The Interrogation of Jonathan Cane

PLEASE READ AND GIVE FEEDBACK. im not satisfied with it and i need to hand it in tomorow rigje'rg

 

The Interrogation of Jonathan Cane   _{By Peter Dougherty}

June 2, 1978 – 1:10 PM

            The river used to be the first thing we’d see when we came to Juniper, but the new road comes in from the other direction. My hands were gripping the steering wheel tight. My hand twisting on the leather. I grunted as I turned down the radio.

            I needed time to think. The road was new and smooth, unlike the old road. Cracked. Worn. Jonathan Cane was in the passenger seat. He was telling me how to get to his wife. Where he buried his wife. So I guess I should say what had been his wife.

            Its coming right up detective, he said.

            I thought to myself that I needed to just keep driving. The scenery was nothing but the big grass fields of the Missouri country side. The sky was wide opened. Almost as if God was gazing down right on me. Lord help me.

May 30, 1978 – 4:36 PM

            Maybe it was the fluorescent lights that did it. The tubes of airless space. The room was covered in the glow. Light. Every nook and cranny was exposed. I think that this kind of setting is perfect for interrogating a perp. The light was almost symbolic of the truth. I’m not really fond of those kind of flowery things. Metawhos and simiwhats. It was never something I went with.

            There he was. I sat down at the stainless steel table across from a man in a brown pin striped suit.

            “What do we have here,” I said in the usual cop jargon. I looked in a folder from the filing cabinet on the table. “Jonathan Cane, eh? Says you’re Jewish. Not very Jewish name.” No response. I shut the folder and sat down. “Do you know what you are doing here?”

            This man was pretty much bald with thin tuffs of hair in the back and on the sides. His face was sort of pinched. Puckered. Like he just ate some sort of really sour candy. His cheeks seemed to go in. He had circular glasses that rested on his hook nose. His eye lids were thick and hung over gray eyes.

            “Detective, I am no simpleton. I am well aware of the crime your office has convicted me of.”

            Usual sarcastic back talk I guess.

            I reopened the folder. “Oh, the crime you are being convicted of, not the one you committed.” I exchanged sarcasm with him, but I didn’t plan on doing it all day.

            For a second, I thought his flat smirk. Thin lips. Twitched into a smile.

            “Well you see detective, I am making no gesture to say that I did not kill Enid. Maybe you should get to know your cases better as I have already confessed to my guilt. I killed Enid Cane.”

            I went through the folder rather quickly and stood up and aggressively pushed the chair in under the table. I felt some sort of pride in the sonofabitches voice. “Well, Mr. Cane, your file says that the body isn’t been found yet. Do you care to tell me about that.” I began to walk around the table towards him. His eyes were still fixed forward. I went behind his chair, stared and went back around.

            “Oh, please do sit down detective, it’s quit the tale.”

            I stopped my cycle for a second and then kept on walking towards my seat. His manners were so unsettling. He was extremely polite to the point where it seemed unreal. Maybe like a robot. I got to my seat and looked at him again. He had not moved. His hands were on his lap. The pin stripes ran up and down his body. He had a white shirt with a plain dark purple tie. He was a really skinny man, his face clean shaven but his skin hung off his bones kind of.

            He sighed and then began.

            “It was a wonderful morning , when I had awoken from my sleep, I stretched out my arms and my muscles spread, relieving themselves of the contraction they had felt all night. I turned over to Enid who was asleep in the bed next to me. Her full lush body laid their so nicely, here thick curly black hair was in contrast with the white plush of the pillow. I propped myself over he slumbering body and kissed her on the cheek, after which I got off of the mattress and began to change for work. I slowly replaced the soiled garments of the night prior with a fresh white shirt, orange tye, and pitch black sports jacket. As I was buttoning my shirt, I noticed that even my chest hair had begun to turn gray, a sure sign that father time kept me encompassed with his every ch – ”

            “Listen,” I interrupted, “can we get a move on here. We have no nee– ”

            “Detective, I would prefer if you do not interrupt me again. Nevertheless, I do find some truth in your sentiment and I will accelerate my tale just a little more so.”

