In every one of us is a monster. Dr. Janet Coles has been trained to know this, and to tap into hers for this sort of work – but this is different. This isn't a rapist, or a murderer – this man is evil embodied, one of the headline-grabbers. One of the men Batman's fists know on a personal basis, a man who has killed hundreds and had millions of dollars sift through his dirty hands. Jervis Tetch. She breathes in, and enters the counseling room.
"Hello," he says with a sugary smile, and she is chilled to the bone.
"Excuse me," she says, and walks back outside.
Dr. Grunefeld is there, and smiles. "Creepy, huh?"
"You're sure he's secure?"
Her boss nods. "Of course. And if anything happens, we're watching the camera feed right here." He sees Coles' fear, and pats her on the back. "You've got this."
She looks up. "Right."
"Hello Jervis," she says, and sits down at the table as the door closes behind her.
"How are you doctor?"
She nods. "Fine. And you?"
"I could complain," the Mad Hatter says, "but there'd be no point." He pauses, staring at her. "So are you writing a book?"
Coles smiles. "No. A research paper, possibly."
"Ah," he says. "A professional." Jervis nods. "I respect that."
"Is there anything you'd like to talk about?"
"You know they say I like blondes," Jervis says. "But really I like all women." He pauses, staring at the ground. "I'd like to…"
She stares. "You'd like to what."
"Let's talk about Alice," he says. "Okay?"
"Sure," Dr. Coles says, not sure where this was going.
"Alice was a musician," he says. "She played the guitar. Very well."
Coles nods.
"When I was in college, see…Gotham U, I mean, for my graduate work…I was invited to a party. It was mostly staff, but there were some younger people – I didn't know how young they were. I assumed they were undergrads but she was still in high school." He sighs. "Well, she was playing flamenco guitar and was absolutely amazing at it.
"Of course I didn't approach her, but I was madly in love immediately. Later the party started to filter out, and it turned out she was the daughter of an associate of mine, Dr. John Gregorson." Jervis laughs. "Well, he broke out the hallucinogens once it was a very select crowd, and we went to his deck and tripped until the sun came up."
"Was Alice…did she take the drug?"
He nods. "And we talked. She was young, but for who she was she was a brilliant mind. And well, I told her I thought she would grow into a great young lady, and left the party thinking I would never see her again."
"…what happened next?" Coles says after a long silence.
"Years later, she showed up in one of my classes. She stayed after the lecture was over and asked if I remembered her – of course, I said. Apparently she had been inspired by our talking that night to pursue a career in my field." Jervis smiled.
"The science of free will, you mean?"
"That was never my life's work," he said. "It was one experiment, you see, and it was my most important." He laughs, a dark laugh that shows who he has become. "Yes, very important." And then the evil is gone, and the mild-mannered college professor is back. "But I started to notice that she had very horrible taste in men. Once she came in with a bruise on her face, you see."
Coles nods. "How did that make you feel?"
Jervis stares at her crossly. "I went to their house when she was gone, said I was a bill collector and shot the bastard three times with a silenced pistol. Twice in the gut and once in the head."
After a brief shock, Coles recovers. "Was this the first time you'd killed someone?"
"Yes," he says, and laughs the evil laugh again, creasing his face with the same smile. "Oh yes. It felt fantastic." He looks up. "Do you want to know how it feels?"
Dr. Coles stared, uncomfortable, and Jervis reverted to the professor when he saw this.
"Well," he say, "the investigation turned up nothing. It could have been gangsters collecting on his debts, or coke dealers. He was bad news."
"How did she-"
"Alice was devastated, but also relieved. I could tell. And I became a shoulder to lean on." He smiles. "Eventually, when she was ready to start dating again, I told her I had a friend who would love a blind date. When she answered the door I was there with flowers."
Coles felt the fear coming back. This was the murder.
"We had an affair," he said.
"…what?" She pauses. "In your testimony-"
He laughs. "Well I couldn't be honest with the police, you see."
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't kill her." Jervis sighs. "She killed herself. I didn't want to dirty her name. I couldn't do that."
Coles stares. "But you pled guilty."
"Yes," he says, and stares at the table. "It had to be that way."
"Why did she kill herself?"
He looks up. "The controller."
Coles nodded. "…how-"
"I was losing her. She was looking at other men." He sighs. "I knew why."
"Why?"
"I wasn't handsome. Did I tell you how beautiful she was?"
"No," Coles says. "We haven't-"
"Raven black hair. She was Russian. In good shape but not muscular. And the face of an angel…" He smiles. "The fact that she had a brain was amazing." Jervis sighs. "Well, look at me, I'm a gargoyle."
She doesn't know what to say.
"I wanted her…I wanted her to think I was handsome." He starts to lose himself in sadness. "I messed up the formula. Not enough water in it, you see – it was concentrated and the way the brain absorbs…" He pauses. "She went insane. Or not insane – she became a robot. She would do anything anyone told her to. And she lost herself in the process."
Jervis Tetch, mass murderer, sniffles.
"My Alice – gone. And one day I came home and she had blown her head off with my shotgun." He leaned over the table. "Oh god."
Coles stares, until the silence was starting to encroach on the conversation.
"What did-"
He looks up, angry. "What do you mean, what did I do?" The Mad Hatter, suddenly there in all his glory, snarls at the doctor. "I went here, Arkham. To protect her." The glint in his eye turned dull. "And I learned just what I could do with my drug, you see. Here at the Arkham School for the criminally insane I learned very much. You see," he says, "you never really leave. Ever." He smiles. "It becomes the world."
Dr. Coles becomes increasingly uncomfortable.
"You think you're smart, giving me my own drug. Well, you're not. I've been waiting to tell someone that for about a year." He smiles as she gulps. "Run along now, you stupid cow. How the wind blows and nobody knows where the time goes. And everything on your face shows-"
She hears a knock on the door and stands. "Thank you Jervis."
"-that you're a close-minded prude. Being rude, I have sewed-"
Outside she exhales, and Grunefeld nods. "That was great," he says. "You got a lot in before he started rhyming." They watch the screen as Tetch is led out of the room by two guards. "Usually he just starts doing it right away."
"If he knew he was drugged, what if he was lying the whole time?"
Grunefeld smiled sadly as an answer. "He's guilty of a thousand other things. It really doesn't matter if he killed her or not." He pauses. "Now, at least. What matters is that you got him talking. Good job."
She stares at her empty notepad. "Right." She'd been too scared, too intimidated, to actually write anything down.
"Look," her boss says, "you're going to learn this by experience, but just let me tell you."
Coles looks up. "Tell me what?"
"You've talked about about the whole 'monster in all of us' concept before." He nods. "And that's true. But what's also true, is that in every monster, every single one, somewhere in there is one of us." And with another pat on the back, he starts to walk away. "I have a meeting," Grunefeld says, and waves goodbye. "Again, you did very well." He turns the corner and is gone.
Dr. Janet Coles looks back to the screen, at the interrogation room that doubles as a therapist's office, and sees the empty chair she had been sitting in. She sighed. If all the interviews were this productive, this was going to be one hell of a paper. She shakes herself free of tension, or tries to, and starts the long walk back to her office.