Page 45 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

“My money’s on affair baby.”

“I’d bet right alongside you. But this is one of those things where you need to confirm it first somehow.”

“So say I see this in an interrogation, what would I do?”

“Normally, I tell the person running the interrogation to ask a question. Those questions will either light up new lines hiding in the background, or the person themself will reveal information. Now, if you’re running the interrogation, you can just ask directly.”

“Got it. Wait, you run interrogations sometimes?”

“I do. Depends on the circumstances. Borrowman likes to run his own and have me lurk, which is why you’ve only seen me in the observation room.”

“Oh.” Abby sat on my words for a second and absorbed them.

I pointed to a man talking on the phone who walked past, his attention clearly on the phone call and little else. “What about him?”

Abby switched focus and stared at him for a long second. “He’s really upset about whatever he’s talking about. He’s all purple and red, so it’s making him sad, too. Both lines are tied into…”

I didn’t blame her for taking another second. It had even taken me a second. Kind of a complicated case.

“Family? And work, somehow. Oh!” Abby sat up abruptly. “Family-run business.”

“Bingo.”

“Something’s gone wrong, and he’s arguing with a family member.”

“Bing bing. I’d give you a cookie if you didn’t already have a snow cone.”

“Ha! I’m getting good at this. The more you practice, I guess.”

“You are. In another two years or so, with more experience under your belt, you’ll read people as good as I do.”

For some reason she didn’t look satisfied by my praise. “But I can’t do a level three reading like you can.”

“Trust me, kiddo, you don’t want to, either. It’s absolute hell on the body.” I shuddered at just the memory.

“But didn’t it help crack open several cases when you did it?”

“Yeah. I’m not arguing the results, but the method is extremely hard on me physically. Not to mention Donovan loses his shit every single time.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” She gave a sage nod. “His protective instincts probably go haywire.”

“That’s a nice way of putting it.”

“But he still lets you do it?”

“He’s my partner, after all. Serious negotiations go into it every time someone even brings up the possibility. I also try not to do it for my own sake. Being in pain for two days straight isn’t anyone’s definition of a good time.”

“Fair.”

I spied a good candidate walking along the sidewalk. He looked like an average guy on the surface, but below that…oof. Yeah, no. “Abby, snap a quick picture of that guy, then try to read him.”

She promptly did so because she was a good little apprentice. “Why am I taking a pic…oh. Wow. His lines areawful.”

“Yup. Now, read him first.”

“He’s guilty of a lot. His lines are all black and grey, twisted up with red and…is that a dark pink?”

It was hard to read lines when a person was so pitch black. It was part of the reason why I’d pointed him out to her, to get practice in. The colors were all muted and you had to really look to figure it out. “It is.”

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