The next morning we head to Salem Oregon, which is a seven hour flight. I'm just thankful we get to fly rather than drive the forty four hours there. We get a rental car and head to the Oregon State Penitentiary. As we pull up Tench looks back to me in the rear view mirror, "so did you take my advice and learn about some of the prisons?"

I nod, "yeah, I did."

"What'd you learn about good old Oregon State?"

"It was built in 1851 in Portland and can hold 2,242 prisoners. It is the oldest prison in the state. It was originally built with a city street running through it."

"That couldn't have been easy to manage." Ford chuckles.

I shake my head, "it wasn't and it didn't stay that way for long. In 1859 it was leased to a private owner who started a labor project, but after many escapes. So in 1866 the state officially moved the prison here to Salem."

"Impressive." Tench nods. "Looks like you found something you enjoy studying, other than psychopathic killers."

I shrug, "I've always had a thing for history."

"Probably a good thing, given what we are doing." Tench nods and looks over his shoulder to me as we walk in.

I walk in behind Tench and Ford, when we get into the prison, we turn over our guns and badges. Signing in everything we have and singing ourselves in, before heading to the area they had set up for our interview with Brudos. When we get there a guard looks over to me, very confused. "Are you guys sure you want her in here?"

Tench looks over to me, having walked the recorder over to the table, "she's part of our team. Besides I'm sure she can handle herself."

"I don't know about that." The guard shakes his head, "there are some guys in here who would love nothing more then to get their hands on a little mama like her."

I scoff, "if you're so worried then why don't you test my abilities yourself?"

"Nancy," Ford chuckles, "come on, we don't have time for you to beat on the guards."

"Sure we do." I smile, "I mean, if it's going to make them feel better about me being here."

"No no," the guard shakes his head, "I'm sure these two can keep you safe." he walks out of the large cage we were led to.

I nod and walk over to Tench and Ford, Ford shaking his head, "what were you going to do, climb on his back?"

"If necessary." I nod.

Tench laughs, "You know, for someone who prides himself on knowing everything, you don't know anything about Nance, do you Holden?"

"I looked into her professional file and I know she hasn't gone through any defense classes." Ford looks from Tench to me.

"And that is because Nancy here was a kick boxing star before she came to the bureau. She hasn't taken any of the course because she doesn't need to."

"Is that true?"

I nod, "Yeah, I took one class, on the first day they told us to partner up. Since no one wanted to spare with a girl, I was with the instructor and ended up putting him on his ass three times."

"Three times?"

"He kept saying that he was taking it easy on me, so he wanted another go to 'test my strength.' by the end of it, he had a black eye and a bruised ego."

"And you've seen John," Tench chuckles, "guy makes me look like Thumbelina."

Ford shakes his head, "wasn't John a marine?"

"Yeah, he was." Tench nods.

We get everything set up and ready for Brudos, when we walks in with one of the guards, he is talking, "I saw an interview with Ali's trainer. He said he didn't know what was wrong. The mouthpiece just kept coming out bloody." He laughs, "oh! Norton got a lot of shots in, but still, that was something." he walks past us to a table and doesn't even look at us, "it is not an easy thing to break a human being's jaw." he sits at the table as the guard chains him to the table, "let me assure you… that takes practice." he chuckles before looking of his shoulder to us as the guard leaves, "hey, welcome to Oregon."

"Thanks." Tench shrugs.

Ford is the only one who gets up and walks over to Brudos, "I'm Holden Ford, this is Bill Tench and Nancy Freeman. We're with the Federal Bureau of…"

"Can I get something to drink?" Brudos cuts Ford off, "

"Sure." Ford nods, "Coffee?"

"Coffee's okay, i guess."

"Could we get him a coffee, please?"

"Actually… what i'd really love is some cigarettes and a pizza."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Brudos." I shake my head, "I'm afraid we can't help you with that."

"Really?" Brudos laughs, "You're FBI, or at least they are," He points to Ford and Tench.

Ford takes a deep breath, "we can get you anything in the commissary."

"Well, fuck you for wasting my time."

Ford looks over to Tench and I, shaking his head, confused, "what?"

Brudos laughs, causing Ford and I to jump, "Just messing with you guys."

"Do you mind if we record?" Ford places the record down on the table, Brudos is sitting at.

"I don't know." Brudos looks over to the guard standing at the edge of the large cage, "Tony, do we mind?"

"You got the paperwork?" Tony shrugs his shoulders.

"This was pre-approved." I look over to Tony.

"Hey, I didn't approve anything." Brudos shakes his head.

"You don't have to do this, Jerry." Tony calls out to Brudos.

"Okay. I'll do it, as long as I know I don't have to." Brudos nods, "oh and that taste thing stays in the room."

