Page 106 of Deadly Cry

‘The text messages are short and all eight say the exact same thing.’

‘Which is?’ Alison asked.

‘Every single message says: “Tick”.’

Eighty-Seven

Reg handed both her and Bryant two sheets of paper as Henrietta entered with more coffee. Kim wasn’t going to complain. Full faculties or not the woman made great coffee.

‘So what are these?’ Kim asked. The sheets were the letters sent by Noah, but they were now covered in straight lines rising from the base of the word, drawn so that they brushed every letter like a thousand spikes pointing in all directions.

‘Emotional response. Do you see the letters at the end of each stick?’

Kim nodded as he reached to the table and produced a plastic semi-circle with a gauge running around the edge.

‘Most people have a mixture of slants, so it’s a matter of working out an approximate percentage.’

Kim took a look at the sequences of letters, wondering what they all meant.

‘There are seven measures on the gauge; however, we’re looking at five key emotional responses. The F’s and the FA’s show someone with little or no emotional response. They’re loners and have trouble relating to others. Your typical sociopath would score highly here.’

‘You can really see how someone responds emotionally from a plastic gauge?’ Kim asked doubtfully. Surely the science had to be more technical than a piece of flimsy plastic.

Reg looked at Bryant. ‘And here was me thinking he was the doubting Thomas.’

He reached to the side and passed a piece of paper to her colleague. ‘Once I’ve explained it, you tell me if it’s accurate, and then you can explain it to your boss.’

Bryant smiled as he looked at the paper. She looked over, but he hid it from view like a child not wanting their answers copied.

‘So do you get many people who register up there in the F’s?’ Kim asked.

‘Not many, but I do remember being asked some twenty years ago to analyse the handwriting of the staff of a medium-sized investment company. It had become clear to the owners that one member of staff was embezzling ever-increasing amounts of money and managing to hide their tracks electronically. One subject threw up flags immediately. The person concerned demonstrated predominant traits of greed, ego, ambition, ruthlessness. Their emotional responsiveness was the highest I’ve ever seen in the F range and signalled total emotional detachment.’

‘So this person could easily be deceitful without feeling any level of guilt?’ Kim asked.

Reg nodded. ‘And wouldn’t show a shred of emotion while discussing the issue at director-level meetings.’

‘That takes a lot of neck,’ Bryant observed.

‘What happened?’ Kim asked, wanting to hear the rest of the story.

‘With the information they had, they were able to start isolating the activities of individuals. Given the ego, it was only a matter of time until she struck again.’

‘She?’

‘Yes, a forty-six-year-old woman who had been with the company for fifteen years. She’d been at it for pretty much the whole time. The amounts had started small but had grown with her ego and confidence.’

‘And?’ Kim asked.

Reg laughed. ‘Yes, as a police officer I’m sure you want the rest. She was convicted of seventy-six charges and served eight years in prison. But, luckily, people like her don’t come along all the time.

‘The middle three sections of the gauge show the most common area into which people generally fall. AB dominant markers are cool, calm, collected, not sociopathic but very measured and reliable. You’d want an air-traffic controller to register here. BC offers more emotion: they’re quick to sympathise but still logical. Total middle ground and equally balanced. Great counsellors, as they can empathise but also remain objective. The CD slant shows someone who openly displays their feelings. They get overly emotional and don’t always make logical decisions. The final category is DE and E: these are people driven purely by emotion. They are warm, empathetic but they get too involved; they are prone to emotional outbursts and offer little logic in their emotional response. They could cry from a single look. They could also attack from a single look.’

He nodded towards Bryant. ‘So how am I doing so far, knowing what you know?’

Bryant took a look at the piece of paper he was holding and smiled. ‘Yeah, you got me. I’m sold.’

‘What the?…’ Kim said, grabbing the piece of paper.