Chapter 473 - 218: Prisoner
Pittsburgh Police Department, interrogation room.
The door was pushed open.
Leo Wallace walked in.
He waved to Police Chief Everett Carter, who was standing at the door.
"Turn off the surveillance cameras. No one is to come near this door without my permission."
Carter hesitated, but seeing the cold look in Leo’s eyes, he nodded and left.
Only two people remained in the room.
Leo and Luigi Randall.
Luigi was sitting in an iron chair welded to the floor.
His hands were cuffed to an equally welded iron table, his wrists red and swollen from the constant friction.
He wore the same gray hoodie, the hood now down, revealing messy hair and a scholarly face.
He looked thin and pale, with deep, dark circles under his eyes.
But he didn’t look like a newly arrested felon. His eyes were clear—one might even say, too calm.
An old magazine, left by some unknown police officer, lay open in front of him. It was a three-month-old issue of *Time*, with some washed-up celebrity on the cover.
He was reading, even tapping his fingers lightly on the tabletop.
Leo pulled out the opposite chair and sat down.
The iron chair scraped harshly against the floor.
Luigi looked up, his gaze shifting from the magazine to Leo’s face.
"I’m Leo Wallace."
Leo spoke, his voice soft but clear in the enclosed space.
"The Mayor of Pittsburgh."
"I know."
Luigi closed the magazine and pushed it aside.
"I’ve seen your videos."
"You look younger in person than you do on TV."
Leo ignored his comment.
He took a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket, pulled one out, tossed it to Luigi, and then lit one for himself.
Luigi picked up the cigarette, took a deep drag, and then began to cough violently.
"You don’t smoke?" Leo asked.
"I didn’t used to." Luigi wiped away a tear. "But I learned on the run. It helps you stay sharp."
Leo watched him.
"The people outside are anxious," Leo said. "They want to save you."
Luigi’s fingers trembled, and ash fell onto the table.
"Tell them not to bother." Luigi’s voice dropped. "I’m not worth it."
"Whether you’re worth it or not isn’t your call to make."
Leo blew out a smoke ring.
"Since you know about me, you should also know my political stance."
"I will help you to the best of my ability. I will use every resource at my disposal."
Luigi froze for a moment, then looked up, a flash of gratitude in his eyes.
"Thank you."
"Don’t get me wrong."
Leo cut him off coldly.
"This has nothing to do with you."
"I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for my voters."
"If I abandon you, they will abandon me."
"So, I have to save you."
Leo stubbed out his cigarette.
"Now, we need to talk about your future."
"Or rather, how much longer you have to live."
Leo didn’t beat around the bush. "You’re in a very dangerous situation, Luigi."
"The man you killed was Arthur Vance, the CEO of a massive health insurance corporation."
"His death has struck a nerve with too many people."
Leo stared into Luigi’s eyes.
"I’ve already spoken with the District Attorney. I’m going to do my best to keep jurisdiction over this case in Allegheny County."
"If the trial is held in Pittsburgh, we’ll have a jury advantage."
"If that doesn’t work, I’ll pull some strings to get the case moved to Philadelphia. The DA there is a radical Progressive who opposes the death penalty in principle. That might save your life."
Luigi listened, his expression unchanging.
"However, the Federal Prosecutor also wants jurisdiction over this case."
Leo tapped his fingers heavily on the table twice.
"He wants to classify you as a domestic terrorist."
"Because you attacked the health insurance system, a cornerstone of American capitalism."
"You challenged the rules."
"To the judges and powerful elites sitting on high, a challenge like that is more terrifying than murder."
"They won’t try you as an ordinary criminal."
"They’ll treat you as a dangerous symbol."
"They need an extremely harsh sentence to eliminate the dangerous precedent you’ve set."
"They want to make an example of you."
"In Federal Court, if this is classified as terrorist murder, the death penalty is a high probability."
Leo looked at Luigi.
"You will die, and it will be a miserable death."
"By lethal injection, or in the electric chair."
The two men in the interrogation room fell silent.
Luigi smoked the cigarette in his hand down to the filter, only slowly pressing it out on the tabletop when it started to burn his fingers.
He looked up, his gaze still calm.
"Mr. Mayor."
Luigi spoke.
"If you came here to intimidate me, if you thought the threat of death would make me break down and beg for mercy..."
"...then you’re wasting your time."
Luigi leaned back, his iron handcuffs rattling.
"The moment I pulled the trigger, I already considered myself a dead man."
"I knew this day would come."
Luigi looked at Leo, his eyes filled with acceptance.
"It wasn’t an impulse, and I wasn’t crazy."
"I calculated it."
"I traded my one life for the life of that CEO."
"It was actually a losing trade. I’m an elite with a promising future, and he was just a damned old man."
"But for my conscience, it was a bargain."