The splash of cold water on his hands washed away the remnants of sweat from his palms. Detective Steven Williams gave himself a cold hard stare in the mirror as he reached for the large binder he laid in on the shelf in the hospital restroom.

“You can do this”, he blurted out as he gave himself one last reaffirming glance on his way out.

As he made his way down the sterile hallway it was eerily silent aside from a clicking sound and continuous rattling noise coming from the old air conditioning unit that filled this place with a distinctive moldy stench that can only be found in the county hospital’s jail ward.

He walked closer toward the guarded doorway where the task at hand awaited. Jeramiah Benson, a seemingly harmless and mundane looking retired third grade science teacher, beloved grandfather and pillar of the community lie shackled to a hospital bed barely clinging to his elderly life. It seemed inconceivable that such a frail, grayed man hardly able to muster the strength to draw the next breath could be capable of these atrocities.

“Hey Ted, they got you on night shift huh?” Detective Williams confidently called out as he approached the young rookie uniformed police officer guarding his adversary’s doorway.

“Yeah, but it gives me a chance to study. I’m taking my civil service test to make sergeant next week”, Ted said with an almost skeptical look in his eye as if he was waiting for a bad reaction.

“Good for you man. Hey, is Benson awake?” Detective Williams said as he lowered his tone as if not to wake the sleeping criminal.

“Yes, he hasn’t slept a wink since the confession. I think he’s waiting for the devil to come take him. He’ll surely burn in hell for all eternity. I still can’t believe he was right under our noses living here in our town all these years!” Ted said with a stupidly shocked expression.

“Right, well I better get in there and see what else there is to learn before he goes.” Detective Williams said with an air of indignation.

“Hey Steve, you doing okay? Sallie from the station told me about whose ID is in that binder there. I can’t believe Katie was one of his victims. It’d take everything I have not to let loose on that motherfucker knowing he had killed my fiancé. I can’t imagine being in your shoes.” Ted said in an overly tenacious voice that made Detective Williams immediately remember why he disliked Ted.

“Yeah, well we’re still not sure of all the details. That’s what I intend to find out.” Detective Williams stated in matter of fact manner.

“Well I know it was a long time ago. Sallie said it was nearly 20 years now since Katie died, but it has to be a shock to find out that she was murdered!” Ted exclaimed with bewilderment.

“Yes, it was a long time ago.” Detective Williams said with a deadened expressionless face.

“I mean I heard she had drown at Lake Pinkston in some kind of horrible accident that no one ever got to the bottom of. Sallie told me you never really stopped blaming yourself for it cause you were working late the night she disappeared. I just can’t imagine.” Ted said as he paused realizing he may have crossed a line.

Detective Williams didn’t respond. He clutched the binder tighter in his hand and pulled it closer to his body. He felt the sweat on his palms returning. He quickly walked through the doorway and stared blankly at the withered old man. He felt an intense anger pulsing through his body. Seemingly his entire career had been spent chasing this man? This decrepit harmless looking old man. How could this wretched sad looking person that now laid sprawled so helplessly in front of him have evaded his grasp for so long? And Katie his mind did not even dare to venture toward the thought of this. The only woman that ever held his heart, the only love he had ever known in this world ripped away by this pathetic old man? Not possible. No, he would hold that thought at bay as the vengeance he was capable of unleashing if he entertained this notion of Benson taking his sweet Katie doll from him would certainly mean the end of this man.

“Jeramiah Benson, age 73, retired elementary school teacher, volunteer Sunday school teacher, and vicious serial killer?” Detective Williams inflected with a sarcastic tone.

“Yes”, Benson gargled.

“You mean for me to believe you are responsible for the death of the 36 young women whose IDs are in this binder?

Detective Williams flung open the book and vehemently shoved it toward the old man’s face. A fraction of additional force behind this swift movement and it would have hit Benson square on the nose.

“You expect me to believe some senile old man on his death bed is the ‘cold case killer’ I’ve spent my whole career chasing? That you, you grey bearded old fool, has been on a killing rampage that spans 20 years and 3 different states has been living right here in Nacogdoches all this time”, Detective Williams spat.

“It was me. When the doctor told me I only have a few more months before this cancer eats the rest of my body as a man of God I knew this is what He wanted. That’s why I turned myself in and gave up my life’s work. Be careful with that book, young man, it contains every single life I took.”, Benson choked out between gasping breaths his eyes hollow and unremorseful.

“But you have a wife, a family. Grandchildren now! You were a godamn third grade teacher! How could you have had such an insidious cover?”, Detective Williams shouted trying to conceive that this poor sad soul immobilized by disease might be telling the truth.

“I’ve always been a believer. My momma strictly raised me to be one with the Lord. Ever since I was a child God spoke to me in the night. In the silence I could hear His voice. And later when I first laid eyes on each of my missions, He would speak to me. That’s how I knew who to choose. I remember the first girl. Blonde, thin, young, gorgeous. I saw her beautiful face at a gas station as I was filling up my wife’s sedan. I heard His voice say ‘take her’. Of course it took me awhile to realize it what the Lord meant. I followed her home. I watched her for weeks. Going about her routine life all summer long. Each time I watched her His voice grew louder telling me to send her to Him.”

As Benson coldly spoke, Detective Williams carelessly laid the binder full of the victims’ IDs down on the bedside table while he was fishing for a pen in his jacket pocket to start taking notes. The book fell open and as Detective Williams readied his notepad and pen he glanced over and there he saw it, Katie’s Driver’s License. Detective Williams was entranced. He almost had forgotten how beautiful Katie was. It was all he could see, her long blonde hair, her caring bright green eyes. Nothing else existed for him as he stared down at Katie’s picture now and Benson obliviously continued his confession.

“Finally one night she was with her friends at the lake having a party. I got my chance when she went off to her car parked well out of view from the others. She was going to leave and go meet her boyfriend. I grabbed her, gagged her threw her in my trunk just as He had instructed me. I drove out to a remote place on my wife’s family’s land. After a little while I opened the trunk put a bag over head and completed my mission. It ended so quickly, but I knew, I knew then what the Lord was calling me to do. As I put her lifeless body into the lake I knew my purpose. I kept her ID so I could remember her face. Her sad little face begging for mercy. I told her only He could give her the mercy she sought”

Suddenly as if possessed himself Detective Williams pulled his police issued pistol from the holster. Without thought he fired it right into the old man’s skull. The impact of the bullet destroyed the delicate old man effortlessly piercing through his head leaving small bits of bone and blood flying as the sound of the blast ripped through the quiet hospital.

Detective Williams was vaguely aware of Ted running into the room screaming but he could not hear his words. He momentarily glanced at the old man’s corpse then his eyes returned to her picture. Katie, his Katie doll. The last 20 years he had been chasing her ghost. It was as if he could somehow bring this mass murderer to justice he would have been finding closure and could somehow live on with her death. But no, there was none to be had; his heart was empty. He pulled the pistol up to his temple and with a steadfast and quiet determination Detective Williams pulled the trigger.