surrounded by a total of twelve police officers, four of which carried electrified tasers, the other eight with guns at the ready. It had been said by those in power that eight guns was maybe eight too many when members of the public were at stake so the court room had been shut off to the public for the time being. The guns carried rubber bullets, and fired only one round at a time so Candy would not in theory be killed should this possibility arise, or at least the odds were slim in comparison to say for example an Uzi. The wires were put in place. Only the jury and the judge and court personnel remained, who now sat behind protective glass, along with the lawyers who stood perched, ready for their turn at questioning.

  The prosecution was up first.

  Candy looked at the wires which had been placed on her head and chest with a clip type thing on her finger and then up at Wilson Cummings. "You ready to get this charade over with? Jesus, the way you people treat me you'd think I was lying or something."

  "Yes, of course Candy, we shall start now. Firstly I'd like to just do a couple of test questions."

  In truth Wilson was seething with rage inside. He had automatically assumed the Detectives in charge of the case would have done a polygraph revealing her guilt and that this was merely a formality so to speak and had hit the roof when he found out that this was to be the first time the fucking psycho had been interrogated in such a fashion. Still he knew bullshit when he heard it, and he could spot a fake a mile off. If he hadn't been so sure that this was going to prove him right and win his case then he would merely have moved onto the experts. However, the defence had insisted and he hadn't put up a fight. After all. She was a fake alright, and he knew she was bullshitting each and every person in the room. Dark Gods. Evil Goddesses. It beggared belief. She may as well have said she had just taken tea with Jesus of Nazareth.

  "Firstly, Candy... may I call you Candy?"

  "No. Call me Miss Stevens."

  "Certainly. Miss Stevens, are you female?"

  "I believe so."

  "Yes or no only please."

  "Yes."

  "And do you have hair?"

  "No."

  "And are you in a courthouse today?"

  "No."

  "Miss Stevens, I see no point in lying at such an early stage in the game-"

  "Objection!"

  "Sustained."

  "Okay, let me put it another way," Wilson said. "Why bother lying now?"

  "Who says I'm lying?"

  "Well for a start, the machine does."

  "I guess I wanted to carry out my own tests to make sure you fuckers weren't running a rigged game here. I know what you lawyers can be like. You'd do anything to put a poor innocent girl away."

  "Yes, Indeed. Let us spare the theatrics and get on with the test. On the night of the twenty fourth, did you attend a night club called Blast?"

  "Yes."

  The polygraph once again sprang to life, the machine scratching waved lines onto a long stretch of graph paper.

  "And on that night did you take the substance, LSD?"

  "Yes."

  Again the machine made affirmative markings on the paper.

  "And did you kill anyone that night."

  Candy paused.

  Had it been that night that she had killed the girl in the covenant, the one she had thrown to her death, or had it been in the hours of the morning?

  The police so far did not know about that particular murder, Candy had ha
rdly seen the point in mentioning it, but now it could pose some difficulty if she could not answer truthfully.

  She decided it had been the morning. "No."

  The machine made a dubious wave on the paper beneath it.

  Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Well, Miss Stevens, it seems you are slightly unsure about that as the machine here shows. Are you perhaps having second thoughts? Perhaps remembering the true events now, eh?"

  "No. It's the way the question is phrased. No killings started until the early hours of the next day."

  Wilson appeared slightly crestfallen at this, however he soldiered on. "Then let me rephrase that for you. Did you kill Sarah and Richard in the early hours of the morning after attending the nightclub Blast?"

  "No."

  This time the polygraph scratched out a solid wave which unmistakably said Candy was telling the truth. Wilson groaned inwardly. So she was telling the truth about her friends. And she had admitted to the other murders. As his palms became sweaty he could feel the case sliding from his grasp.

  "So, that at least, according to the machine, is the truth. But the other woman that night, by the cars. Did you kill her?"

  "No."

  Again the lie detecting machine confirmed Candy's answer.

  Wilson choked down a cry of astonishment. "Was it then a, ahem, black God who in fact killed the woman?"

  "Yes."

  This time the polygraphs agreement was too much and Wilson turned to the defence. "This is a bloody joke! You must have rigged the damned thing. I demand a new machine be brought in at once!"

  Johnson smiled. Things could not be going better.

  Candy looked up at the District attorney and smiled.

  "What's the matter? Can't handle the truth all off a sudden?"

  She made a sudden leap, grabbing the weighty machine in a single motion which she smashed against the front of Wilson's face. His nose exploded in a burst of blood and bone and he fell to his knees as the surrounding officers, acting too late, pounced upon Candy, restraining her.