It's Too Late

1742 words

It’s Too Late

         Detective Osborn sat in the interview room looking at the man in front of him.  The background check revealed he was a professor at Lalande Physics University, and involved in quantum-physics with American Physics Society.  Despite being a man of his stature, if he hadn’t known this man’s title and job, he would have thought him to be a ‘down on his luck’ type person.  His manner of dress was disheveled, his clothes didn’t match, and he looked calm, but despondent.  Osborn observed the man for a few moments to see if he would give away any sign that he was under stress, worried about what was going to happen next.  However, he sat in the folding chair looking off to one side, eyes fixed on a distant point, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

         Osborn cleared his throat and spoke.  “Professor Matthews, let’s talk about --”

         The man raised his hand, palm towards Osborn in a polite interruption.  “Please call me Kevin.  Titles don’t matter now, do they?”

         “Okay, if you insist.  First, you’ve been read your rights, so anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.  Do you wish to have an attorney present for this interview?”

          “No, Detective. I will not need an attorney.”

         “Of course you will, especially once this goes to court.  You’re in a bit of trouble, and I advise you to get an attorney.”

         “No, its fine.  I’m quite sure I won’t need one.”

         Detective Osborn was puzzled at Kevin’s insistence.  Men who had done acts such as he’d done usually ended up in court; an attorney would be necessary when that time came.  “I see here that you are accused of propositioning a woman for sex.  She appears to be your neighbor.  When she turned you down, you propositioned several others; you knew each one of them, and each time, the same result.  And after what happened at the Crow’s Nest, they have come forward and told us how you groped them as you propositioned them.  What was a man in your position doing in a seedy place like that, and why were you propositioning all these women?  You don’t seem to be the kind of person that normally does something like this.  Want to tell me what’s going on?”

         Kevin’s face turned a bright shade of red as Osborn read from the rap sheet, his head dropping between his hands, seemingly embarrassed by the events listed there.  Once Osborn had finished reading, Kevin raised his head, once again looking Osborn in the eyes.  “No detective, I have nothing to say right now.”  A note of finality was heard in Kevin’s voice as he spoke.

         “Professor --” again Osborn was politely interrupted by Kevin.

         “Please, call me Kevin.”

         “I’m sorry.  Kevin, the evidence we have here is pretty substantial, and will be used against you.  You must know that this is going to go badly for you when this goes to court.  I can’t tell you what kind of sentence, if any, you’ll get of course, but this could really affect your position with the university and the organizations you work with.”

         “Detective--”

         "Yes Kevin."  Detective Osborn only responded when he realized that Kevin wasn't going to say anything more.

         Osborn’s focused his attention on Kevin as he started to speak.  “Detective, everything is fine, really.  I am guilty of everything documented there, but I am willing to risk everything, knowing I won’t go to court.  The things I know, what I’ve seen, nothing matters anymore.”  As he said this, his eyes pooled as tears coursed down his face.  It took an incredible amount of willpower to regain control of his feelings.  When he looked up, his face was clear of any emotion.

         Detective Osborn could see the emotions on Kevin’s face as he struggled with his feelings.  He looked like a man torn between two emotions.  Dave decided to go with this gut feeling, that Kevin had to get something off his chest.  “Kevin, what do you mean when you say nothing matters anymore?  I’m an optimist, things always matter.”

         “Not if you knew what I know.  And now I’ve said too much.  I really don’t want to talk about it.”

         Detective Osborn studied Kevin’s face and made a decision.  He moved the papers to the side, stacked them on the desk, then turned off the microphone and recorder.

         Once again, Osborn focused his attention on Kevin, and wasn’t too surprised to see him sitting there, looking as calm as he did when the interrogation had started thirty minutes ago.

         Looking Kevin in the eye once more, he said, “I’ve turned off the recorder, so this is just me and you talking.  Let’s talk turkey now.  You are a bit of an enigma you know.  You don’t fit the profile of a perv, the kind of person who normally does what you’ve done.  You are a man of some stature in the educational and professional world.  You appear calm, almost as if in acceptance of what’s to come, and the thought of going to court and having your reputation ruined doesn’t seem to bother you one bit either.  So talk to me, tell me what’s going on.”

