In an anonymous essay of 1731 entitled, “An Effectual Scheme for the Immediate Preventing of Street Robberies and Suppressing all Other Disorders of the Night”, which some have attributed to the British novelist Daniel Defoe (of Robinson Crusoe fame,) it was recommended that, “Taking the pulse of a suspicious fellow was a practical, effective and humane method for distinguishing truthfulness from lying”. It took almost one hundred years for the idea to catch on.
While Dr William Moulton Marston was testing his invention, a device designed to measure systolic blood pressure, his wife noticed that her blood pressure increased when she was under stress or lying. This led Marston to investigate using blood pressure readings as a lie detector. In 1917 he wrote the essay, “Systolic Blood Pressure and Changes in Deception”. He did not, though, stay in the lie detection business. Instead he went on to write comic books. His most notable creation was the character, Wonder Woman, who famously carried with her the Lasso of Truth, a golden rope that, when it ensnared an evildoer, made it impossible for him or her to lie.
Harry let Feather watch as he unpacked and set up his Dermograph 793 polygraph – The Beast. Most polygraphers these days have opted for the 4000 series that are just little boxes that hook up to a laptop but Harry preferred the drama of the rolling paper and the dancing needles that the 793 provided. The truth that Harry never admitted to anyone was that he agreed with liedetector sceptics about the validity of the polygraph. The test was certainly not infallible. His own experience was a testament to that. Its real purpose was as an intimidation device, a prop that fooled the interviewee into believing that Harry could read their mind. The more a subject believed in The Beast’s effectiveness the greater the chance of getting a confession – then who cares about the test?
Right away Harry knew that Feather was going to be a difficult subject. He wasn’t intimidated by The Beast at all.
“Hey, Obi-Wan—”
“My name is Mr Cull.”
“Hey, Mr Cull,” Feather said, “can I get one of those machines – like on eBay?”
Harry wanted to lie but it was a bad way to start an interrogation, so he sighed and said: “Yes.”
“Doesn’t that piss off you professional polygraph guys that anybody can buy this shit?”
Harry didn’t answer as he placed the two respiratory sensors around Feather’s chest. He pulled them tighter than necessary hoping it would dampen the crack dealer’s mood.
“Ow. Hey, I bet you’ve gotten drunk and polygraphed people at parties at your house. Haven’t you?”
Harry was applying the blood pressure cuff and said: “Quiet, I’m calibrating.” He didn’t need silence but he certainly didn’t want to answer that question.
Lastly, Harry clipped on the dermal-retention sensors to Feather’s fingertips. Normally he would have also placed a motion sensor under his subject’s thighs but that was mostly to detect thumb tackers. Thumb tackers were subjects that placed a tack in their shoe, under the big toe, and applied pressure every time they answered a question. It was a pretty good way of confounding a test but the seat sensor usually spotted it. Since this test was sprung on Feather spontaneously Harry knew he hadn’t had time to slip a tack in his shoe. Also, Feather was such a bouncy guy the motion readings would just confuse things.
Right from the first question, Harry knew he was going to have to work for this one. “Is your name Eugene Isla?”
“Fuck,” Feather said. “Do I have to answer that?”
“Yes. Is your name Eugene Isla?”
“That’s what my mother called me.”
“Yes or no, Eugene.”
“Yes,” Feather said grudgingly.
“Are you also known as Feather?”
“I’m happy to be called anything other than Eugene.”
“Are you also known as Feather?” Harry repeated, letting annoyance creep into his voice.
“Yes.”
“Do you live in Oaktree, Pennsylvania?”
“All my life.”
“Yes or no. Do you live in Oaktree, Pennsylvania?”
“Yes.”
These questions were known as IRs or Irrelevant Questions. They were used for baseline readings, but this subject’s baselines were all too calm for Harry’s liking. Feather wasn’t taking this seriously. Harry needed to sober this boy up.
“Have you ever heard of the high risk of heart attacks, stroke, or cerebral aneurism associated with high blood pressure?”
