***WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!***


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BUILD A BETTER BOY TRUISM #4: Boys learn from examples, so set them. For instance, be a good husband. Always show his mother respect. That way he learns to respect others, including you.


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Last Time: Drew Larsen's eyes shined as bright as pilot lights. They seemed to ignite an unknown power deep inside him. Invigorated, he perked up, ready to explain his actions. The burst of energy waned rapidly, and instead, he just shrugged his shoulders. Transfixed in astonishment by the ceiling, he tilted his head as far back as he could, closed his eyes tight, and remained silent.

"Did you plan the murders?" Darden asked him.

The boy rolled his head from side-to-side as if it was a boat tossed on a stormy sea.

"Oh, I planned them a long time ago," he apathetically assured the Detective. "I planned them a very long time ago."


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"Who did you kill first, Drew?" Darden inquired.

"That doesn't matter. They're all dead," the boy remarked.

"Will you please indulge me? The order you murdered them in matters to me," the Detective said.

"I killed my grandmother first. She was in her wheelchair, which made slicing her throat from ear to ear so easy," Drew Larsen responded, hesitated, and asked, "why did she have to move in with us in the first place? She was nothing but an invalid!"

Darden listened intently to every word the boy spoke, but did not answer his question. He knew there was a lot of understanding to be gained by hearing what someone told him.

"Next, I stabbed my mother with a butcher knife. She was in the kitchen cooking my little sister's lunch," Drew Larsen said, then chuckled, "you should have seen how fast she dropped the frying pan on the floor after I stabbed her! It splashed hot grease all over her! I picked it up and put it back on the burner, after I branded her face with it. That's when I turned the heat on the top of the stove off."

The placid manner in which he communicated with the detective mocked the abominableness of the boy's crime.

"Dad was in his favorite lounge chair in the den watching a DVD on TV. He never heard me ambush him from behind with my baseball bat. I pulverized him real hard! His brains splashed across the room. Batter up!" the boy dispassionately confessed.

His eyes opened wide. His head remained tilted back, enthralled by the ceiling. He inhaled a deep breath and looked at the palms of his hands in deep contemplation.

"I was thirsty from all my hard work, so I went back to the kitchen and drank two cans of Bud I removed from the refrigerator. They tasted real good, too. Gotta love those Clydesdales, you know. They're so big and powerful, like me," he said.

Darden stood up.

"You're not leaving already are you?" the boy asked, "I haven't even told you what I did to my little sister. And, that's the best part of everything I did to my family."

Darden sat down on the arm of the chair he stood beside. He'd hear the rest of Drew Larsen's story. Forensics, and the crime scene evidence, had confirmed all the details of the boy's account except the order the slayings occurred in.

"Dorothy was in her room listening to karaoke. I hate that stuff! I did her three times before I terminated her life," Drew Larsen bragged as if his actions were no big deal.

Then, he asked, "Did you know that I raped her like that?"

"The Medical Examiner confirmed your DNA was found inside her, Drew," Darden responded.

The boy crossed his arms and candidly stated, "After that, I stabbed her exactly ten times."

"Why did you stress you stabbed her ten times, Drew?" Darden inquired.

"Because I did not stab her any more or any less than ten times," the boy responded, "I stabbed her once for each year of her age."

After a brief respite he added, "I think the third time was the one that killed her though."

"Then, why didn't you stop stabbing her, Drew?" Darden questioned him.

"I didn't feel like it, Sean," the boy replied.

Darden noticed challenge in Drew Larsen's blue eyes.

"Didn't you ever love your family?" he asked him.

"Love them? That's a good one! I hated them with a passion and always did!" He was told.

"I don't understand, Drew. You knew them all your life." Darden said.

He rose up off the chair.

"Please don't leave yet," Drew Larsen pled.

His now quivering infantile voice was much different from the heartless tone it had been before.

"Help me, please!" he begged.

Darden witnessed the boy's face turn to an expression of despair, and his eyes displayed desperation.

"I can't do anything for you, Drew. Not even if I wanted to. No one can," Darden informed the troubled boy.

"But, you know," Drew Larsen said.

"I know what?" Darden sharply demanded.

The boy did not answer the question. He glared at the Detective with eyes that scorched right through him. Darden pushed the intercom button on the wall beside the door Jeremiah Brownlee had shown him on his way out of the room.

"I'm done here," he spoke into the system's mouthpiece.

As Darden stepped into the hallway outside the consultation room, he contemplated what it was Drew Larsen claimed he knew?

(To Be Continued:)

Cast of Characters:

Detective Sean Darden - Lead Investigator into the brutal murders of the Larsen family.

Drew Larsen - Thirteen-year-old boy who confessed to the atrocious slaughter of his family members. The question remained, did he commit the violent crime?

Jeremiah Brownlee - Orderly for the sanitarium who escorted Detective Darden while he was on the hospital's property.