Murder with a Twist by Allyson K Abbott Page B

police station just under an hour later, still as hungry as we were before—for food, anyway—Duncan led me through a maze of doors and hallways until we ended up in a small room with windows on three sides, each one looking into another room. These rooms, which Duncan informed me were used for interrogations, were simple and small, each one fitted with a table, a couple of chairs, and blank walls.
    â€œYou can observe directly from in here,” Duncan told me, indicating a chair I could sit on that was as high as one of my bar stools. “Each room is equipped with a video camera and everything that takes place is recorded. You’re welcome to look at the recordings if you like, but you’ve told me it’s easier for you when things are live, so to speak.” He made little finger air quotes when he said the word live .
    â€œIt is,” I agreed. “I don’t get the same sensations when I’m looking at a picture of something that I get when I’m looking at the real thing. I’m not sure how a video recording will affect me, but I do find that some of my reactions are either missing or minimized when I’m watching TV or a movie. So I’m assuming it would be the same here.”
    â€œMake yourself comfortable,” Duncan said, gesturing toward the chair. He then handed me a tablet and a pencil. “Here’s something to write with so you can record your reactions. I’d also like to fix you with a small microphone that will be connected to an earpiece I’ll be wearing. That way you can provide me with direct feedback while I’m talking to these people.”
    I nodded and climbed onto the chair, which Duncan had turned so that it was facing the room straight ahead, opposite the door we had come in. Then he handed me a headset with an attached mouthpiece.
    â€œI’m not sure if you should just hold onto this and use it as a microphone only, or wear the headpiece with the earphones,” Duncan said. “There are two ways for you to listen in on my interrogations. You can either use the switch on the wall here,” he said, pointing to a speaker box with a knob below it that could be turned to point to a number one, two, or three. Duncan turned the knob so that it was pointing to the two. “Or you can listen through the headphones. We typically use the headphones when there’s more than one interrogation going on because having more than one speaker on in here gets confusing. At the moment, there are no plans to use the other rooms, so I doubt that will be an issue for you, but I’m not sure which method will work best for you with regard to your synesthesia.”
    â€œI’m not sure, either,” I said. “In fact, just being behind this window may interfere. So many of my reactions are dependent upon my immediacy to the person or object in question—to things like air currents, and subtle temperature changes, and small molecules of smell. If I’m not in the room with the person you’re talking to, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to pick up.”
    â€œI’d rather not have you in the room with these people if we can avoid it,” Duncan said. “It might be too much of a distraction and I don’t want to jeopardize the interviews in any way by having a third party in there who’s not part of the legal system. I know this is hard enough for you as it is and I want to minimize your exposure as much as I can. However, if it turns out that being in the room is the only way you can do what you need to do, I’ll figure something out.”
    â€œWho are you going to be talking to?”
    â€œJimmy had a chat with Dan Thornton’s boss. The firm operates under a peer group structure so that each of the investment counselors, like Dan, is part of a group. All of their investment decisions are discussed and decided upon by that group, and each group has at least one junior