[ WP ] A serial killer who tracks down and kills other serial killers finally gets caught .

`` Drop the knife!'' screamed the officer, pointing his weapon and flashlight at the figure in black. 
 
 The Eaton Eviscerator brought his hands away from the body on the table, exposing a gleaming ten-inch blade under the bright floodlights. The blade was covered in the blood of the victim on the table, whose heart, lungs, and intestines were no doubt in the plastic-lined cardboard box next to the murderer. Derek Murphy kept his gun trained on the man, while his partner grabbed the radio on his shoulder and called for backup. 
 
 `` This is Carlton. I need all available units at 28th and Woodhouse,'' he said. `` I've got the Eviscerator. Suspect is armed.'' 
 
 The Eviscerator had killed seventeen people so far, ripping out their organs and leaving the corpses with an empty chest cavity and abdomen. The victims were all of different ages, sizes, and races, and it had been almost impossible to determine the Eviscerator's *modus operandi* until one detective had realized the single common denominator: they had all been serial killers. 
 
 Murphy and Carlton were supposed to be questioning a convicted sex offender about a parole violation: he had been spotted too close to a school and somebody had called the police. But when the door was cracked open and there was an empty needle on the ground, the two had entered the house and found the city's most wanted criminal standing over a body in the garage. 
 
 The Eviscerator looked towards the officer, still holding his hands -- and the knife -- at chest level. `` So, which of us did you come for?'' he asked. `` Me or him?'' 
 
 `` Drop the knife and put your hands behind your head!'' 
 
 The serial killer smiled. `` I'm guessing you came for Mr. Parker, seeing as you do n't currently have a small army at your backs.'' 
 
 `` I'm not going to ask again. Put the knife on the ground!'' 
 
 `` I've got a better idea,'' the Eviscerator suggested. `` Try opening that closet behind you. I promise there are n't any traps.'' 
 
 Carlton and Murphy looked at each other, then towards the Eviscerator. `` What's in the closet?'' Carlton asked. 
 
 `` Not'what.''Who','' he replied, giving a knowing smile. 
 
 Gun at the ready, Carlton stood to the side as Murphy opened the door, looking over his shoulder as he pointed his weapon at the killer. The man in the butcher's apron might be fast, but there was no way he could get to the officers before Murphy could pull the trigger. 
 
 `` *Jesus H. Fuck! * Murph, there's a fucking *kid* in here!'' Carlton shouted, and Murphy's head turned from the Eviscerator for a moment. A little girl, about the age of eight and dressed in a pink T-shirt with a flower embroidered on the front, stood in the closet with her hands zip-tied to a clothes hanger bar. She stood on two volumes of a dictionary, her small legs too short to reach the ground, with tears on her face and a ball gag in her mouth. 
 
 `` Mr. Parker kidnapped little Lily today,'' the Eviscerator explained. `` He gave a rather detailed explanation of what he planned to do to her after I began inserting a scalpel into the tip of his urethra. I'll spare you the details, but the broad strokes are that he planned to thoroughly abuse every one of that poor girl's orifices, then strangle her and cut her body into disposable pieces. And by that, I mean'able to be ground up in a sink's disposal grinder.''' 
 
 `` Lily? You're all right, I'm Officer Carlton with the EPD,'' Carlton reassured her, taking his pocketknife and cutting the girl's restraints. Lily fell into the officer's arms, sobbing, as he removed the gag from her mouth. `` *I want my mommy, *'' she wailed. 
 
 The killer continued. `` While we have such a stellar visual aid, I just want to explain how lucky Lily is that I arrived in time. The reason I chose the method of interrogation I did was that it... well, stuck out to me, if you realize what I'm saying. Now, I do n't spend as much time as this corpse did contemplating the diameter of little girls' vaginas, but it certainly could n't accommodate Mr. Parker's --'' 
 
 `` Stop talking. Right now,'' Murphy warned, gripping his pistol in both hands as Carlton comforted the girl. 
 
