Andrew Vachss - Dead and Gone

“You’re telling me you didn’t deal in kiddie porn?”

“Of course I did. I was that horrible ‘commercial element’ I described to you,” he said, switching back to the slightly effeminate, semi-British voice he’d used when I’d first met him. “The market for such product may not be broad, but, I assure you, it is astoundingly deep. And the profit margins are truly incredible … virtually infinite.

“Look,” he said, his voice shifting again, letting me feel the steel beneath the froth, “use your fucking head, all right? If I was a child molester, when City-Wide popped me, how long do you think it would have taken me to rat out every single person I’d ever dealt with?”

“About thirty seconds.”

“Yes. And that’s the way you figured it, didn’t you? Only problem is, you never bothered to check. I didn’t drop dime-fucking-one, pal,” he said, hard-voiced. “And the people I didn’t rat out, well, they were very grateful. How much time do you think I actually did?”

“Six to eighteen, with the judge’s recommendation that you do the max.”

“Ah, so you at least followed the proceedings that far. What happened after that was an appeal—”

“You pleaded out. What kind of bullshit appeal could you put up?”

“Oh, that the guilty plea was coerced by use of improperly obtained evidence, what else?” he said, switching voice again, showing off his chameleon moves. “And, of course, there was a sealed brief submitted by the State Department in support of my application. I understand it was quite persuasive. Bottom line? I did a little less than a two-year bit.”

“Beautiful. And now you’re setting up a paradise for freaks, not because you’re one yourself, but for the money?”

“You mean Darcadia? I’m surprised at you, Mr. Burke. You have a reputation for utter insanity when it comes to child abusers, I grant you. But, in some circles, you are also known as a very clever confidence man. And not above playing some roles yourself when there’s enough money in it.”

“What are you saying? That you and me, we’re the same?” I asked, pushing a little button on the side of the oxygen mask I was still holding in my lap.

“Oh, but we are , Mr. Burke. We’re both predators. And we both prey on the same victims, albeit in different ways. There is no Darcadia. And there never will be. Of all the congenital defectives ever birthed on this godforsaken earth, those pathetic little wannabe Nazis have to be the most extreme example. Who else would believe such a fairy tale? And pedophiles? Perhaps even easier to gull. Ah, how they dream of such a place! And I am making their dreams come true.”

“Nazis and child molesters on the same little island?”

“Please! Spare me your incompetent attempts at political analysis. Hitler marched Jews into the ovens because … why? They were defectives . As were Gypsies, homosexuals … a long list. But you never saw pedophiles on that list, did you?

“Extremists don’t fit themselves along a continuum, Mr. Burke. They don’t form lines; they form a circle. And the ‘sexual liberation’ frauds who include children among their ‘causes’ eventually met the Nazis who think incest preserves the race. Pedophiles don’t have politics,” he said, contemptuously. “They only have … preferences. This is business , pure and simple.”

He took a long, deep refueling breath and went on: “Any businessman understands it’s not enough to know your product; you also have to know your market. And I have been successfully marketing information to pedophiles for years. There are states where sex with a child under eleven can get you twenty-five years in prison … unless it’s your own child. Then, if the DA can be persuaded to charge ‘incest’ instead of ‘sexual assault of a child,’ the offender can expect probation. Do you know which states have the loosest requirements for running a day-care center? Which organizations don’t do background checks for those who volunteer to work with kids? Which jurisdictions make it easiest to get a foster child? Which won’t prosecute polygamy?”

I didn’t answer him. Truth is, I didn’t know the answers.

“I didn’t think so,” he said, after a pause. “But I do. And do you know how to package a pedophile for probation? Or for early release if sentenced? Do you know how to teach these sickening men how to avoid mouthing their cognitive distortions when they’re interviewed?”

“Cognitive distortions?” I asked, stalling—I needed time to deal with the info-overload.

“The classic example,” he answered, “goes something like this. People are primarily motivated by desire for pleasure. Children are people. Children seek pleasure. Sex is pleasure. Children seek what they want by communicating their desires. That is why so many children are deliberately seductive—they are seeking pleasure, for themselves.”

“And people buy that crap?”

“Law enforcement doesn’t. Just the treatment centers that make a living from it. My task is to make sure the … client doesn’t repeat any of it, regardless of his personal belief system.”

“So you sell them the keys?”

“Certainly. And each client subset is different. With the incest offenders, we have to eliminate their expressions of a profound sense of ‘entitlement’ to their own children. Learning to feign remorse is critical to their survival, once apprehended.”

“Christ!”

“Of course, the worst are the ‘true believers.’ You’re familiar with their rhetoric, I’m sure.” His voice switched to a singsong parody of a memorized litany: “ ‘Those children who later claim to have been harmed by a loving sexual experience with a caring adult are not victims of sex, they are victims of programming , playing the victim role as dictated by self-interested therapists, and exploited by greedy lawyers. The media never report that there are numerous studies which show that the child participants themselves, interviewed later as adults, did not consider their earlier experiences to be harmful in any way at all. The only “perversion” going on is the perversion of love.’ ”

“Nice.”

“Be honest, if only with yourself. I sell these people images—pictures and videotapes. And if they are later caught with such product, I sell them information on how to minimize the consequences. And, of course, if their status warrants, I sell their names to certain foreign governments before there are any consequences. In short, I prey upon them. Are your own operations any different?”

“I promise them kiddie porn, sure. But I never deliver.”

“And so you are better than I, somehow? Morally superior? I don’t produce the pornography, I procure it. Do you think the people from whom I obtain the product would go out of business if I stopped buying? Parents sell their children all the time. All over the world.”

“What’s all this got to do with Nazis?”

“Are you really this dense? If you want to preserve the bloodlines, you do what the royals always did. Keep it in the family. It’s called inbreeding. Or, if you prefer, incest.

“Anyway, the whole ‘Nazi’ concept is nothing more than a marketing tool. It isn’t about politics, it’s about packaging. A skillful profiteer always tailors his product to the market. Does the phrase ‘National Socialism’ register with you? Hitler was all about German dominance. Do you think he would have welcomed Greeks or Poles or Italians as ‘Aryan’? They might have been at the end of the line for the ovens, but, rest assured, they would certainly be on that line.