He was lying. I stood in the back of the interrogation room leaning against the wall opposite to Nathan. Nathan is my new partner, I’ve only been partnered with him for a month. He’s a tall, strong, 29 year old FBI agent, though he acts like a college kid, with almost black brown hair and a knack for interrogation. He was interrogating a man for the murder of a young girl. He claims he has nothing to do with the murder.
“Seeing anything through the ‘eye of truth’” Nathan said turning to me and putting air-quotes around eye of truth.
“Yes, he’s lying.” I said flatly adjusting my eyepatch
“I’m not I swear!” The suspect yelled. “I didn’t even know this girl!” He yelled, his voice turning high-pitched as he pointed at the picture of the little girl in front of him.
“Lying again.” I said taking a deep breath seeming uninterested.
“How can you tell I’m lying? There’s no lie detector sitting in front of me.” He motioned toward the metal table in front of him.
“Ok, let me tell you how I can tell.” I walked over to the table and pulled out the extra chair and sat in it. I have a plan for when suspects ask this, i tell them the truth, they thinks it’s absurd “I have magic eyes, This one,” I said pointing to my right eye, a.k.a the blue one, “sees the truth, so I know when you’re lying.”
“It’s like a lie detector.” Nathan said
“This eye,” I pointed to my left eye that under my eyepatch, “sees justice.” I said dramatically
“What does that even mean?” The suspect asked.
“It means I know if you should be locked up.” I said.
“I thought if someone commits a crime they just get put in jail?” The suspect asked
“Not if I see that you would positively contribute to the world if not sent to prison.” I explained.
“How do you know?” The suspect asked. I looked at Nathan, he shook his head a little.
“That’s top secret.” I said, he seemed to believe me so I cracked a smile and went back to my spot on the wall. Nathan laughed a little for good measure. We’d only been partners for a month but I already knew I would like him more than Steve.
“Do your thing.” Nathan whispered into my ear.
“I don’t need to, he’s not contributing anything to society outside of jail.” I said
“Wait what!” The suspect said sounding panicked, “I will contribute! I’m a good man! Please don’t send me to prison I’ve done nothing wrong!” He yelled.
“Lies,” I said cooly “take him away.” I opened the door and said to the policemen outside. There was a man there in a suit who wasn’t there before. The policemen came in and took the man away. After a few seconds Nathan looked at me.
“You’re not going to do the thing?” He asked pointing to his left eye.
“Nah, I’m going to let them take care of it this time.” I said
“Okay.” Nathan replied. “You want to get some grub?” He asked motioning to the door. I nodded in response. We walked out of the interrogation room to the hallway. We were stopped by the man in the suit.
“Agent Gray and Agent Fisher, I’m here to tell you about your next mission.” The man said stiffly
“Proceed” I said trying to sound official, I realise I just sounded stupid.
“In San Francisco there was the murder of a couple in a popular date spot. We have reason to believe that the murderer is copying the murderer referred to as Zodiac.” The man said.
“Cool!” I said looking at Nathan excitedly. He didn’t respond. I realized that was out of place and I cleared my throat, “I mean that sounds interesting.”
“How do they know he’s not the real Zodiac, and he’s a copycat.” Nathan asked
“They know he’s not the original because his shoe size is different from the original. The murderer also sent the police a letter in the same code as the old Zodiac, he referred to himself as the next Zodiac and challenged officials to find him.” The man responded. “There is a plane waiting for you at the airport. It will take you to San Francisco where you will meet with the police there and team up with their detectives.”
“Haven’t they caught the suspect?” I asked
“Not yet but they’re hot on his trail.” The man said
“We’re not really used for the search. We won’t be much help with it.” I said a little confused.
“They need all the help they can get, and it will be good to have you there to get it over with sooner.”
“Okay, thanks for the brief but we have a plane to catch.” Nathan said walking around the man. I followed him and we walked to the car. We climbed in, Nathan driving and myself in the passenger seat. He started up the car and started driving. “Why were you so excited when he mentioned the Zodiac?” Nathan asked breaking the silence.
“During my training and testing period, I had to do research papers and stuff on famous killers like Zodiac and Dahmer. I was always pretty interested in Zodiac more than some of the others.” I said
“Cool, can I ask you another question?” He asked
“Sure” I said
“How did you make it into the FBI so young?” He said, I thought for a second.