“What?”
“Has a doctor,” Harry went on, “ever told you that you had dangerously high blood pressure?”
It was gratifying to Harry to see Feather’s systolic rise at the mention of his dangerous blood pressure.
“What does that thing say? Is my blood pressure high?”
“Just answer the questions, Feather. This will all be over soon and then we can talk.”
“Have you ever stolen money?”
This, in the trade, is what is known as a CQ or a Control Question. These are questions that almost everyone has to answer in the affirmative but answering them makes the subject uncomfortable. It is to these answers that the RQs or the Relevant Questions are compared. The problem was that Feather had no problem answering the CQs.
“Sure.”
“Have you ever stolen from an employer?”
“Yeah.”
The next question was: “Have you ever taken drugs?” but Harry skipped that considering Feather had taken drugs in his presence a few days ago. Harry improvised. “Have you ever deliberately hurt someone?”
Bingo, Harry thought as he marked the increases on all three sensors: sweat, breathing, and BP.
“Yes, but not for a long time.”
“I want you to lie for me now, Feather. Do you live in Scranton, Pennsylvania?”
“Yes.”
Harry noted with his felt pen the jumps on the Dermograph’s readout. “OK, back to telling the truth. Have you sold any illegal drugs in the past week?”
“You know what? I know this shit is inadmissible in court but the dealer in me just won’t let me say that in a police station. So forget any questions like that. I’m not going to play hot and cold with you until you pinpoint my meth lab… if I had a meth lab. So ask me what the fuck you brought me in here for.”
“Do you own a shotgun?”
“No.”
“Have you ever called Big Bill Thomson from the payphone next to the Oaktree supermarket?”
Feather hesitated, “Yes.”
“Did you call him from there this week?”
“No.”
“Did you call Kevin Sweeney from the same payphone this week?”
“No.”
“Would you know any reason why someone would want to hurt Big Bill?”
“I don’t.”
“Would you know any reason why someone would want to hurt Kevin Sweeney?”
“Not a fucking clue.”
“Did you kill Big Bill?”
It was the first time Feather looked directly at Harry. “No, man.”
“Did you kill Kevin Sweeney?”
“No.”
“OK, Feather, we’re done here.”
“Hold on, man, I want you to ask me one more question.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Feather,” Harry said as he began to remove the dermal sensors from his fingers.
Feather pulled his hands away. “Shit, man. Haven’t I cooperated? I just want you to ask me one little fucking question. What could it hurt?”
He looked deadly serious, and Harry thought, What could it hurt? He sat back down.
“All right, what do you want me to ask you?”
“Well, two of my buddies have been killed, right? So I want you to ask me if I’m worried if I will be next.”
Harry was glad he wasn’t hooked up to his own machine because that question shocked him. “Do you think you are in danger?”
Feather didn’t hesitate. “I fucking do.”
The sensors on The Beast didn’t even wiggle.
* * *
Cirba and Captain Kutter were waiting for Harry outside the interrogation room. They had been watching through the one-way mirror.
“Well?” the captain asked.
“NDI,” Harry said using the acronym meaning No Deception Indicated. “I don’t think he killed anybody, and I believe that he’s wondering if he’ll be next.”
“Yeah, that’s what it looked like from here,” the captain said.
“And the only thing the search turned up at his house was the slugs,” Cirba said. “I’d feel petty busting him on that.”
“You know, I think your Feather is cleverer than he lets on,” the captain said as he walked away.
Harry followed him. “Captain, you wanted to talk to us about Enterprise Estates?”
In reply the captain said: “Mr Cull, have you had lunch?”
“No, sir.”
“Then let me buy you boys a meal.” He started walking, forcing Harry and Cirba to catch up. “If you’re wondering why I didn’t ask your partner if he had eaten, it’s because Cirba has never turned down food, no matter when his last meal was.”
“I’ve learned this, sir.”
“I’m right here, you know,” Cirba said.