            “Great,” I said. This guy was starting to creep me out. He was hardly anything that I would consider a murderer. Clean cut and very quiet man. He was the one who ran the old shoe story on Katzman Street. Then again, no one in this town seems like a murderer. This was the first murder in Ashter in over thirty years. Not even a black boy has been killed here since before Doctor King. I was encharge of a this town and have been for 5 years. I was well respected and like but I have never met some fella like this man.  We picked him up because his wife was missing for 3 weeks, arguing was heard, and we suspected she was dead. He confirmed this himself.

            “You see, detective, I had gone down to the shoe store in my new, fairly simple Chevrolet and opened it up for costumers. However, before I could leave for work, I needed to do the work Enid had left for me. You see, detective, she always left me a posted note every morning on the telephone. That morning I do believe it said ‘clean dishes, take out trash, vacuum living room.’ So, before I left, I meticulously scrubbed every dish. The searing water was hot against my skin, almost burning it. To be honest, I liked the feeling. I then took out the trash, and went outside into the crisp cold morning air. Breathing it all in, detective. Finally, I would vacuum the living room, steering the machine through the obstacles of furniture. I could then finally go to work. I sat behind the counter for over 3 hours, watching men, women, and children come in and out. All of them were putting on and taking off various shoe sizes, attempting to find the correct size that would fir their feet perfectly. Naturally, all of their feeble attempts were in unquestionable vain as there was not real level of perfection. Ungodly. It would be those slight nuances in their feet that would just make the fit imperfect. I stared from behind the counter with such annoyance at these pitiful people, searching for perfection in leather. For approximately 3 hours I had done so. I had to wait for the shop to be empty for me to leave for my lunch break, a lunch that Enid should have prepared for me.

            I was waiting for a rather large woman with curly read hair to leave, yet she was taking a significantly long time to try on several pairs of shoes. In case you have never been to my shop detective– ”

            “I’ve been. Just keep goin”

            “The woman had finally left my shop and I was able to close at 11:30 and I posted a sign that stated I would return at 12:30. I sat in my car and I began to drive back to my house on the other side of town. I cannot afford a rather large house, however mine did quite well for me. My car pulled into the drive way of the two story house. You see, I see everything in black and while; the sky the trees, people. All are dull and enslaving. In my eyes, anyway. I desired freedom from this black and white world, ever so binding and evil

I opened the door without much alacrity, slowly. I silently walked up the stairs as I could detect that something was wrong. My feet dragged along the pink carpet silently as to not make a single sound.

            I went along the smooth cream colored walls. My anticipation, or rather fear was growing inside me. I inched closer to the door to my bed room where I heard noises. The noises grew louder and louder. Do you have a wife detective?”

            “Can’t say that I do?”

            “What a shame. They can be real fun to have around.” He leaned closer to the table. “Some of the time anyway. I peered into my room as I had finally arrive to the threshold. I peered in. The grunting was unbearable to hear. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She was moving up and down up and down as this man’s penis pierced her flesh. Her breasts bounced with every push the man made to reach further into her being. The noises Enid was making. They were like two swords being thrusted into the my ears, colliding in my mind. She was on top, as dominating as ever, bringing her heavy self down onto this man’s pelvis. He grabbed her breast and breathed heavily. My body stopped working in that instant. The joints froze. My eyes melted from their sockets. My heart was a spermatic mechanism, searching for time to rest its worn systems. The man flipped her over so that now he was dominating her. His bare buttocks faced me as it continued to the thrust inward. She screamed. I could not see this man’s face, all I could see is his tan skin. He was also quit hairy and a deal more muscular than I. I than saw her hand claw deep into his back as she let out one last yelp. His testicles swung every time he pounded his hips against hers. She lowered her hands and squeezed his buttocks as her toes curled in euphoria. I could not watch any longer. Their bodies were twisted and mangled into a ball of pulsating flesh.”

            I gritted my teeth as I continued to watch this man talk. His eyes were still fixed forward. Retelling this seemed not to affect him at all.

            “I left the house as silently as I came in and drove around in my car. I do not know how long I had driven for. My mind was a mess of irrational thoughts and I needed to pluck some sort of piece of sanity from the void. As I drove, I prayed. I prayed that God would give me some form of strength, that he would give me some course of action for me to take. I drove and drove. The sun had set and I was navigating through the darkness of night and the darkness of my mind. I could not tell you what time it was, however the sun had not emerged yet, that my mind cleared. I remembered the commandments of God and Moses. The adulteress needed to be punished in the name of God. Cheaters never win detective.”

