Barrington has a reputation in this city and I didn’t think for a minute that he actually existed until I was face to face with him. Of course, this may all be another sham, a shrewd move by the asshole bandit cops to instill fear inside my junkie heart. Barrington’s reputation is that of a loose cannon prone to violence whenever necessary and often when it’s not. Had it been him up on the roof with me, legend goes that he really would have pushed me off. Rumor has it that Barrington actually broke a junkie’s spirit through physical violence, a mythical legend that is not supposed to be close to being true. But after sitting across from him, watching him attack his steak with hyena ferocity, I’m not so sure. I even brought the subject up in a roundabout fashion, to which he replied: “That kid was pushing to school children. I had told him so many times to let it go, just wash out with the ocean. And what’s he do? He spits in my face. Starts selling to younger kids. That’s one thing I can’t stand, drugs in schools. So I bring him up to the station, round noon I think it was, and the kid’s cracking wise with me. Like we’re old pals.

“Well I tell ya, I reared back on him in that little room. Locked him down in violet grains of adhesive tapes, handcuffs holding his hands together in prayer. As soon as that door was shut he saw the look on my face and stopped laughing just like that. He knew it was coming then. I sat down opposite him and then began to loosen my tie. This was when I was a detective, you understand. I’m loosening my tie and explaining things to him, the run of power.

“I say to him, I say, ‘You know how torture can be used as a weapon to achieve your desired goals?’ He shuts up at that, shuts up even more. He knows I’ve got him, he belongs to me. I stand up and begin to walk around him, stopping to put my hands on his shoulders. I explain to him all about torture and how it can be used to achieve desired goals. It’s not the torture itself that does it, it’s the promise of further torture. A man can stand up to one session, but you do it every day for a month, that’s a whole other fish right there. You act like it’s all for nothing. ‘Long day today but we’ll have more time tomorrow. We’ll get somewhere with it.’

“I’m explaining it to this kid and he’s trembling. I’m not even gonna lay a finger on him until he confesses. I want that much at least. I want to know that I broke him without touching him. I’m dropping hints that I’m gonna touch him. I’m taking off my tie, rolling up my sleeves, getting my knuckles lined up, all right in front of him. Then I pull out a folding knife. You should’ve seen this knife. It was black handled with the purest silver blade, but covered with rust in places and I’m reminded that I bought this for some reason, some reason that escapes me. But now it’s in my hands and I’m unfolding the blade and I ask, like incidentally, ‘So Travis, you circumcized?’ That’s it for him. He’s pee’d himself, he’s ready to shit his pants.

“Not torture, but the threat of torture, the hint of it. He asks for a lawyer and I say I’ll call him one when I’m finished. First thing I do, I untie his shoes and take them off. Then I’m over the door calling across the outer room that I need someone to bring me a pan full of boiling water.

“Pointless, right? The kid’s cracked already, right? But he hadn’t. He was ready to give away a little bit to save himself. I want the whole thing. I want a confession like a priest gets, every horrible deed that’s ever been committed. I’m gonna take this to the end, right to the end.

“So right away I’m back at the kid with a newspaper. I roll it into a funnel and say, ‘You’ve got a lot of wax buildup in your ears here, Travis. You know how you get that out?’ And I hold up the funnel and explain that when I put the point into his ear and light the other end, the flames will crawl down the newsprint and pull the wax out to be burned up.

“Kid’s trembling, he’s got long hair that sticks out. He’s afraid it’s going to catch fire. I tell him, ‘That’s what the water’s for,’ and point at the pan. ‘You didn’t think I was gonna hurt you with it, did you?’ I ask right away, threatening him with my hands.

“He’s crying now and he says he’ll give everything up. That he’s finished with everything. He’ll tell me anything I want to know and then walk away. Well I tell him it’s not that easy. That a kid died down the south side and he’s probably the one that got the stuff to him. I’m leaning forward on him now, fingering his eyebrows. ‘You got some lice here,’ I say, pointing at his hair. ‘Boiling water will help that also.

“So I spin his chair around and line him up with the pan of boiling water and push the chair until he rests on his knees with the chair taped to his ass. His face is just a foot away from this water and I say, ‘You feel that steam? That opens up your pores. Just lean in a little closer.’ But he’s not having any of it. He’s screaming his head off now.

“And what happens next? Door opens and fucking Captain Ross steps in. Kid is screaming to him that I’m an animal, that I’ve threatened to hurt him. Captain Ross looks to me and I just shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Trying to help the kid out. Earwax buildup and lice. He’s a junkie so…what can you do?'

“The kid is screaming, absolutely screaming, that this is police brutality and his lawyer is going to own everything in the police station at the end of this. Captain Ross looks back to me and says, ‘Hear that? His lawyer’s going to sue us for everything… I guess it would be best if he didn’t leave this place alive…’

“And that was all that was left to break the kid. There was no way out now. He gave up everyone he’d ever bought from or sold to. We spent four months bringing everyone in. You’ve probably heard of the kid on account of how many people we brought in because of him. But that was the end of the kid. He couldn’t do business with anyone anymore after that. We had promised him we’d protect him but what did we care? We got what we needed and sent him off to Riker’s. That was the end of him. Everyone he put away was in there waiting and he didn’t last 24 hours.”