The Talk
Chapter 11
As he sat in his office, Daniel pretended to be busy with his school work while he waited for Kate to finish her phone conversation with Donnie. He purposely tried not to eavesdrop, especially since it was obvious they were not talking about anything that had to do with the Yuss murder investigation. At last she hung up.
"Everything alright in the homefront?" asked Daniel, still keeping his head down, as if he were more interested in the piece of paper in front of him.
"Oh yes, fine. Donnie just called to say he was getting restless at home and anxious to get back to work," Kate said, "He just wanted to know where I put his car keys. I purposely hid them so he couldn't go anywhere while he's recuperating. But of course, it just makes him complain more about being cooped up in the apartment."
Kate pursed her lips, looking unhappy.
"So Donnie is pretending he had been home all day," Daniel said out loud what she had been thinking.
"Yes," she said, and didn't care to say more, meaning the subject was closed.
Daniel decided to approach it from a different angle.
"Are you going to ask Donnie how he was able to stay in bed AND meet with Yuss on the bus at the same time?" he asked.
Kate sighed, "Daniel, we don't even know if that was Yuss he met up with!"
"But he did lie, Kate."
She shrugged, "if I confront him, he could just deny it."
"But he's hiding information from you," Daniel pointed out, "and he is still considered a sus-...never mind."
"A suspect;that's what you were going to say, isn't it?" she finished his thought for him, "the only problem is...I would have to tell him where I got this information and I don't think I want to do that."
"What? So the reason you're not confronting Donnie is...you're trying to protect me?"
She didn't deny it, "In a roundabout way, yes."
Daniel looked pleased.
"Thanks for that, however, you do need to get him to talk, Kate. There are so many holes in this investigation; it's like Swiss cheese. Maybe the agent part of you could think of a cleverway to get him to admit he had not been home all day and maybe that will lead to him to telling you whatever errand he was on, which in turn will make him reveal who he had met up with on the bus."
"So in other words, trick him," she surmised.
"You do it with suspects all the time," Daniel was quick to point out.
"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?" she asked him, "besides, like I had mentioned before, I have some evidence that swayed me that Donnie probably wasn't involved in the killing."
"I'm open to whatever proof you have of Donnie's innocence," Daniel challenged her.
Kate reached down and began rummaging through her briefcase. Finding what she wanted. She placed a tape recorder on Daniel's desk.
"Is this the recording of call that Larry Stevenson made to 911?" Daniel asked.
She nodded, before adding, "And it's proof that Donnie was unaware of the shootings that took place that morning."
The recording went:
"911. What's your emergency?"
(There is a sound of footsteps. A door slams.)
Larry's desperate voice came through loud and clear, "This is Larry Stevenson at the DA's office, building B!One of our workers, Gene Yuss has gone mad and he's shooting at us! Help me!"
"I'm sending units now. Can you get somewhere safe?"
(There is some yelling, followed by the sound of a door bursting open)
Larry sounded frantic, "He's already shot Mary Ann, Donnie...nooooooooo!"
(A shot is fired.)
The 911 operator's voice remained calm, "Mr. Stevenson?"
(No response.)
She attempts again, "Mr. Stevenson?"
(Footsteps running away and then silence.)
Kate then shuts off the recorder.
Daniel and Kate were quiet for a time as they contemplated the last few seconds of Larry Stevenson's life. The silence was deafening.
Kate put the recorder away.
"As you can hear from the 911 call," she pointed out at last, "it appears from Mr. Stevenson's distraught call that Yuss acted alone. He, Mary Ann and Donnie were definitely meant to be tragic victims of a shooting. Therefore, whatever you witnessed on that bus, it could nothave been Donnie conversing with Yuss."
"I'm glad," Daniel stated quietly, "for your sake."
He seemed so sincere. Kate looked at his caring expression and some sweet emotions churned inside of her.
"Thank you," she said.
He looked puzzled at her words, "Thank you?" he repeated, "for what?"
"For being there for me instead of berating me for not acting like an agent," her voice slightly trembled. She wasn't used to being so vulnerable.
This time she purposely reached out to touch his arm, to feel his strength in hope that some of it would rub off on her, too.
For Daniel, he had a different reaction. It twisted his heart because he knew she and Donnie would soon be married.
"You know I will be there for you, Kate. After all, we're friends." It was difficult for him to get the last word out.
"Daniel, I know you have some doubts about Donnie, but I want to, no, need to trust him," she tried hard to get her point across, "Donnie and I have been through so much."
But Daniel certainly had his doubts when it came to Donnie. Donnie had acted strangely at the hospital and then once home, he had snuck out, met up and then handed over something suspicious to a man who eerily resembled a killer. But Daniel didn't feel like talking about all his suspicions with Kate.
"You know, Kate," Daniel said, feeling uncomfortable about the entire situation, "Donnie's lucky to have someone like you."
And he truly meant that.
She gave him an uneasy smile.
"I sometimes feel that way, myself," she admitted, "especially lately. It's the same kind of feeling I had the first time when he...well,... when he cheated on me during our first marriage. Back then, however, I did work crazy hours and he promised he had changed," she shook her head sadly.
Daniel felt awkward talking about these thoughts with Kate. He knew he could not be objective.
"You were good to give him a second chance, Kate."
She shrugged, "Maybe, but after all this, I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do. It's all comes down to one thing for me; do I trust him? And the answer is, I have to, because otherwise I would have to leave him for good."
