Dead and Gone - Andrew Vachss [134]
“Oh, but we are, Mr. Burke. We’re both predators. And we both prey on the same victims, albeit in different ways. There is no Darcadia. And there never will be. Of all the congenital defectives ever birthed on this godforsaken earth, those pathetic little wannabe Nazis have to be the most extreme example. Who else would believe such a fairy tale? And pedophiles? Perhaps even easier to gull. Ah, how they dream of such a place! And I am making their dreams come true.”
“Nazis and child molesters on the same little island?”
“Please! Spare me your incompetent attempts at political analysis. Hitler marched Jews into the ovens because … why? They were defectives. As were Gypsies, homosexuals … a long list. But you never saw pedophiles on that list, did you?
“Extremists don’t fit themselves along a continuum, Mr. Burke. They don’t form lines; they form a circle. And the ‘sexual liberation’ frauds who include children among their ‘causes’ eventually met the Nazis who think incest preserves the race. Pedophiles don’t have politics,” he said, contemptuously. “They only have … preferences. This is business, pure and simple.”
He took a long, deep refueling breath and went on: “Any businessman understands it’s not enough to know your product; you also have to know your market. And I have been successfully marketing information to pedophiles for years. There are states where sex with a child under eleven can get you twenty-five years in prison … unless it’s your own child. Then, if the DA can be persuaded to charge ‘incest’ instead of ‘sexual assault of a child,’ the offender can expect probation. Do you know which states have the loosest requirements for running a day-care center? Which organizations don’t do background checks for those who volunteer to work with kids? Which jurisdictions make it easiest to get a foster child? Which won’t prosecute polygamy?”
I didn’t answer him. Truth is, I didn’t know the answers.
“I didn’t think so,” he said, after a pause. “But I do. And do you know how to package a pedophile for probation? Or for early release if sentenced? Do you know how to teach these sickening men how to avoid mouthing their cognitive distortions when they’re interviewed?”
“Cognitive distortions?” I asked, stalling—I needed time to deal with the info-overload.
“The classic example,” he answered, “goes something like this. People are primarily motivated by desire for pleasure. Children are people. Children seek pleasure. Sex is pleasure. Children seek what they want by communicating their desires. That is why so many children are deliberately seductive—they are seeking pleasure, for themselves.”
“And people buy that crap?”
“Law enforcement doesn’t. Just the treatment centers that make a living from it. My task is to make sure the … client doesn’t repeat any of it, regardless of his personal belief system.”
“So you sell them the keys?”
“Certainly. And each client subset is different. With the incest offenders, we have to eliminate their expressions of a profound sense of ‘entitlement’ to their own children. Learning to feign remorse is critical to their survival, once apprehended.”
“Christ!”
“Of course, the worst are the ‘true believers.’ You’re familiar with their rhetoric, I’m sure.” His voice switched to a singsong parody of a memorized litany: “ ‘Those children who later claim to have been harmed by a loving sexual experience with a caring adult are not victims of sex, they are victims of programming, playing the victim role as dictated by self-interested therapists, and exploited by greedy lawyers. The media never report that there are numerous studies which show that the child participants themselves, interviewed later as adults, did not consider their earlier experiences to be harmful in any way at all. The only “perversion” going on is the perversion of love.’ ”
“Nice.”
“Be honest, if only with yourself. I sell these people images—pictures and videotapes. And if they are later caught with such product, I sell them information