Page 31 of Whispers of Redemption

CHAPTER 11

Cassie slipped into a seat in the front row of her Psychology 101 classroom. She pulled out her spiral notepad, a pen, and a highlighter. Most of the students took notes on their laptops. But she found writing everything by hand first helped it all stick in her mind better.

In high school, she’d always been a “sit in the back row and screw around” type of student. But with the influence of her foster parents, and the knowledge that a good education could really make a difference, she now took her studies more seriously than she ever had in her life.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. She was fifteen minutes early as usual. There were only a few other students in the classroom. Some chatted, but most just scrolled through the screens of their mobile phones. She didn’t really know any of her classmates. But that was fine with her. She wasn’t there to make friends, she was there to learn.

As she sat there daydreaming out the window and waiting for class to start, she heard two people talking in the hallway outside. She turned to look as her professor entered the classroom followed by... No. Way.

Wade Riley, dressed in full uniform, was deep in conversation with her instructor, Professor Dusenbury, who encouraged everyone to simply call her Dusen. Wade didn’t notice Cassie. He took a seat at a desk at the far edge of the classroom while Dusen walked to the front of the room, her colorful, paisley dress billowing about her ankles as she moved.

She clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Good evening, everyone. As promised, we have a guest speaker tonight. I’d like to introduce Officer Wade Riley from the Whispering Pines Police Department. He’s here to teach us about the interesting subject of body language. Officer Riley has worked in both urban and small-town settings. He’s dealt with criminals and crimes ranging from major felonies to minor misdemeanors.”

Cassie felt her face flame at the mention of misdemeanors.

“He has unique knowledge and insights on this topic that I think we’ll all find fascinating.” She lifted a hand in Wade’s direction. “Officer Riley?”

He rose and came to the front of the room, thanking Dusen. Then he turned to face the class. His eyes widened for a brief instant when he spotted Cassie in the front row. But he recovered quickly, greeting the class and starting his speech.

As much as Cassie was annoyed to find him here, she had to admit his talk was, as Dusen had promised, fascinating. He covered things such as the importance of first establishing a baseline before jumping to conclusions about someone’s body language. He shared indicators that someone may be about to physically attack you and how to identify whether or not someone is lying. To emphasize his points, he showed interesting interview clips of famous cases, politicians, and celebrities who had all been caught in lies.

When he finished, the entire room broke into applause, and Dusen came to stand beside Wade. “Does anyone have any questions for Officer Riley?” Multiple hands shot up and Wade fielded questions until the class ended.

Afterward, several students surrounded him. Cassie kept her head down and gathered her things. She was almost to the door when she heard him call out, “Cassie!”

She took a deep breath and slowly turned to look back at him. He held up a finger and mouthed, “Wait!” before turning his attention back to the students circled around him. She sighed and wandered out into the hall to wait, listening to the chatter of her fellow classmates as they passed by, discussing what he’d taught them.

She was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed when she felt someone touch her shoulder, and she jumped.

“Sorry,” Wade said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me,” she said automatically, then with a small smile, “Okay, maybe you did a little. Why did you want me to wait?”

“Um...”

He dropped his gaze for a few seconds, and before he could complete his response, Cassie said, “You’re not about to lie to me, are you?”

“What?” He lifted his eyes in surprise. Cassie felt herself grow warm under the influence of his deep, whiskey-gold gaze.

She said, “You’re doing that slow blink, not-quite-meeting-my-eyes thing that you said may indicate deception.”

Wade grinned, and Cassie couldn’t ignore how much the smile transformed and softened the sharp angles of his handsome face. It was like a sunrise coming up over the edge of a mountain. He was standing close to her and she could actually feel the heat radiating from his body. She surreptitiously took a small step back.

“So, you were actually listening?” he said.

“I always listen in class,” she said.

He stood there for several long seconds, just looking at her, until she began to feel awkward.

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