Ruth had watched the tape of Sam's interrogation so often she had the time signature memorized. She discreetly took a large pair of DJ-style headphones out of the drawer and put them on. It was late. Everyone else had gone home. The familiar triangle of light from Harry's office illuminated the gloom surrounding her. She would keep one eye on his door and the other on the monitor.

She pressed play.

Harry leaned in. He grabbed Sam's chin. His voice was barely audible, but Ruth counted lip reading among the many languages in which she was proficient.

"Sam. Look at me. How many people do you think I've interrogated? Some are harder than others. Do you imagine I'll have any difficulty breaking a silly little girl like you."

Ruth winced. So patronizing. So beneath him. And yet she was undeniably attracted to him at this moment. She had spent an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about what she would have done were she to have traded places with Sam.

The best was yet to come. She buttoned through Zoe's part of the interrogation, stopping when Harry came back in the room with a fax.

"Tell Sam that the bar is now open."

"It's over? Och. That was so cruel." And then Sam Buxton stood up and kissed Harry Pearce. Ruth couldn't stop watching it. The look of confusion on Harry's face. The fact that this "silly little girl" had schooled Harry Pearce on the finer points of holding up to interrogation. It was deeply satisfying.

Ruth was suddenly aware that Harry was approaching. He was closing in on the angle where he could see her screen. Damn his stealth movement training. Ruth frantically moved the mouse upward and closed the window that contained the surveillance tape. The hard drive sprang to life, but since she hadn't paused the playback, it caused her screen to freeze for just a second-long enough for Harry to get an eyeful of what she was watching.

She took the headphones off sheepishly and met his gaze.

"What were you giggling about?"

"Was I giggling?" Ruth said in a panicked voice.

"Yes. And snorting, I think, at one point."

"Oh, just a joke one of my friends forwarded me. Just silly, really."

"Tell me. I could use a good laugh."

Ruth scanned her memory for a joke, but it was no use. She had nothing. Her mind had gone completely blank.

"I'd rather not, if you don't mind. It was meant to be private," she said letting more of an air of pique into her voice than she had intended.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," he said and spun on his heel. As he was walking away he said over his shoulder, "Ruth. If you want to know what it is like to be interrogated by me all you need to do is ask."

Ruth suppressed an audible, "eep!" but in half a second she regretted that she didn't have the courage to take him up on it.