“I mentioned before the testing and training period. That was from when I was seven until I was 18. When I was six my eyes changed and I go my powers. My parents freaked out and sent me to be tested by scientists a year later. There I met Doctor Kif, he’s a scientist that the government employed to research unexplained phenomena at area 51. I was sent there to be researched and was assigned to me.” I said but Nathan interrupted me.
“You grew up in area 51?” He asked excitedly
“Yeah, now let me finish.” I said “I was just tested on for three years until someone came up with idea to train me in law enforcement, so I was half trained half tested on for 8 years until I was able to join the FBI.”
“I have two questions.” Nathan said keeping his eyes on the road. “First, What kind of tests did they do?” He asked
“Like fake interrogations to see if I was faking at first then it was eye exams and fake interrogations and from then on it was eye exams and Dr. Kif and I goofing around and talking.” I responded
“Second, are the rumors about there being aliens in Area 51 true?” He asked, I laughed then I quickly turned serious.
“I’m not authorized to tell you.” I said trying to stay serious, I cracked a smile. “Okay, but seriously I can’t tell you anything about the inside of Area 51.”
“Okay, I sort of expected that.” He said, “I want to meet this Dr. Kif.”
“You might, I’m going to visit him after this mission.” I said “Now I want to know about you.”
“Okay, but my life isn’t nearly as exciting as yours,” He said
“You think testing is exciting?” I said slowly.
“Well it’s not as interesting.” He said “ I grew up in New York, was really nerdy as a kid, my dad was a police officer and my mom was a nurse. I did pretty well in school and after high school I decided I wanted to be a police officer like my father. I My mom made me go to college so after college I went to training and joined the NYPD, after a few years I caught the eye of the FBI and they recruited me. Now I’m here, stuck with a 20 year old girl.”
“Ha! very funny.” I said, he cracked a smile. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the small town.
“I never asked you where you got that nice camera.” Nathan said
“My parents gave it to me, it’s one of the only things they gave me.” I said looking at the camera.
“Well it’s really nice.” He said. We got to the airport and got out of the car. We went through security and went to our private jet that FBI provided. On the plane Nathan and I talked for a little then I found out that he likes video games, like me, so we stopped the conversation there and played Halo against each other for the rest of the flight, I won by the way.
The plane landed and we were met by another stuffy looking man in a suit.
“Welcome to San Francisco.” Suit-guy said, Nathan opened his mouth to speak but the man got to filling the silence first. “I’ll take you to the police station.” Nathan and I nodded. We followed the man to a big black SUV and got in. We drove for an hour until we got to what I assumed was the police station because of all the police officers... and the sign. The building was one story and the entire front of it was made of buildings and concrete columns. We walked in through the front door. The inside was a very open layout. It was a big cubicle farm with people moving about talking and getting papers from the printer. We followed suit-guy to the police chief’s office in the very back of the building. He held the door for us and we walked in. Suit-guy closed the door while walking out.
“Are you the people from the special FBI program?” The Chief asked.
“Yes, we are.” I said before Nathan did, I’ve kind of started a rivalry with Nathan, he doesn’t know about it yet but it’s still fun.
“Good, we need your help.” He said
“I’m going to have you working with one of my best detectives to find the suspects.” The Chief said.
“We may not be much help during that stage of the process.” Nathan said.
“Well, we need all the help we can get.”
“Understood,” I replied.
Then a man popped into the Chief’s office. He had sandy blond hair and looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties.
“Sir, I found something.” The man said energetically
“Ah yes Peter, just the man I wanted to see.” The Chief said, Peter stepped into the office and smiled. “These are the people from FBI who are shadowing you.” Peter’s face dropped.
“But sir, don’t you want to hear what I found?” Peter asked disappointedly.
“Tell your new friends.” He said leaning back in his chair and motioning to Nathan and I.
“Yes sir” Peter said “Okay, come on guys I’ll show you around.”
We followed Peter back out to the big room. He spread out his arms.
“These are the offices.” He said, he pointed to a closed door which I assumed had a room behind it. “Break slash printer room.” He said, he looked around once, “and that’s about it. Are you guys hungry?” He asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Let’s go get some food.” Nathan said
“Sure,” Peter said “Do you want pizza?” He asked me.
“Of course.” I said.
We went with Peter to get some pizza. We went to one of his old school friends pizza place. The pizza was really good. We payed for our pizza and went back to the station. When we got back, everyone was walking around talking and congratulating this one man who looked very detective-like. He had short grey hair and blue eyes. Peter walked up to a man about his age.
“What’s going on, Ben?” He asked.
