Being a cop, you find that monsters come in all sizes. I was investigating an attempted arson of a boat on Central Avenue. The boat was on a trailer in the carport and someone had spread newspapers under the boat and a can of gasoline was sitting nearby. The victim said he'd seen the visiting kid next door out in his carport. I went next door.
His name was Thom and he was six-years-old. Visiting, with his mother, from up north. As handsome a youngin' as you'd ever see.
"Were you next door trying to set that boat on fire?" I asked.
"Why do you think it was me?" he asked, with no more trepidation than Charley Manson.
"There was a witness," I lied.
"Well, then," he said, unconcerned, "you've got me."
I was stunned at his candor. "Why were you gonna to do that?"
"I asked the old son-of-a-bitch to take me for a ride. He said he was too busy. Old bastard's retired. Too busy! So I figured if he wasn't going to use the damn boat, I'd just burn it up."
And that was it. No remorse, No fear. No nothin'.
"Who saw me?" he asked
"No one," I said, "I just said that."
He smiled. "You're about a tricky bastard, aren't you? I like that."
Again, not what you'd hear from a child. That was just the beginning.
Thom read the newspaper each morning. Beginning with the front page all the way through. He preferred the Miami Herald, calling the Naples Daily News a provincial gossip sheet. Again, he was six-years-old. He also read Time and other magazines you wouldn't expect. His vocabulary was much more extensive than mine. In everything besides size and age, he was a brilliant adult. I decided to do some checking on his home ground.
Thom wasn't any stranger to his hometown cops. Indeed, he was the main suspect in the death of his grandmother. After peeing Thom off one day, someone had spread newspapers all over her kitchen, soaked them with gasoline, and set fire to the house. With her in it.
They'd suspected him and given him a psychological eval. That didn't work too well. About half-through, they figured out that Thom was manipulating his responses to make fools out of them. Playing with them. They said his IQ was off the chart.
The cops couldn't prove Thom had burned up his granny. When they questioned him, he asked what would happen to the person who killed her. When he found out the police took such shenanigans seriously, he clammed up.
I guessed he didn't think burning a boat was that big a deal, since he'd fessed up so easily. I gradually found out, he had a psychopathic personality that excused anything he did. More tomorrow.
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