A Criminal's Mind

Brudos

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 many escaped. 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 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 everything we have and 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 than 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," Tench 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 shrug.

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?"