The next morning Alex was picked up as promised. Detective Mulligan was already waiting at the entrance to the San Quentin prison, and he and a guard accompanied her for a while. The warder also instructed her in the rules of conduct: she had to keep two feet away from the cell and under no circumstances was she allowed to come closer.

By the time they landed in a room with a chair in the middle, Alex's pulse had skyrocketed. She sat down and he was now sitting opposite and just smiled at her.

»I have to be honest, I didn't think you were coming. But it's nice to see you're here after all«, he began to talk to her.

»I didn't expect it either, but you finally asked me to«, she said sternly.

She was deeply reluctant to speak to him as if she knew him. The person sitting across from her was a complete stranger to her. Even the journalist who interviewed him several times in the last few months knew him better. But saying that now might only annoy him.

»Do you want to talk about anything in particular? Surely you didn't ask me to be here today without an ulterior motive.«

She could hardly withstand his stare, it felt as if he was going to pierce her, but she didn't want to give in to him and kept her gaze steadfastly on him with a lot of effort.

»In fact, I wanted to take the opportunity to get to know you«, he said after a moment of silence.

That…surprised her.

»It's many years too late for that«, she replied briefly, but much more uncertainly than before.

»That may be true, but I never had the chance either.«

»Then you probably shouldn't have murdered people.« He laughed, not like a normal person would, but without joy, sending chills down her spine.

»That's true, but that's what I had to do. They took my angel and someone had to pay for it.« He grinned at her.

A guard walked in the door and brought the last meal on a tray, but Alex barely noticed him. He handed her to him through a hatch and left her again. In that moment, Alex realized how much she would have liked to go through this door, but she pulled herself together. After all, she had a job to do.

When Eddie and Venom arrived at the San Quentin on their motorcycles, they were more than on time. Detective Mulligan was already waiting at the entrance, comfortably smoking a cigarette.

»Oh, you're on time«, he said, and you could hear that there was an unfortunate undertone.

»So that I can have as much time with him as possible. Maybe he's talkative today and I can still get some information out of him.« Eddie sounded confident, but Mulligan gave him a dismissive look.

»He hasn't told you anything in months, why should he do it now?«

»I don't know either, but he wanted me to visit him again today.«

»Then make him talk!« He threw his cigarette on the floor and crushed it.

»Asshole.« Eddie had to smile, but he didn't show it.

»Luckily for you, I've got an ace up my sleeve.« He looked confused, but Mulligan didn't look ready to tell him what he meant. He walked through the entrance, followed closely by Eddie. As always, there was a not-so-pleasant body search and he had to surrender everything except his notepad, pen, and recorder. Finally they walked down a long corridor. A guard came toward them, and with him a girl. She seemed close to tears and devastated. Their eyes met, but she quickly looked down. He stopped for a moment and looked after her. Then he too went into the room where Cletus was already waiting for him.

»Hi Eddie«, he said, giving him an almost devilish grin.

»Hey. Seems like you've got more visitors today.«

»People love serial killers, after all.« He continued to smile at him as he ate his food.

Eddie stood at the yellow mark on the ground and took the small recording device out of his pocket, which he switched on and placed on a crossbar in view.

»Any last words you want to say before that happens?« Eddie looked toward Death Row.

»I really just wanted to say goodbye to you. After all, we now know each other quite well. So it's only fair that we see each other one last time.«

His devilish grin broke out again, which more than did justice to a serial killer like himself.

Eddie was visibly disappointed, but tried not to show it. But he didn't come specially for that! He still wanted to elicit some information from him and also write his article, after all he had to earn his money somehow. He wondered how to get Cletus to talk about anything else after all.

»We could make him tell«, Venom suddenly said in his head. You could practically hear the grin in his voice.

Eddie gave in to the thought for a moment, but quickly changed his mind and mentally answered him with a short no. He jumped when Cletus cleared his throat again.

»But I want to tell you a secret if you get a little closer«, his gaze was challenging.

»Carnage is on the way«

Venom stepped in and pinned Cletus to the wall with a tentacle that he manifested from Eddie's stomach, but Cletus persisted and immediately lunged at Eddie again, pulling his right arm towards him and biting his palm. Eddie cried out in pain until a guard grabbed him from behind and pulled him away. Eddie was bleeding slightly and covered the wound with his other hand as Venom was already healing it. Cletus looked at him more than just confused.

»Eddie?«

»Back with you. That's it for you«, the guard finally said.

He told Eddie to leave. They had to leave prison even though they were supposed to be present at the execution. Finally, when they got back to the bike, he sighed and covered his face with his hands.

»That was a mistake.«

»Shut up.« Eddie was clearly annoyed.

Out of necessity, he got on his Ducati and drove home.