June 15,1978 – 10:00 AM

            Two men and a woman were at a coffee shop in the small town of Aster, Missouri. From their apparel, you could not tell that they were of duty police officers. From their demeanor, one could tell that they were slightly unsettled, they stirred their coffee and poured a great deal of sugar into their drinks, except for the woman, who drank hers black.

            There was a thick silence amongst them. Their arrangement at the rectangular table was the blond, slightly heavy woman sitting next to the red haired man. They were across from a overweight man with black hair, turning gray.

            The woman broke the silence. “I can’t believe s**t like that is capable of happening in this town.”

June 30, 1978 – 4:52 PM

            This man had one fucked up version of justice. I can tell you that much.

            “I returned home from my little excursion. I made no effort to be silent this time. I ran up the walk way, onto the porch and pulled open the door. I made my way swiftly into the kitchen and pulled out a long knife from the wooden holder. It silver steel shined even in the dim light of my house. I moved my finger over the edge it cut and I bled. I enjoyed the feeling. ‘Jonathan!’ she hollered from upstairs. ‘Jonathan you little good for nothing! Get up here.’

            I would obey her for one last time, but no longer. I ran up the stairs, my feet pounding on each platform. My paced slowed as I moved the knife to behind my back and stalked my way down the hall way. She was in the bedroom. The room of her sin.

            I stepped in slowly. She turned angerly towards me and made her way over. ‘Jonathan! I heard you weren’t at the shop all da – ’ Before she had even a chance to see my weapon coming, I took it and jammed it into where her neck met the rest of her body. It easily cut through her flesh. She did not even scream, she just grunted the same grunt she made while having intercourse with that man. I kicked her onto the bed. I brought down the knife once more, into her chest. It was done with such ease. Bodies were meant to be cut, to be stabbed, to be destroyed. They were not meant for pleasuring yourself, for destroying marriages. I continued to stab her over and over. There was nothing stopping me, I was free to stab her. Her flesh gave little resistance. I punched countless holes into her stomach as freshly dissolved food came out of the wounds. She became a lump of meat on the bed. The blood was in contrast with the white sheets. The black and white world I lived in was obliterated. Red had seeped into it, giving it color, life, freedom.She was so warm and soft on the inside. Much warmer than she had been in life. Cheaters never win; this was God’s will being done. I took the knife and rammed it into her abdomen can carved out a larger vagina for her. She could fit any number of men she desired in her now. However, I knew who was to be the first. I unzipped my pants and lowered my underwear. My circumcised penis took a while to become erect, but once it was I inserted it into the fresh wound and laid on the heap of chopped human. I began to push in and out. My penis slid with such ease in the bloody mess.”

            “F**k! You sick f**k!” I stood up. I do not know how much more of this I could take. I lept across the table and grabbed him by the collar, yet he continued to look straight at me. The door flew open and other officers came in. “I’ve had enough for today!”

            “We shall continue tomorrow then detective.”

June 1, 1978 – 12:30 AM

            I woke up from my sleep. I could not believe this man. This f*****g, evil a*s hole. I could not sleep. I just kept waking up. I just imagined his skinny little body bounding away at the lifeless..thing. My brain could not wrap around it. It was just so beyond me.

June 1, 1978 - 2:30 PM

            I walked into the blinding white room. There he was, no longer in a pinstriped suit, but rather a gray jumpsuit. I sat down. “Okay, why don’t you just tell me where the body is?”

            He laughed a high pitched, eerie laugh. “Well, detective, you are going to have to humor me first.”

            I was getting extremely pissed. I was read to beat this mother f****r’s skull in. “Fine.”

            “So where did we leave off… ah yes. I pushed my penis through the hole I cut in myself. My body laid on hers. I said outloud, ‘How does this feel, dear? Is this what you always wanted? I am free now. I am in control. I win, you lose. Cheaters never win.’ The room was on fire with crimson red blood. It dripped of the bed and splattered all over the sheets. It was beautiful. Finally, instead of cream colored walls, I had beautiful red ones. I lifted myself up and my shirt was stained red from lying on the punctured creature. I continued to push further through the lacerations.

            All of a sudden, I heard Enid say, Jonathan! You’re making a mess!

            I pulled away from her. I could not believe what I just heard, even in death she told me what to do.

            Jonathan clean this s**t up! Do I have to do everything around here!?”

            “What the f**k?” Cane hushed me and wagged his finger.

