Silencer Night
Vertigo Winter's Edge 3

A Christmas tale in which an old woman called Mrs. Bugg goes to the police to confess to the murder of her former landlord, Thomas Wright. Wright was a land developer who died three years previously. In the precinct's waiting area, a lawyer sits with a young gangsta called Li'l Moe. Moe is causing trouble for anybody close to him as he awaits his father, Big Moe, who is on his way out of jail having made bail. Detective Choisnel asks his partner Taylor to pull out an open file on Wright. Taylor can't find any files at all on Wright. The Staff Sergeant says he heard that Wright died of a heart attack. Mrs. Bugg says that can't be true, as she shot him. Choisnel loses interest, claiming he needs a break, but Taylor wants to hear more.

She tells Choisnel and Taylor how her infant son Donny used to chew on anything he could find around the apartment, including the window sills. This meant him ingesting harmful quantities of lead paint, causing irreparable brain damage. Her landlord knew the paint was poisoned and had been ordered by the Housing Department to remove it, but never did. This was thirty-two years ago and she's been caring for her son ever since, although her husband has long since left. Her tale is interrupted by the arrival of a crackhead, shouting and screaming. Li'l Moe hits him with a chair, but Mrs. Bugg cradles the man, calming him completely.

She resumes her story, and tells the detectives how a man called Agent Graves came to her three years ago with a case containing all the evidence, plus a gun and one hundred bullets. She says that Graves told her she would get away with killing Wright, and she did, but she knows it was wrong. Taylor laughs at the story, but Choisnel  is shocked to hear the name of Agent Graves. He asks if she has any other family, and hearing that there is no-one, asks whether she wants Donny to spend the rest of his days in an institution. Mrs. Bugg notices a photograph of the detective's wife and comments on how beautiful she is. "I was very lucky to have known her" is Choisnel's  reply. He tells Mrs. Bugg to go home and look after her son.

Big Moe is reunited with his son as Mrs. Bugg departs. Taylor wonders why Christmas always brings out the crazies. He empathises with Mrs. Bugg's loss but doesn't believe her story of murder. The Moes leave, wishing the cops a "Merry Christmas, bitches", flipping them the bird as they do so. Choisnel retires to a back room with the photograph of his wife, where Graves is waiting at a table with a case, one hundred untraceable bullets and a photograph of Li'l Mo -  "An' a fuckin' Happy New Year, you murderin' scumbag."

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