Forests of the Night

Forests of the Night Read Free Page B

Book: Forests of the Night Read Free
Author: James W. Hall
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variety.”
    â€œForensic pathology.”
    â€œIn that general area. But more specialized. Profiling serial killers, that’s still important, but we’re pioneering some new territory.”
    â€œIf this is a recruiting pep talk, you wasted your trip. I’m a police officer, plain and simple street cop. I have no other professional aspirations.”
    He gave her an empty smile.
    â€œMy team’s responsible for everything from forensic archaeology to the paranormal.”
    â€œOh, come on. ESP? You guys believe in that horseshit?”
    â€œWe believe in what works, whatever it may be based on. Skills like yours, for instance, may appear to be clairvoyant at first glance, but they aren’t. They’re simply skills. Highly developed, perhaps. But still skills. You’re a gifted code cracker. Only your codes are human and emotional. It may be instinctive for you, but it’s nevertheless a very, very rare talent.”
    He ate more of his salad. Took a long swallow from his mug. He patted his mouth with the napkin and looked around at the room full of cops and secretaries. A couple of her friends were looking over at her curiously.
    â€œLet me ask you a couple of questions, Monroe?”
    â€œThe answer is no. I’m happy doing what I’m doing.”
    â€œI understand that. But would you say that your ability to anticipate behavior and read body signals and facial expressions has benefited your police work? Perhaps even kept you safe at times?”
    â€œMaybe. That and good training.”
    â€œThink about it, Monroe. If we could learn more about these skills you possess and improve our methodology in teaching them to others, the applications would be immense. Take a Customs official at the airport, stamping passports, making eye contact, asking a couple of innocuous questions. He has maybe ten seconds to make a judgment about each person passing before him, an individual entering the country. He’s the last line of defense.What if that official was able to correctly distinguish honest answers from dishonest ones seventy, eighty percent of the time? Think of the impact, what catastrophes that might avert.”
    Charlotte was silent. Weighing his argument, but not buying it fully. Catching liars at airports was a long way from preventing catastrophes.
    â€œCould you do something for me right now, Charlotte? A small favor.”
    â€œI’m listening.”
    â€œWhen you look at me, at my face, my eyes, my mouth at this particular moment, what do you see?”
    â€œHey, I’m off duty. It’s lunch, okay?”
    â€œOfficer Monroe, from the results I’ve seen, I don’t think you’re ever off duty. Yours is the kind of gift that doesn’t shut down. I believe you’re always watching, evaluating, making highly informed judgments. Maybe it’s happening just below the surface of your awareness, but it’s there.”
    â€œEverybody does it.”
    â€œBut few do it so well.”
    â€œTwo weeks of tests. What does that prove?”
    â€œWhat I’m guessing is that you’re relieved to know you have this skill. Most of the time it probably feels like you’re eavesdropping on people’s thoughts. Invading their privacy. That’s how I’ve heard it described by one of the other members of our team. A man who’s incredibly good at reading faces and body language. Our most gifted associate. That is, until you cropped up. The best results we’ve ever come across, by the way, are from a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Thousands of hours of meditation have apparently given him the empathy and focus to detect and decode those fleeting facial expressions that can give away true emotions. Forty milliseconds, that’s how fast they come and go. But he can see them. And apparently so can you.”
    Charlotte put down the rest of the chip and looked into Mears’s eyes.
    â€œFedderman said prison inmates

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