            “I am just telling you how it happened officer, I would swear under oath. I stared at the guts that were pouring from her stomach. Her large intestine was insight.

            Jonathan! Her voice sounded as if it was coming from inside a glass jar. Did you do the dishes! You better have done the dishes.

            I grabbed her by the ankles and swung her corpse off the bed. ‘Shut up!’

            They’ll find you Jonathan. And when they do, you will be in so much trouble.

            I kicked her face and kicked and kicked and kicked. Her teeth were spread across the bedroom floor. They’re coming for you. I kept kicking her till her face no longer resembled a face. It was just a series of cuts and purple bumps, shrouded by curly black hair. ‘Why are you still talking!?’

            Oh, Jonathan, don’t yell. I don’t like it when you yell at me.

            I was breathing heavily. I looked around the room. There was a rather large splatter mark where I tossed her against the wall.

            I looked down, my shirt was soaked in the warm liquid. My penis was covered in blood. So was my inner thighs. The blood was now dripping down my leg, tickling my skin.

Everything was so beautiful, a ruby room.

They are going to find you Jonathan?

“Who? Who’s going to find me?”

They are.

‘You are not making any sense!’ Me foot went through the soft, exposed torso, snapping the rips, crushing the heart. I could feel the last amounts of blood pumped into it squirt out.

Oh, Jonathan! You missed a spot vacuuming, you are so worthless sometimes. That’s why you are going to get caught. They are going to get you.

‘They are not going to get me!’ I kicked her in the chin. I heard a crack and her jaw fell off, only being held in by the tearing skin. I stood there staring, still naked. I took of the rest of my cloths and put them in a trash bag I got from the kitchen. I stood there naked in the bathroom, looking in the mirror. The blood went through my shirt, my gray chest hair was now red. I walked into the shower and let the water do its work.

That’s good, Jonathan, look nice and clean for me!

            After I was rid of the blood, I trusted the knife into her chest where it would stay and brought out a large trunk. I opened it and slowly began to disassemble Edith.”

            “Disassemble?”

            “Would you like me to go into detail?”

            “No that’s not necessary.”

            “Suit yourself, detective. After much bone snapping I put her compact into the trunk along with the sheets. I kicked her down the stairs.

            How rude! She shouted as she tumbled.

            I left her there as I changed into clean clothes. I looked in the mirror as I changed. I stared deep into the glass. I saw Enid staring back. She told me in a cheery tone You’re a liar Jonathan. A sound similar to a tape rewinding followed. In a deep voice she said: You’re a f*****g cocksucker, Jonathan.  I grew angry ran down the stairs and started to kick the trunk. Let me tell you detective, I usually do not lose my temper like that.”

            I’m sure. This guy was more looney than I thought he was. Just sitting there, calmly telling me how he butchered his wife.

            “I than put poor, sweet Enid in the trunk of my Chevrolet and began to drive. By this time the sun was rising. The darkness began to draw back into the sunrise. I drove with a new confidence. I drove straight out of Ashter and onto the long road after.”

 

June 2, 1978 – 1:15 PM

            I kept travelling straight down the road, listening to Cane’s directions. He had been silent for the past three minutes, but had told me to make the next right, yet there was not a single right in sight. In every direction extended endless grass lands. Cane was still staring straight ahead. Motionless.

June 15, 1978 – 10:01 AM

            “I know,” the man with graying hair said. “That is like some Law and Order stuff right there.”

            “Yea I know.” The red haired man spoke. “But you know Joe always wanted to be like one of those cops. Getting big cases. He wanted something crazy to happen. He was looking for it.”

            The woman looked up from her coffee. “Ugh, I rather not talk about this anymore. I really liked Joe.”

June 1, 1978 – 2:48 PM

            “As I drove out of town, the trees spread farther apart. With my car powering through the cold morning air, the trees were spread wide enough to fit houses in between. I finally came upon and all white, wooden church, with a tall spire. Around it a bunch of blacks were gathering. They were in the field and started to enter the structure. Are you Christian, detective?”

            “Damn proud of it, Go to church every Sunday.”

            “Well detective, are you aware you worship a zombie?”

            I stood up.

            “Well detective let us look at it logically…”

            “You! A*****e, are not the man to speak of logic!”