She had never been so forthright with anyone before. It was hard for her to admit her former failures and her self-doubts now. But she knew Daniel would understand.
"I get that, Kate," he said softly, "and you shouldn't be lied to by anyone, because the worst part of being lied to is knowing that you weren't worth the truth."
Tears surfaced in her eyes, "Exactly."
Daniel couldn't stand it. She was breaking his heart.
Just then, his office door opened and Max stuck his head in.
"Doc, you ready to go?" Max asked him.
He looked awkwardly from Daniel to Kate. He noticed immediately the tension in the room.
"Yeah, Lewicki," said Daniel, standing and putting on his coat, "Just give me a second."
Max stepped in and greeted Kate as Daniel was now shoving papers in his briefcase and Kate worked to recover by saying how allergies really make her tear up.
"Oh, by the way," Kate told Daniel, "there was one more thing about that phone call I had with Donnie. I told him I would go to work late tomorrow and stay late because on top of all the work I need to do, Internal Affairs is breathing down my back, too."
Daniel tilted his head, puzzled, "Uh, okay. And you're telling me that...because?"
"Because,Daniel" her eyes lit up with mischief, "... I'm letting Donnie know I'll be working late. That means he'll be free from until late evening tomorrow to do what he pleases. That'll give you a second chance to watch him run his 'errand'.
Max instantly got it, "Alright! That means another stakeout!"
Kate is wonderful and brilliant, Daniel smiled. He appreciated the fact that though she hoped Donnie was innocent of everything, the agent part of her was putting her faith in Daniel that he'd either prove her right or wrong.
And he would not let her down.
"You really arean excellent agent, after all, aren't you?" Daniel was still smiling.
"It's only because I know how to pick the right people to assist me," she sounded grateful as she looked at Max and then Daniel, "and Daniel?"
"Hmmm?"
"Have a good lecture tomorrow."
.
The next day, Daniel looked around at the roomful of eager, young minds as he began his lecture.
"Let's say," he theorized, "that you are at a bus stop. The bus arrives and there you are, juggling your groceries, school books and your laptop. It's quite an ordeal for you. Then a stranger comes up to you and says, 'Here I'll help you. Let me hold your laptop for you."Do you trustingly hand it over to that person?"
"Only if you want your private information eventually deleted," a person with a cool name that Daniel couldn't remember, volunteered, as everyone chuckled.
"The part of the brain responsible for trustworthiness is the amygdala," he pointed to a diagram of the brain and the two hot spots known as the amygdala, "And these two almond-shaped groups of nuclei helps us determine whether or not to trust someone. In fact, it is critically important to us that we can tell whether a face is trustworthy even before we consciously are able to study it, or to know that person."
"So knowing who to trust is like a sixth sense?" Phyllis asked.
"In some ways," Daniel responded, "but it's more scientific. The amygdala in your brain works quickly to decide if you should trust a person. That is because when you're confronted with a threat, you want to be able to act quickly and so therefore the amygdala is processing trustworthiness as if it were a threat, which it is. In other words, the amygdala works to keep us safe, to give us the best chance of surviving a bit longer, which may mean keeping away from untrustworthy people."
"So why didn't it keep me away from this horrible date I had last Tuesday?" student Lorena asked, amid some chuckles.
Daniel smiled, "That's where we get into the science of 'gut-feelings'. Untrustworthy people can spark a sense of unease, but that feeling can be overridden. More elaborate processing in your mind can occur which is conscious on our part. It involves lots of cognitive processes such as memory, reasoning and emotional attachment. So trust your initial reactions until a person can prove or disprove their trustworthiness to you through their behavior."
He lectured for another half an hour.
"Before I assign the homework, I need the person in the red shirt to awaken," he stated, acknowledging the student who always seemed to nod off, as a few snickers could be heard.
Anderson quickly sat up, "What? Did I miss something?"
"You've missed my lecture on trust, Mr. Anderson," Daniel explained, "so I decided to summarize it quickly for you."
From behind his lectern, Daniel held up an empty drinking glass for the entire class to see, "Pretend your hand is the amygdala and it's responsible holding this drinking glass, which in this case, represents the feeling of 'trust'."
He then let go of the glass he had been holding.
CRASHHHHHH!
Immediately it went crashing to the ground, shattering in many pieces.
No one breathed a word.
"Trust is very delicate, isn't it?" he rhetorically asked, "so if you only remember one thing today, keep in mind that trustis like that glass on the floor...once it's broken, it can't be repaired. It can only be replaced."
.
With the lecture over, Daniel put his papers in the briefcase and quickly strode out of the classroom. He looked at his watch; he had run overtime. And where was Max?
When he got into his office, he noticed a phone message from Max. Strange that Lewicki hadn't shown up in the class this morning. Reading the 'While You Were Out' pink paper was the message 'Important!' from Lewicki. Daniel picked up his phone and dialed Max's cellphone.
Max picked up immediately, "Doc! Doc!"
"And what happened to you, Lewicki?" Daniel stated, "I didn't see you earlier at my lecture. Getting sick and tired of them already?"
"Nothing like that, Doc!" Max stated, sounding very excited, "It's happening again!"
Daniel scowled, "Happening again? What are you talking about?"
"Doc, it's our person of interest..." Max whispered it, as if he were telling Daniel a confidential secret, "He's leaving the house again with that backpack and he's headed in the same direction as last time!"
Daniel couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice.
But this time he would not blow it with the person most important in his life.
"I'm calling Kate!"
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