I scoff and walk over to Brudos. "We'll take it from here."

Brudos looks over to me, "yeah, Tony, I'm good."

Brudos looks me up and down as Ford clears his throat, "Mr. Brudos… We are conducting interviews with people who've been convicted of violent crimes. What you discuss with us cannot be used against you in your applications…"

"That's your recorder?" Brudos turns and looks at the recorder on the table.

I nod, "electronics these days just keep getting smaller."

"Where's the mic?"

"See that little shiny part on the top?"

"No shit." Brudos chuckles.

"You should see the cameras coming out, they can fit into your pocket."

Ford clears his throat again, continuing, "what you discuss with us cannot be used against you in your applications for parole. We will be asking you about your family history, antecedent behavior, and thought patterns surrounding the crimes you've been convicted of. Our goal is to eventually publish a statistical analysis which will not include your name."

Brudos pretends to snore, "Thought this was gonna break the monotony."

I nod, "We can go straight to the questions, if you'd prefer."

"Please."

"Alright. Why don't we start with pre-crime. Tell me about the day before you killed Laura Sullivan."

"I didn't kill Laura Sullivan."

"You didn't?"

"They never found her body. I was never convicted of that murder."

"Ahh…" I nod.

Ford shakes his head, "but you confessed to it."

"Nope." Brudos shakes his head.

"No body, no crime." I walk back over to the table with Tench and Ford.

"Exactly." Brudos turns to us.

"On…" Ford looks through Brudos' file, "June 27, 1969, you confessed to murdering Laura Sullivan, Jane Weber, and Kathy Schmidt."

"Don't go by that."

"Why not?"

"I was given under coercion."

"It was forced?" I cross my arms.

"I am looking at three consecutive life sentences thanks to an elaborate plot by the Portland PD."

"You pleaded guilty to three counts on murder." Ford shakes his head.

"They drugged me. Beat me. Wouldn't let me talk to a lawyer. Turned away my wife. Told me they'd go after my kids if I didn't confess."

"So you never met Laura?" I lean against the table.

"Yeah, I met her. She was wandering around my front yard."

"Selling encyclopedias." I nod.

"That's right."

"So, that part of your confession is true?"

"Sure."

"You said she was lost."

"It was raining and she couldn't find the right address."

"But you told her that you ordered the encyclopedias." Tench sighs.

"Nope."

"You didn't say that?"

"We got to chatting. She was an aspiring model. Not surprising, she was beautiful." Brudos looks over to me, "a lot like you. I said I'd take some photos of her."

"Is that when you invited her into your garage?" I take a deep breath.

"Yep."

"Sent your wife and children out to get hamburgers." Ford nods.

"I thought we could use privacy."

I scoff, "then you hit her with a two-by-four?"

"Meow…" Brudos chuckles, "Actually, I realized I didn't have any film. I apologized for wasting her time, showed her out."

"Okay." I nod, unbelievably. "You consider yourself a bit of a photographer don't you, Jerry?"

"Got my first camera at 15."

"You're into ladies' fashion?"

"Mm… It's women's fashion, isn't it? You girls don't like being called ladies anymore. I've got my magazine subscriptions, I know what's going on."

"And you subscribe to…?"

"Mostly shoe catalogs. It's my smut."

"So you masturbate to it?" Ford clears his throat.

"That's usually how it works." Brudos chuckles.

I take a deep breath, "what about the photos of your victims?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"The photos the police found in your garage?"

"Did you see them?" Brudos scoffs, "they're sloppy. I didn't take those."

"Actually, we did see them." I nod, picking up a handful of the photos from Brudos' garage and putting them in front of him, one by one, "there's one of them… and another… oh, this one is my personal favorite. But you didn't take these pictures?"

"I don't remember. Ever since the kids were small, I have had these blackouts."

"Hypoglycemia?"

"Yeah, that's what the doctors say. It's low blood sugar." Brudos shakes his head, "I could walk off the roof of a building and not know it."

"So, theoretically, you could have killed these women and not known it?"

"No, no, I didn't kill anyone."

I lay down the final photo, "that's you in the photo." I point to a reflecting image in the picture, "which means you killed her."

"Boy, oh, boy." Brudos laughs, "Kemper was right."

"Kemper?" Ford stands up.

"He said you guys were idiots. But I'd call you fucking morons. Big Ed with his big mouth." Brudos looks up to me, "i wonder why he didn't mention you. I imagine you're hard to forget." he chuckles, turning to Tench and Ford, "I bet you swallowed every fucking line that came out of him. And he must have loved it."

"Wait a minute, as far as I know all his communication is monitored."

"What can I say? Prisons are like knitting circles. Word gets around." Brudos laughs.