“Drop the weapon, put your hands on your head and move away from the car”

 

“Fuck” thought Simon Guass as he briefly weighed up the pros and cons of a life behind bars and being killed in a hail of bullets right here, right now. The romantic in him longed for the glory of the later, yet he knew in his heart he couldn’t go through with it.

 

------ Steven get a fucking move on ------

 

The Journey to the Police station was quick, too quick! He mentally mapped out the route they were taking. They stopped at a red light at Cholmsfield Junction and then hurried after getting delayed, behind a night bus on Station Road stopping to exchange one set of drunken passengers for another. He listened to the sound of the engine and tried to gauge the speed from what little he could see out of the police Van’s Window. 23 possibly even 24 Miles per hour he estimated, this was in the 20 zone the council had set up last month around the inner city areas of Salington. If even the police couldn’t keep to the speed limits was it any wonder that he people like him existed. He doubted the police realized how lucky they were that he was now securely handcuffed.

 

“Interview commencing at 2:27 am Thursday the 30th of August 2007, I am Sergeant Colin Caldwell, and this is my colleague WPC Susan Hunter”

 

Simon examined his inquisitors Colin was a handsome grey haired man if he had to judge just on looks he would have put him in his mid to late 30s, but by his mannerisms Simon guessed correctly that time had been good to the man sitting opposite and guessed correctly that he was closer to his mid forties.

 

------ Fucking hurry I mean it, grandma could drive faster than this, he’s your brother too, he needs a hospital right now ------

 

Susan also looked younger than her age, Simon guessed she probably still got asked for ID at pubs, or at least would do if all the pubs locally weren’t perfectly happy to serve out alcohol to whichever pikey 14 and 15 year old happened to stagger through their doors.

 

“For the benefit of the tape could you confirm your name is Simon Peter Gauss, of 1 4 7 Hamlin Drive?”

 

“Correct”

 

“And can you also confirm that you have waved your right to having legal Representation here?”

 

“2 for 2 officer, you’re good at this”

 

“That is a yes? You have waved your right to having legal Representation, Yes?”

 

“Yes”

 

“You do realize that the crimes you are charged with are extremely serious and if found guilty you are likely to spend many years if not the rest of your life in Jail?”

 

“I may be a Serial killer, but I’m certainly not Stupid Officer Caldwell, can we get on with the interview...”

 

The interview itself passed surprisingly quickly, or maybe it was just that Simon was enjoying himself. He loved to talk about his work and it was nice to talk to real live people rather than to his brother (if he counted). The officers had seemed concerned when he’d mentioned that in his interview, probably worrying about the possibility of an insanity plea. But Simon made certain they knew that it was a strictly one way conversation Steven never answered back, Steven hadn’t said anything since that day 10 years ago.

 

“I may be mad but only in the livid sense” Simon joked totally messing up the punchline of an old ‘not the nine o’clock news’ sketch.

 

The first and second kills took the majority of the interview, of course the first one had been a little different, not much more than your bog standard Road rage incident. The man – George Stanton as he later found out he was called on the news, had nearly killed them both when he tried to overtake round a blind bend. While bludgeoning him to death with a cricket bat had been messy, inelegant and worst of all fairly unpleasant for Mr Stanton (he wasn’t proud of that). The satisfaction that he’d made the roads a safer place was one that lingered and while he tried to ignore it the lure of a repeat was too much to ignore!

 

------ I’m going a fast as I fucking can, I checked the label it didn’t say anything about fucking nuts, he’s going to be OK I know he is -----

 

He was much more proud of the second one it had been clean, or at least as clean as a shotgun killing could be. it had been planned and it all went according to plan. About a 4 miles from his house was a busy Pedestrian Crossing. (YES THAT CROSSING)

 

Not that you’d believe it the way the cars sped down the road often not even slowing for the legions of school kids crossing in the mornings and back again in the afternoons. Maybe the drivers hadn’t read about his brothers maybe they just thought it wouldn’t happen to them, but he knew different. He parked up just after the crossing (but well past the safety chevrons naturally) a large range-rover sped down the street and drove straight over the crossing even though a little school girl was about to step off the pavement.

 

It was easy to follow a car that big, though it frequently meant having to go above the legal limit to keep up, “I really regret having to speed, but it was unfortunately necessary” Simon confessed guiltily. After several hours of following the car he found out where the man lived, a large farm house In Somerset, and by that time the following day the man no longer lived there. Simon drove away humming blur “he lived in a house, a very big house in the country”. “Strange how the mind works” he smiled.

 

------ he’s turning blue I don’t know what to do ----

 

After that they covered the deaths of Jim Sanford (Boy Racer), Jane Hoggath (Jumped a amber light), Sebastian Mansfield (parked on the hard sholder of the M3 without valid cause), Peter Davies (cycled on the pavement), Caroline Fallow (a trainee doctor with a penchant for middle lane driving), and Jason Newman (used a mobile phone while driving). But the police seemed to be getting a little tired of his elaborations though and just wanted to stick to the facts.

 

They also asked about a couple of incidents that Simon had no hand in, but seemed fairly content of his protestations of innocence after all he’d been pretty candid about those he had.

 

Then they started asking him about the accident, Simon had no desire to go over it, he felt annoyed he shouldn’t have brought it up at all, it was years ago a long time before he’d started his own road safety work. “No comment” he heard himself reply on more than one occasion, inside he cringed at the cliché.

 

When they thought they’d finished the interview, he felt he’d better tell them about the couple of jobs he’d done whilst on holiday in France, he joked that it was for driving on the wrong side of the road.

 

“Interview suspended 4:25am”

 

------ Watch out! for that Crossi… -----

 

“Do you think he believes it, about his brother I mean” Susan spoke half to her colleague and half into the 5th cup of coffee of the evening.

 

“Well he’s obviously as loopy as a fucking hatter, according to the nurses the turns up to the hospital every Friday asking to see his comatose brother. Mutters something about how they shouldn’t keep changing his ward when they tell him he’s not there, and wanders off….. The  fucker will probably end up in some cushy Hospital. Rather than getting analy raped every night for the rest of his life in Strangeways which is what he bloody well deserves.”

 

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

Salington Echo

July the 16th 1997

 

2 Brothers killed - one injured in tragic accident

 

Harold(24) and Steven(27) Gauss were killed last week in a mad dash to get their other brother Simon (21) to Hospital, after Simon suffered a severe allergic reaction. Harold is said to have died on impact while Steven died from injuries sustained after 2 days in a coma. The other brother Simon is understood to be making progress having sustained little damage from the crash, Doctors stress that it is too early to say whether the loss of oxygen suffered during the anaphylactic shock attack may have caused any long term brain damage.

 

2 others suffered minor injuries as the car careered off the Pedestrian…

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Doctor Segal smiled at Simon “I’m sorry I late for our meeting the traffic was murder”

 

Simon smiled back he looked round the room, didn’t these people have any idea how much damage could be done with a heavy medical text book, especially to someone as frail as Doctor Segal, Simon did so had Caroline Fallow (if only briefly), “Tell me about it he grinned”