Page 100 of Psychopath

“Every other time when confronted with the choice, you walked away. Why not this time?”

“We all have our secrets…”

“Did he know… Did the first guy you killed know Luca Campbell?”

Quinn curled his toes in his shoes. It was the first time Quinn had asked a direct question about Virgil’s ex-boyfriend, and the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as he awaited a reaction.

Luca…

The four murders Virgil was charged with were to do with Luca.

Why would the first victim be any different?

“No. He didn’t know Luca, and Luca didn’t know him.” Virgil’s glare was cutting. “He’s not called Luca Campbell anymore, I’m guessing?”

“I suspect not.”

“Do you…” Virgil tapped his fingers on the table. “Do you know where he is?”

Quinn shook his head. “I don’t.”

“I’d tell you, I’d tell the police everything about the first time, the first man, if you’d just bring him back, let me see him. I’ll…I’ll fill in all the gaps, if they bring him back to me.”

“I don’t have—”

“Please.”

Quinn swallowed. “I’ll make a note of it. I’ll tell the police.”

Virgil nodded. “This”—he gestured to the box room they were inside—“wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You weren’t supposed to get caught, you mean?”

“It was a foolish mistake. I made a mistake that I couldn’t correct in time, and I got caught. And he, Luca…I didn’t get a chance to explain it. They hid him away from me.”

“For his own protection,” Quinn said softly. “Or that’s my understanding of what happened.”

Luca Campbell was a police officer specialising in drug crime. He had no idea his boyfriend was a serial killer, and when it all came out, the police and the public turned on him. A relative of one of Virgil’s victims stabbed him in the street, and soon after, he disappeared with a new identity.

“He needs me,” Virgil said. “And I need him.”

“The four men you killed. Do you feel any regret? Remorse? Guilt?”

“No. I enjoyed killing them. I enjoyed the feel of their blood on my skin, and the gurgling sounds, and the whole…routine. I would’ve kept going if I hadn’t made a mistake. I’d still be doing it now, and Luca…Luca would be doing it alongside me.”

Quinn froze. “What?”

“I think I could’ve convinced him.” Virgil shrugged. “He wanted to make me happy. He’d have done anything to please me.”

“You think you could’ve turned him into a killer?”

“It wouldn’t have happened overnight.” He shuffled in his seat. “But I think if we’d have kept on how we were…it would’ve happened eventually.”

“The four victims, you used Luca as bait to kill them. You used his picture, made a fake profile and seduced—”

Virgil’s fist came down on the table. “No. They tried to seduce Luca. It was them who sent him pictures, videos, and voice notes, trying to take him away from me.”

“You encouraged them to. You pretended to be Luca, and you led them on. That’s how you chose your victims. You tempted them with Luca, and he, Luca, had no idea?”

---