Mallory carried a clipboard into the interview room and walked to one end of the long table. She was ignoring the surprised polygraph examiner as she made a show of consulting her watch and writing down the time. Nedda Winter was wired into the machine by rubber tubing around bet-chest and abdomen to measure her breathing, a padded cardio cuff on her arm to keep track of her blood pressure, and metal fingertips to catch her in the act of sweating.
The polygraph examiner cleared his throat – twice – but failed to get Mallory’s attention. „Excuse me, Detective,“ he said, hardly disguising his annoyance, „I work alone. If you have any questions, I suggest you write them down. Then I can ask them during the – “
„I’m not here to question Miss Winter,“ said Mallory. „I’m here to evaluate you.“ She glanced at the civilian’s polygraph equipment with a moue of distaste. „How far out of date is that machine of yours?“
The examiner only stared at her, casting about for some comeback.
„Obviously,“ said Mallory, making a note on her clipboard, „you don’t know how old your equipment is. I’m guessing at least ten years.“ She leaned down toward Nedda, showing the woman no more regard than furniture when she examined the padded arm cuff. The detective made another note on her clipboard, speaking the words aloud as her pen moved across the paper, „Still using cardio cuffs for blood-pressure readings.“ She turned back to the examiner. „We gave you a chair with stress plates. Why aren’t you hooked in?“ She tapped her pencil on the notebook, waiting on an answer, then examined the back of his machine where the wires connected. „Never mind.“ She made more notes, saying as she wrote, „Outmoded machine. No connections for stress plates.“
She removed her blazer and draped it over a chair, a clear signal that she planned to stay awhile. And now her gun was exposed in the shoulder holster, breaking all the rules of interviews and civilian etiquette. All the power and authority was weighted to her side of the room. She leaned against the back wall, just visible to the examiner’s peripheral vision and in full view of Nedda Winter. „You can start now.“
If any arguments had occurred to the examiner, he swallowed them. Reaching into his briefcase, he pulled out a deck of playing cards. Mallory rolled her eyes. And Nedda Winter smiled, vaguely amused by the show.
On the dark side of the mirror in a small theater of chairs tiered in rows, two men sat up front near the one-way glass. They were observing Mallory’s humiliation of the independent polygraph examiner. Charles turned to Riker. „What was all that about?“
„Mallory wants him out of the way so she can do the exam herself. Poor little guy. He’s toast.“ Riker reached over to a panel on the wall and turned off the volume. „Fun’s over. I’ve seen this next part a hundred times. Most of these idiots went to the same school for the ten-week course.“
The polygraph examiner leaned toward Nedda Winter and appeared to be speaking in a friendly fashion. In the absence of sound, Riker translated. „Right now he’s telling Nedda that he wants to put her at ease. That’s a lie. His whole job is to jack up her anxiety. If he can’t do that – if she’s not afraid of his machine – he won’t get any responses worth measuring-.“
„If Mallory keeps smirking at everything he says, it’s hardly – “
„He won’t last another five minutes. Now he’s telling Nedda what all the tools do, what they measure. She doesn’t seem too impressed. That’s because she’s taking all her cues from Mallory.“
The examiner laid four playing cards facedown on the table. Nedda selected one, lifting up a corner to see which card it was. The machine was turned on, and the man stared at the rolling paper as he spoke again, watch ing wavy lines and hard-edged spikes, jotting down small notes on the paper as it rolled by at the rate of six inches a minute.
„This is the getting-to-know-you stage,“ said Riker. „He told her to give him a negative response every time he tries to guess her card – even if he guesses right. He’s telling her he needs to gauge her physical responses when he guesses the right card and she lies to him. That’s bull. If he didii’l know which response was a lie, the polygraph wouldn’t help.“
„So he memorized the order of the cards,“ said Charles. „He already knows which one she picked. Well then, what’s the point of this exercise? If she’s following his instructions, then there’s no attempt at deception.“
„It’s a lot like voodoo. Nedda has to believe in the polygraph. When he guesses her card, that’s supposed to convince her that the machine can read her mind. But see? She’s not buying it. This test is only as good as the examiner, and Mallory made him look like a moron.“
„So it’s true what they say,“ said Charles, and by they he meant the Supreme Court of the United States. „A polygraph has the same chance of detecting a lie as the flip of a coin.“
„Right, but that’s not why we use it. When a cop does this test, it’s a fullblown interrogation without a lawyer. Sweet, huh?“
„But this examiner isn’t – “
„No, he’s an independent. That was the deal we did with Bitty Smyth. We picked the time and place – she picked the examiner. This guy’s only experience is interviewing applicants for low-level jobs.“ Riker leaned back and closed his eyes, saying, „Let me know when Mallory takes over. I’ll turn on the volume again.“
While Riker slept, Charles watched the tableau in front of him. The lame card trick was set aside, and they were moving on to other questions. After each response, the examiner made notations on the rolling paper. Mallory was drumming her nails on the clipboard, regarding the man as a bug. Nedda always glanced at the detective before answering a question. And now Charles intuited Mallory’s stance as a prelude to a lunge. He nudged Riker to wake him. „She’s almost ready.“
Riker’s eyes opened. „Good. Time to rock ‘n’ roll.“ He turned on the volume.
The examiner asked his next question. „Did you ever kill anyone?“
„You know I did,“ said Nedda Winter. „I already signed a statement to that effect.“
„Once again, if you could confine your responses to yes or no.“
„Yes,“ said Nedda.
Mallory stood behind the examiner, watching over his shoulder as the paper scrolled across the top of his machine. „You’re botching it.“ She ripped the paper out. The man half rose in protest. She glared at him. „Sit down.“
And he did.
The detective made her own notations, matching up the responses with respiration and heartbeats, then tapped the different spikes on the chart each time she said, „Inconclusive, inconclusive, inconclusive.“ She turned on the examiner. „You don’t know what you’re doing.“
Riker turned the volume off again. „That might be the last true thing you hear from that room.“ He looked back to the glass as Mallorv slapped the top of the polygraph machine. „She’s telling him his equipment is crap.“
„I think I guessed that,“ said Charles.
The examiner’s mouth had stopped flapping. He could only gawk at the detective in disbelief.
„Fortunately,“ said Riker, „she just happens to have a brand-new.;n;r;: of-the-art polygraph parked right outside the door. Our machine doesn’t work any better, but it has more bells and whistles. So Mallory won the pissing contest. The guy’s out of the game, and he knows it. There’s no way to make a recovery now that Nedda thinks he’s a clown. But don’t feel sorry for him, Charles. He’s young. He can still find honest work.“
Mallory carried a heavy suitcase into the room and placed it on the table. She undid the snaps and opened it with a sideways glance at the civilian examiner, saying, „Now this is a lie detector.“ She held up a large clip of plastic and metal trailing a wire. „And this is a transducer.“ She attached it to Nedda’s thumb, treating the woman as an inanimate part of her show-and-tell exhibit. „This is what we use for cardio readings in the twenty-rirst century.“ The detective proceeded to strip Nedda of all the paraphernalia that belonged to the independent examiner, then neatly packed it away in the man’s suitcase.