“Lassiter caught a suspect for the Zodiac case.” Ben said.
“Wow nice, do they think he’s really the killer?” Peter asked.
“Yeah, he seems to be the guy.” Ben replied
“Well, it’s good he’s off the streets.” Peter said.
I looked over to Nathan.
“I think it’s out time to shine.” I said wishing I had a pair of sunglasses to put on for dramatic effect.
The Chief walked up to Nathan and I.
“You two are needed in interrogation room one.” He said. Nathan and I nodded and followed him, Ben and Peter to the interrogation room. Nathan and I went to the interrogation room while Chief, Ben and Peter went to the viewing room behind a one sided mirror. The interrogation was small and had a rectangular metal table in the middle of it with a bar attached to the top. There was three metal chairs pushed under the table, two on the side facing away from the door and one facing towards it. Nathan and I sat in the two chairs facing away from the door. I heard the open and I turned around. There was a man in the doorway with his hands behind his back and two police officers holding his arms. They guided him to the chair across from Nathan and I. They cuffed him to the bar on the table.
“Which interrogation should we do?” Nathan asked. I thought about it for a second while looking at the suspect.
“Shortest interrogation ever.” I replied.
“Good choice,” Nathan said, he turned to to the suspect. “Have you ever been in an interrogation?” He asked
“I felt like I was being interrogated by the man named after the dog when he was bringing me here but besides that I haven’t.” The suspect said, I giggled.
“You mean Lassiter?” The suspect nodded, “ they must call him Lassie” I said to Nathan
“So you’ve never been to formal interrogation.” Nathan said, the suspect nodded. “This interrogation will be different from every interrogation you will go to in the future. It will be short and sweet, like this girl right here.” He said putting his hand on my head
“Hey! I’m not that short.”
“Don’t lie to yourself.” Nathan said quickly. I huffed and sat back in my chair. “Okay, continuing with the interrogation. Did you have anything to do with the murder of this couple?” He asked pulling a picture of both people out of his pocket. The man thought for a long time, staring at the pictures. He looked nervous, sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead.
“No,” He said shakily. Nathan looked at me for the results.
“He’s obviously lying,” I said “I barely even needed my eye.”
“What’s this about an eye? I’m innocent!” He yelled as the officers cuffed his hands back behind his back.
“Wait, I’m going to look to the actual murders in his mind.” I said grabbing my eye patch.
The guards pushed him back into the chair and I switched the eye patch.
I looked right into the suspect, now known murderer’s, eyes and waited for my eye to gain access to his memories. I didn’t see anything but black until I was in a dark road with a green Prius parked in front of me. Two men ran up to the car and pulled out knives. one of them pretended to need directions, his voice was familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. The couple got out of their car and the two men pounced on them. I tried to run over to help the couple but I couldn’t move. I wanted to leave the memory and not watch these two innocent people get killed but I needed to know who the second man was. One of the men I knew was the suspect we already knew, he killed the girl and the other man killed her boyfriend, I couldn’t identify him. That changed when he turned his head to investigate a noise he heard in this bushes. It was Ben, the man Peter was talking about Lassie with. I forced myself awake.
Half my face was freezing. I peeled it off of the metal table and wiped the drool off of my face. I noticed Nathan was holding back a hoard of concerned cops who wanted to know why the little girl randomly passed out after looking into the suspects eyes for a while.
“What did you see?” Nathan asked
“I saw there was another murderer. This man only killed the female.” I said, I noticed Ben sneaking out of the room.
“Did you see a face?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah, it was that guy Ben.” I said, there was a wave of shocked mumbles and whispers. “He’s trying to escape so now might be a good time to go after him.” The cops dispatched and ran after Ben. I got up and ran after them because Nathan went with them and I didn’t want to be alone in the interrogation room.
Ben ran through the police station throwing papers and office supplies in a trail behind him trying to shake the cops chasing him. He tried to run through the door but there were police officers hiding behind columns waiting for him.
They tackled him to the ground aiming guns at him. Peter arrested Ben. He’s stuck with life in jail for resisting arrest and murder.
Now I’m at the airport waiting for them to fuel up the plan, writing this letter. I’m on my way to see you but I thought I should email you. I know that this email is more detailed than the rest, but my pen pal, Lucy, told me about a project she’s doing where she has to write a short fiction story. I know that this isn’t fiction but my life is crazy enough for it to seem fiction. The plane’s almost fueled up and I need food so I should probably go. I’ll see you in a few hours.
With love,
Megan