 `` I imagine Lily's pain would be comparable to me slowly inserting a knife into the head of your penis. Can you even think about that without wincing, Officer? The coldness of steel, the warmth of your blood, the separation of your flesh as the knife cuts away the tiss --'' 
 
 `` SHUT UP!'' Murphy exclaimed, firing a warning shot over the Eviscerator's head. 
 
 `` Murph, I'm getting the girl out of here,'' Carlton said. `` Backup should be here soon. Can you hold him until then?'' 
 
 `` Sure,'' Murphy replied, pointing the Beretta at the Eviscerator's head. 
 
 The man with the knife finally ended his train of thought. `` All right, new subject. Ever heard of the trolley problem?'' 
 
 Murphy had. It was a famous moral dilemma that involved a hypothetical trolley heading for a track where it would strike and kill ten people. You could pull a lever and divert the trolley onto a different track, where it would kill a single person, but the ethical question it raised was whether your action killed one person or saved nine. 
 
 `` I have,'' he said, nodding. 
 
 The Eviscerator nodded. `` Police officers regularly take lives to save them. I'd assume you were one of the people who would pull the lever?'' 
 
 The officer nodded again. 
 
 `` Would you agree,'' the Eviscerator said, smiling, `` that if you had caught me a week ago, Lily would be any better off?'' 
 
 *He wants me to let him go. * `` You're not doing this for justice,'' Murphy countered. `` You kill for pleasure, not ethics!'' 
 
 `` Do you think Lily cares that she has n't been violently raped and murdered because I love what I do? Intentions matter only to an observer. To a victim, though... well, they're just grateful they have n't been split in half by a pedophile.'' 
 
 `` I'm not going to let you escape.'' 
 
 `` A philosopher would say that's like raping and murdering another four girls. Did you even know Parker was a serial killer, or that that's how many children he killed? How long would he have gone on killing if it were n't for my love of violence?'' 
 
 `` Who lives and who dies is n't for you to decide.'' 
 
 `` At least I do a better job of it than Mr. Parker,'' the Eviscerator shot back. `` Your backup is on its way, and if you want to do what is *objectively* the right thing, you do n't have much time to let me go. You have colleagues, and you know which ones, who are just as eager to kill somebody as I am. The only difference is that I'm a better detective, and I use significantly more due process than they.'' 
 
 Murphy lowered his gun slightly, ruminating on the man's words. If each one of his victims had been a serial killer, he could have saved hundreds of lives. Who knows how many innocent men, women, and children were still walking the streets, alive and unharmed, because of this man's psychopathy? Even though he was no different than his victims, did n't the fact that he saved lives count for something? 
 
 But the law was very clear. You could n't let a murderer get away with it, no matter what the reason for his crimes. 
 
 `` If each one of your victims was about to kill somebody, then you might be able to get a reduced sentence,'' Murphy offered. 
 
 `` You're arresting me,'' the Eviscerator muttered. 
 
 Murphy nodded, holstering his weapon and taking out a pair of handcuffs. `` You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say --'' 
 
 The Eviscerator's eyebrows rose, and he held up the knife, his wrist tilted backwards, ready to throw it. `` Gun,'' he muttered. 
 
 Murphy's eyes went wide, and he looked over his shoulder for his backup -- 
 
 *Carlton had left with the girl! * 
 
 The knife entered Murphy's torso, and the Eviscerator moved with almost inhuman speed towards him. He grabbed Murphy's body as it fell towards the floor, kneeling on top of him, withdrawing the knife, and stabbing it into his abdomen. 
 
 `` *Do you know why I killed murderers? *'' he hissed furiously through bared teeth as he cut upwards towards the ribcage. `` *I had confidence the police weren't* **stupid**. **Stupid** *enough to arrest me, when I'm saving people's lives. * **Stupid** *enough to* **put away their gun. **'' 
 
 Murphy groaned in pain, trying to hold in his intestines with his hands, as the Eviscerator took the gun from his holster. 
 
 `` Prostitutes and the homeless are so much easier to hunt,'' he said. `` Maybe,'' he continued angrily, running a bloody finger along the weapon's slide, `` I should reconsider my choice of victim.''
