A Criminal's Mind

This Kind of Work

The following morning Ford and I head to the local police station to talk to Detective Barr. As we get out of the car I shake my head, "can we just stay and work this? Do we have to go back to Oregon this week?"

Ford chuckles, "unfortunately, we do. I thought you liked the interviews."

"I do, just not the flights and the drives."

"I get that," Ford nods as we head up the steps.

Once inside an officer stops us, "can I help you two?"

I nod and smile, "we are looking for Detective Barr, we're from the FBI."

"He's just down there, first door on your left."

Ford and I head to Barr's office asking him about what Janet had brought to our attention yesterday. But Barr doesn't seem to have taken it very seriously, "staff politics. Women like that are always looking for a pot to stir."

I scoff a bit, "she seemed genuinely concerned."

"She wasn't married, as I remember."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"She's got extra energy."

My jaw hits the floor and Ford places the back of his hand on my arm as he begins to talk to Barr, "apparently, some parents are concerned, too."

"She said that, but I never saw them."

"Did you follow up at all?"

"There's no victims. No one's pressing charges."

I scoff again, this time very clearly, "he's touching kids. Giving them money for it."

"He's tickling kids," Barr corrects, "that's not a crime. I can't arrest him unless he does something illegal." Barr shakes his head, "I explained this to Ms. Ebner, I shouldn't have to explain it to the FBI. Unless you're gonna start predicting what people do."

"May we see the report?"

While Barr doesn't want to, he gets copies of the report for Ford and I. Once we get to the office, we take it straight to Tench. "Why am I reading this?"

Ford looks over to me, "I thought we might look into it."

"A foot tickler?"

"It could be a form of podophilia... like Brudos."

"This guy's a grade school principal with no record," Tench shakes his head.

"People are concerned," I nod, "no one will help them."

"Just one teacher."

"No," Ford shakes his head, "I talked to the superintendent. Some members of the school board have been complaining."

Tench sighs, "kids, we have a stack of applications to review, I don't see your stacks getting shorter."

"I looked at them, all nos."

"No as in, don't even interview?"

"They're greenhorns."

"So were you."

I shake my head, "we need someone to take over transcribing. They're all gunning to talk to lust murderers. They bring nothing to the table."

"Tell Wendy."

"Okay," Ford nods as he gets up, he walks over to his desk and writes 'NO' on a piece of paper and underlines it. "How's this?" he sighs and looks down, "want me to take us to the airport tomorrow?"

Tench shakes his head, "I decided last night. I'm not going." We both look up to Tench surprised, "I'm not going back to Oregon."

I chuckle, "you expect us to interview Brudos alone?"