         Kevin looked at Osborn, uncertainty etched in his features.  Finally, he seemed to come to a conclusion, a determined look in his eyes, and whispered, “It’ll all be over soon.  That’s why nothing matters.”

         “Kevin, what’s going to be over soon?”

         “Everything.”

         “You’re not making much sense here.  Care to elaborate?”

         Kevin’s head dropped as he continued speaking.  His voice was so soft that Osborn found himself leaning close to Kevin to hear what was said.

         “There isn’t any time to waste.  You should spend time with your family now.  You only have a few hours, if that much.”

         “Kevin, a few hours?  Why only a few hours?  What’s happening in a few hours?”

         “The end of the world.”

         Osborn sat back and smiled.  “I don’t mean to belittle you or what you’re saying, but you know we’ve heard this before.  Why, and how is the world going to end?”

         Kevin looked up at Osborn, his eyes threatening to fill with tears.  “I’m part of the reason for all this, and that’s why I know I won’t need a lawyer.  That’s why I propositioned those women, women I know, all whom I’ve lusted for.  It’s all going to end now, so why not?”

         “Kevin, start from the beginning.  Or at least tell me everything you can think of.”

         Kevin looked down at his feet.  His body shook as he was consumed in silent sobs.  When he looked up, his gaze fixed on a spot beyond Osborn.  He began to speak, his words slow at first, then picking up speed.  “For the last eight years, I’ve worked on a project at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.  We used computer models at first, but then moved on to actual experiments.  Recently, we began to collide protons at higher and higher energies, hoping to create a black hole.  Our models suggested one could be created this way, but that it wouldn’t last long because it wouldn’t have enough mass.  Early results were disappointing; we saw no evidence that a black hole was created.”

         Osborn sat there, his face impassive as Kevin continued to speak.  He didn’t understand much of what Kevin was saying, but he’d heard of the Large Hadron Collider and understood little of the experiments being conducted there.

         Kevin continued to speak, his speech flowing smoothly.  “In doing these tests, we also hoped to demonstrate the existence of the Higgs Boson.  Early this year, we ramped up the voltage in the collider to 6.24 TeV, and finally created a small black hole.  Of course, we were ecstatic at this, and there were a lot of initial celebrations.  But we had a problem.  Our models had predicted that the black hole would not survive long since it didn’t have enough mass.  But instead of being destroyed, it remained where it had been created.  It wasn’t growing in size, at least not at first.  Slowly, over a period of two months it grew.  Now understand, its size was microscopic, but preliminary models suggested it would grow to a dangerous size in about fifty years, at which time it would essentially explode into a much larger size, and our world would cease to exist.  One of my co-workers had the idea of creating a second black hole using electrons, and models showed that the two would interact, negating each other, and be destroyed.  Of course there was a lot of discussion on this part, since our first models were not entirely correct.  In the end, he won a deciding majority to his idea.  End result?  We ran electrons through the collider to create a negative black hole so to speak.”

         Osborn still didn’t understand all he was hearing, but was intrigued.

         Kevin continued, becoming more agitated as he spoke.  “We were successful in creating that negative black hole, but again, the model was not correct.  Although a second, smaller black hole was created, it was immediately swallowed by the first one, doubling its size.  But it also started to grow faster, and now we were out of ideas on what to do.  The computer models now showed the black hole growing at an alarming rate.  Instead of fifty years, we had 10 days.”

         Osborn exclaimed.  “Ten days!”

         “Yes, ten days.  That was when I lost my mind a little.  There are several things I’ve always wanted to do, and those women had always excited me.  I decided I would try to make my fantasies come true before everything happened.”

         “But, the evidence here says you accosted the first woman nine days ago.  If what you say is true…”

         “Yes, Dave, nine days ago last night, as a matter of fact.”

         Osborn stood and paced the room, his face masking his agitation.  He seemed to come to a quick conclusion and turned to Kevin.  “This interview is over.  I have a few things I want to do before time runs out, just in case everything you said is true.”

         “Good luck, Dave, but I think it’s too la--“

Jim Dorrell
12/22/10