Case File MO70

Person of Interest Recording #9

Marshal: Please state your name for the dictaphone.

Suspect: Lamentations Bean.

[Long Pause]

Suspect: Marshal, if you’re not going to ask me questions, I think there may be more important matters for you to deal with.

Marshal: Dean Harrington has recommended that you be deputized.

Suspect: Oh, is that his real name?

Marshal: Quiet. His justification is that we need the extra manpower and you have experience. As the Marshal in charge of this investigation, I’m required to sign off on using you, but I’m also required to not sign off if you present a threat to anybody under my command. Anybody.

[Pause]

Suspect: You know? God, you know. Who told you? Was it Briar?

Marshal: That’s not your concern. I want to know why I shouldn’t turn you over to the proper authorities for attempted murder.

Suspect: I do not deny my sin! Send me to prison once this is done if you must. But I will not have his scheme succeed.

Marshal: You shot my recruit.

Suspect: Because she protected him, and I know what he and his family are capable of. And now you know too. I’ve heard every story Roger’s willing to tell about the war and none of them had giant half-rotted animal thralls.

Marshal: You shot. My recruit.

Suspect: And now she’s commanding bears against your people. I warned you, but you left her in charge and now she’s under his thumb, just like poor Gigi.

Marshal: You almost shot her after shooting my recruit!

[Pause]

Suspect: I did. I would have hated myself for it, no matter how many times I’d ask God for forgiveness. Ever day since that night, I thank God, thank Briar for holding me back. I want to believe there is a right and noble way to solve every problem in the world, Marshal. But sometimes God asks you to bring your child to the altar. Sometimes God whips the merchants in the marketplace. Sometimes it falls to men like me to handle such tasks.

Marshal: You are not making a strong case for yourself.

Suspect: There’s a rumor going around your subordinates. I’ve heard some of them gossiping about it outside my cell. They say you only recruited Matilda Walstead because of those ‘hocks underneath her skirt’

[Pause]

Marshal: Who…how dare-

Suspect: Anybody who’s actually talked to Ms. Walstead would know better. She’s has a natural talent for conniving and learns quickly. But I can see that her…‘presumed’ defection is affecting you. If she has defected, then under your own mandate, you’ll need to stop her if she presents a threat to the population of the United States. Can you do it? Even if it means lethal force?

[Pause]

Suspect: I can. Anything that gets between me and him, I can. Maybe that’s from the way she herself raised me, but I will not quit, and you need someone who won’t quit. Just set a guard on me and I’ll throw myself forward. Let the sin fall on me.

Marshal: Harrington will…get back to you.

Suspect: God be with you, Marshal. He has to be keeping an eye out for *one* of us at least.

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