            “Sit down detective.” I did. “Let us just look at this for a second. He died, but yet he is still walking. And sure, he looked okay, but I would not expect an individual to rot rather quickly over the course of 3 days. So that was what I was thinking as I watched all of those blacks go to church. I am confident that I had made the correct choice in faith, and I was going to punish those who went against it, like sweet Enid.

            Oh Jonathan, you know they are going to get you. You are going to get it. You are going to end up just like me!

            Soon, I was way down the road near Juniper. The clouds were huge mountains of white. They looked so majestic.

            You drive so terribly Jonathan! Did you leave the oven on. You tend to do stupid things like that.

            I was a good distance past Juniper when I made a right into a dense cluster of trees. I dragged Enid across a field into it. I took a shovel from out of my car and proceeded to dig. Ripping through the ground was considerably more difficult than ripping through Enid’s flesh. Soon I carved another hole, this time in the ground. I opened the trunk and dropped all of her dismembered body parts into the earth. I smiled as I covered her with dirt, giving her a wonderful burial. I hummed sweet lullabies as she sank deeper into hell.”

            Cane looked like he was about to cry. It wasn’t the kinda crying when something is sad, but the kind like when you were overwhelmed by, like, the beauty of something.

            “Cheaters never win, detective. She was just bending to God’s will. His game.”

            I flipped the table in the most rage I had ever felt. “You mother f****r!” I grabbed him. “It is not just a game!”

            “Oh, but it is,” he said, as calm as ever. He was looking right at me with his heavy gray eyes. “You simply cannot deny that there are winners and losers. We must do what we can and follow God’s rules a closely as possible. Once you break this rule, you are disqualified, Enid.” I threw him. “She can no longer” Breath. “Particpate.” Breath. “In the game! It the rules detective. I am just another player, this world is God’s board game and I am just his reliable game piece.”

            I was on top of him, punching him repeatedly. “It’s not whether you win or lose. It how you play the game dirt bag.”

            By this time other officers from the station have pulled me off of him.

            “Detective, I think you need to calm down.”

June 2, 1978 – 1:10 PM

The river used to be the first thing we’d see when we came to Juniper, but the new road comes in from the other direction. My hands were gripping the steering wheel tight. My hand twisting on the leather. I grunted as I turned down the radio.

            I needed time to think. The road was new and smooth, unlike the old road. Cracked. Worn. Jonathan Cane was in the passenger seat. He was telling me how to get to his wife. Where he buried his wife. So I guess I should say what had been his wife.

            Its coming right up detective, he said.

            I thought to myself that I needed to just keep driving. The scenery was nothing but the big grass fields of the Missouri country side. The sky was wide opened. Almost as if God was gazing down right on me. Lord help me.

            Five minutes passed as I kept travelling straight down the road, listening to Cane’s directions. He had been silent for the past three minutes, but had told me to make the next right, yet there was not a single right in sight. In every direction extended endless grass lands. Cane was still staring straight ahead. Motionless.

            What had I done? I just wanted to know where the body was, I just wanted to end this. No. Lies. Maybe I didn’t maybe wanted that sicko dead. And here he was, dead in the passenger seat. I literally beat the life out of his body.

            Yet, still, I could here his voice. Like out of a glass jar I heard it.

            Do you see it, detective? The cluster of trees right over there?

            He was directing me to where he buried his wife, so I could bury him along with her. He was the one who would sink into hell.

            I do not think this the proper code of conduct for a police officer.

            “Shut up! Just shut the f**k up!”

            You know I can’t do that.

            The sky was wide open with the eyes of God staring right at me. Judging me. I finally got to where he had buried the pile of flesh and skin that was once his wife. I dug my own hole, not bothering to find Enid. I dumped his body into the hole.

            Detective, I do not appreciate this.

            I piled earth on top of him, yet he continued to speak.

            I shall be rewarded in heaven, detective.

            He had been completely covered, yet he still spoke. You are not going to get away with this.

            “I don’t care you f*****g monster!” I walked to my car and drove away, leaving the case of Jonathan Cane behind.

June 3, 1978 – 11:52 AM

            I was sitting at a desk in the police station when I got a call.

            “Hello, Detective Joe Lakehouse speaking.”

            “Hello, I’d like to file a missing persons report.”

            “Name of you and the missing person, ma’me”

            “My name is Enid Cane, and my husband John is missing.”

            Out of a glass jar I heard, Cheaters never win detective.

Author's Note

constructive criticism