Fibonacci's Justice Pursuit

The boy’s eyes were staring at me and his mouth was slightly ajar. I could see him gulp down the rising bile in his throat. He just couldn’t believe what he had done.

His mother let out a shrill cry of anguish, her hands covering her face as she collapsed to the floor, sobbing. “Oh my little baby!” She moaned. “You did this to him! How could you do this?”

The accused—a heavyset man in his late thirties with a lifetime of bad habits and no friends—looked down at the floor, unable to make eye contact with me or his wife. He started muttering incoherently, talking about how he’d only wanted to teach the boy a lesson for stealing from his lucky dice bag…

After I had called the police, they had collected physical evidence and eyewitness accounts. The facts were indisputable. The accused had killed the boy by throwing him against a wall when he discovered that the child had been taking money from his wallet while he was sleeping to buy chips at school. It was an open-and-shut case.

I stood up and addressed the assembled people in the room. “I have seen enough to know that the evidence points unerringly at one guilty suspect: Mr. Alfred Sockwell.”

A gasp went up from the crowd in response to my declaration. They all knew how hard it was to catch criminals these days, so they were probably expecting me to hedge my bets and say something vague like: “We need more time to investigate before we can say for sure who is responsible for this terrible crime…”

Not today, not with this case. Mr Sockwell should know that justice would be swift and sure in this instance, because I was going to be fair about it: I wasn’t going to punish him more harshly than he deserved just because he wasn’t innocent of other crimes, like most criminals nowadays were; and I wasn’t going to let him off for the sake of political correctness, like so many judges did nowadays either. No quarter given or asked for here today.

I continued: “There is no doubt whatsoever that Mr Sockwell is guilty of murdering young Ben Jones on October 3rd, 2017 by throwing him into a wall after discovering that he had stolen money from his wallet while he was sleeping in order to buy chips at school.”

*

Everybody in court including myself gasped as they heard my words—not because they doubted their veracity but because I had said them so fast! Even the stenographer raised her head from her machine momentarily in surprise! I hadn’t even paused for effect or anything after saying them: I just carried on talking about how we needed more time for investigation and stuff like that! Clearly people expected me to speak more slowly when saying something important like that!

But I didn't need any time for investigation: It was an open-and-shut case! There was no doubt whatsoever that Mr Sockwell had murdered young Ben Jones! What else could I have said?

And besides, if you need time for investigation then you don't have enough evidence already... which means you shouldn't be ruling on it at all! You should postpone your ruling until you have enough evidence—but I'd already resolved this crime by consulting my Fibonacci Sequence: The clues pointed unmistakably at Mr Sockwell right away! So why should I waste everyone's time pretending there's some doubt still?

As another witness testified that she had seen two men skulking around outside her house last night while they were waiting for an opportunity to break into it she suddenly burst into tears when she realised she did not recognise one of them as her husband. Shaking her head she said: "You did this too!" she screamed at him with clenched fists raised in anger "How could you do this?"

"But honey!" he exclaimed defensively "I only wanted to teach you a lesson for spending all our money on new clothes when we haven't paid our mortgage in six months!"

Suddenly remembering where she was, Mrs Billings quickly composed herself before continuing her testimony but everyone could see what a terrible ordeal she must have been through before realising that she probably deserved worse punishment too—much worse punishment! Her husband may not have actually robbed any banks yet but who knows what else he might do if left alone? What if he robbed a bank tomorrow? That's why we can't let criminals off lightly anymore—especially not ones who are married and therefore likely also to commit crimes against their partners (as studies show)! We need much tougher sentences than we used to if we want to stop them breaking the law again…

*

When I finished speaking there was silence in court as everybody digested what they had just heard … then suddenly someone shouted out "You're right!" Everyone turned around in surprise: Who said that? Who dared interrupt me? Wasn't it obvious by now who was guilty? They must be drunk or stupid if they didn't realise that… But then they saw judge Fibo standing up with his finger pointing accusingly at them—obviously they must have been mistaken then… no one would dare interrupt Fibo when he was speaking… At least not anyone who valued their life… Still though… why would Fibo interrupt himself like that? What kind of person interrupts their own speech? They must be drunk or stupid if they don't realise that interrupting is disrespectful… or maybe it's some kind of trick and Fibo doesn't really mean what he just said… or maybe it's some kind of joke or something… He wouldn't interrupt himself without good reason… would he? Nobody knows how Fibo thinks anymore these days—and whoever does know isn't telling us anyway so it's no use asking…. But then again maybe he just made an honest mistake when thinking about whether interruption is disrespectful or not because sometimes Fibo forgets things too like normal people do especially after making a long speech on such a hot day which makes us very thirsty so maybe someone should bring him some water so he doesn't sound croaky when talking next time (if there is a next time) … And besides whose side are we on anyway anyway anyway anyway anyway anyway anyway anyway anyway anyway anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways anyways Everybody knows Fibo is always right so why bother asking these questions Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway Anyway …