perdreprise:

iq—187:

        _{Expertise lay not in the actual conversations he maintained, but the disposition of the other party relaying the words. Tucked lip — a sign of anxiety, unwillingness to proceed verbally. Hands, like his own on occasion, indicated both introversion and hesitance. A reluctance to divulge information, or even disclose the thoughts currently clouding one’s mind.}        

        _{Reading people, reading books — all relatively simple. Many bore their print plainly on their face, and some below their skin. Either way, literature served as an ample distraction from reality when the buzz and blood of society grew too much.}

        _{Speech trailed quietly into observational silence. Interviews were rarely performed alone, especially in a case left so vague. No names, barely a conflict to work forward from. All that could be extrapolated were the words he could only hope she would provide.}

        _{Knuckles knocked against each other, laced into a loose fist, and then rocked in a hover above the face of his desk. Take it slow — taking her current complexion and behaviors into account, one wrong move might fracture the ice he walked upon.}

        _{Lips parted, remained so, but his eyes fell to the hurriedly organized files splayed out on his desk.}

        _{❝Miss Andy Crew —❞ His brows furrowed thoughtfully between his eyes, and he weighted his chin against his recently freed right hand — index tap, tap. ❝Says here you’re — eighteen?—— Eighteen’s a difficult age… Filled with plenty of things that might and do go wrong.❞}

                                      _{❝Is —— that the case?❞}

    _{She watched his movements and caught herself trying to memorize them, understand them. But immediately stopped herself, when he said her full name. Shoulders tensing up even more at the way they flowed from his mouth. Almost defensively, she caught herself commenting on the way he said it.}

                                               _{“I know it’s a boys name.”}

    _{That was all the explanation she thought was need before she took a deep breath and tried to remove the numbness in her fingers, stretching them slowly. Eighteen’s a difficult age. Andy found herself slowly nodding her head, a lot of things had gone wrong already but that had happened since she was born.}

   _{Shifting her seat, his question echoed through her head. Another quick breath and she opened her mouth but shut it just as fast. Knowing that she had to talk no matter how much she didn’t want to, if only she could just stop being so tense.}

                                                             _{“——Yeah.”}

     _{It was such a simple answer but she still felt that it wasn’t enough and she figured he would think the same thing but then again she acted as if she didn’t care. Finding away to explained that answer would probably cause her to slur her words and possible make her say something that could get her killed. But that’s why she was there right? Either way, whatever words she choose to say or not say would end up with that same fault of action.}

_{♟ – Conversation, like a thinned forest, was sparse compared to the river of information he knew lay behind the surface of a misplaced scowl. He could pick apart her composure. Jot down every twitch of her slight frame, or curve of her silent mouth. Enough, almost too much, could be extracted from the unspoken, but there was no danger – no threat – no open wounds, or cases, or bodies unaccounted for that tied to her quiet agreement.}

        _{Despite his stark contrast to those more regularly associated with the age of premature adulthood, Spencer bore witness. Burdening both a blessing and curse of heightened perception, intelligence, he could identify silent suffering. So much was obvious in with the shudder of jittery breath to fill what he assumed to be already aching lungs.}

        _{She was wary. Confiding the darker recesses of one’s secrets to a stranger – one, particularly, bound with a pistol at his waist, and infinite equations bound in his skull – he understood that. People grew nervous on the brink of either a breakthrough or a truth that was yet to meet air with full confidence.}

        _{His right hand flexed, and his fingers flicked outward – every word had already been branded into his thoughts over the course of no more than ten seconds, but reviewing, cautious reevaluation never hurt.}

        _{When he spoke, his eyes hardly flickered from the page,}

        _{❝Well, as a matter of fact, the name Andy is recognized as both masculine and feminine – this stems from the shortening of the popular names Andrew, and Andrea, which are fairly common when it comes to their assumed gender – so,really, Andy, as a name, itself, can usually be classified as – unisex –… that all depends on –❞ Speech faded into attentive silence, both lips pursed into a crooked line. Already, he could hear a chorus of colleagues ushering a unanimous,}

                                                                            _{We get it, Reid.}

       _{Get back on track.}

         _{❝I – can’t seem to pinpoint any major stand outs in your file – are you being – harassed, maybe? Followed, threatened even? Anything you can offer will contribute to my ability to help you – no detail is too small.❞}