A Criminal's Mind

Adairsville

On the plane flight down to Adairsville I read over the file, it isn't a long flight, so I have to speed read. While I'm going over the file, very quickly, only stopping for a moment for two between each page. Soon Ford looks over to me, "slow down, you can't possibly be taking in all that information that fast."

I shake my head, "the average person can read 250-300 words per minute."

"And what does that have to do with this?"

Tench chuckles, "Holden, I don't know if you've noticed it yet, but Nancy is anything but average."

I nod, "I can read about 700-1000 words per minute, if pushed and right now I'd say there's a push. Did anyone talk to Gene Devier?"

"Yes, we looked into him when we were down there and we think he's a person of interest."

"I want to interview him. Something seems off about his story."

"Can do," Tench nods. When we touch down in Adairsville, one of the officers is there to greet us, once we grab our bags. "Gordon Chambers, you remember Holden."

"Of course," Chambers nods, shaking Ford's hand, "nice to see you again."

"And this is Nancy Freeman, she's the agent who will be leading this case."

"Hello, Ms. Nancy," Chambers shakes my hand, "it is lovely to meet you."

"Thank you," I smile up to Chambers. "Would it be possible to bring in Devier later?"

"Sure. Tonight?"

I nod as we start to walk, Chambers and I in front of the boys, "around six or seven if possible. Just a casual a little evening chat. Make sure he knows he's not under arrest, but it's important that the FBI wants to talk to him."

"We're doing this after-hours to be more casual?"

"Make it seem that way, yes," I nod, "he'll be exhausted from working all day and that will help us catch him with his guard down."

"Won't he realize that we're working overtime."

"We mean business," I shrug, "once he's at the station, let him wait before anyone talks to him. At least an hour."

"And that's supposed to..."

"You ever wait for test results in a doctor's office? We need to create in him a visceral memory. We need to elicit a physiological response." I stop and turn back to the boys, "we need a shoe."

"A shoe?"

"Uh..." I shake my head, "it's something we used to crack another sociopath. We need to find the equivalent for Devier." While I'm thinking I start out of the airport again, the three men following behind me. When we get to the police station, I walk in with Chambers, Ford and Tench still behind us, "get us everything you have on Devier."

"Brass," Chambers points to a young man in a blue uniform. Who hands Ford a file.

I look up to the young man, noticing his actually name is Brassel, "is that it?"

The young man nods and sighs, "that's it."

"Okay," I nod and turn to Ford, "we need a lot more."

Ford nods, "several of these folders, make them thick." Ford picks up a couple empty or almost empty folders and puts them on top of each other. "Go to the copier or use blank pages if you need to."

"We need it to look like Manhattan Yellow Pages," I turn back to Chambers, "evidence room?"

"This way," Chambers nods and starts toward the hall, walking us to the evidence room.