Painting a Better Picture

Sorry for the wait. I've just spent the last couple of days gathering all the information on Conaghan. Figure it's best to paint the entire picture, make sure you- and me- get the entire picture.

Conaghan runs an import/export company that conducts trades with a lot of smaller-to-middle-sized countries. He's got business connections all over the freaking globe. He trades things people need- water, food, tobacco, tools, you name it- and gets what people here want-oil, minerals for weapons, other odds and ends. I know that doesn't sound like much, but think of how shitty the world is right now and you'll see how this would be a big deal.

How he gets this stuff and makes a profit, I'm not entirely sure, but it can't be legal or he wouldn't have gotten five years for fraud. Believe it or not, he gets loads off this stuff, and he can use it to hire his lawyers if anything goes awry. He's got a lot of friends doing what he does. To everyone else in the world, he's an angel; to everyone here, he's a demon.

Conaghan's properties are a bunch of warehouses and storage buildings that he uses for his goods. Of course, over the years they've also been used for his little “extracurricular activity”. Two girls were found tied up in one of the storage facilities, and I don't even want to talk about what their physical condition was in. It's just...it wasn't pretty.

Even with them being found in his fucking properties, he still won't get convicted because of his his lawyers and his bribes. He bribes the parents to keep their mouths shut, he bribes the judge, all that shit. It's despicable. I get pissed off just thinking about it. The five years in jail, he basically continued to run his company from behind bars. The world doesn't think any less of him.

Like I said before, his technique is a simple snatch them in the middle of the night thing. Most girls are let go once he's done with them, but every once in a while he holds on to one of them if he feels a “special attachment.” And, like I've said, any attempts to convict him get stopped dead in its tracks. He's on top of the fucking world, basically. He never admits to anything, and he dishes out the money wherever he can.

There's been a lot of talk from the older guys on the force about just letting ultimate justice handle him. As in, someone goes up, knocks a round into his skull, pop goes the weasel. Hell, I've said it a few times, though I won't admit to it outright. We all know it would do us a favor, but there's shits all we can do about it.

And I know, a lot of this is circumstantial. A lot of this is just my opinion. My opinion, though, isn't far off from the stuff we've gathered on him. We know the truth, even if the rest of the world doesn't want to admit it. We could put him behind bars for a long time if we wanted to, but with the judicial system being what it is here, it's not going to happen.

That's why I'm so sure he's responsible for what's going on now. He got away with the other stuff, and now he's trying to expand his abilities. In my mind, he's the only one who could-and would-attempt it, at least, here. And like I've said before, if he would just come forward, I might just listen to him. If he's not coming forth, even with a public manhunt being issued with his face on it, then that just makes him all the more guilty to me. Yeah, I may be prejudiced towards him, but I don't think he deserves someone being fair towards him.

Lizzie, on the other hand, she isn't so sure. She's holding the same opinion that a couple of you have; that someone else is working here, someone behind the scenes. As good as he is from evading prison time, she doesn't think Conaghan could jam police equipment, knock two guards out, steal a kid, and write a cryptic message in untraceable blood on the ceiling. That, I'll admit, doesn't match up with his pattern. Like I said, he got off before, so he's seeing how far he can take it. But she insists there's something none of us are seeing. Something different.

I don't know, it's possible. What we have on this case doesn't amount to much to begin with. It's a gut feeling and past evidence that's convicting Conaghan right now, and as much as I want to go off that, it's not enough. We need real proof.

I'm just starting to wonder if we're ever going to get it.