That guy had something to hide. I might have scored zero on empathy, precognition, or any of the other psychic metrics, but I’d dealt with plenty of guys like Sledge. Slick, charming, and oh so self-assured. His type always left me sputtering with annoyance, only to think of the perfect comeback hours later while I was brushing my teeth
Luckily for me, Jacob was no slouch in the confidence department—heck, that was probably what had drawn me to him to begin with. And he was also no stranger to questioning scumbags. “Just a routine followup. Shouldn’t take long to make sure the record matches your experience.” As Jacob spoke, he pulled out his phone and tapped open his notes. “You moved out four months ago to live with your girlfriend. Her name was…?”
“Why would that matter? We broke up. Nothing worse than a chick getting too high-maintenance.” He held Jacob’s gaze. Jacob didn’t flinch. I could practically see the wheels turning in Sledge’s mind as he calculated just how far this game of chicken might take him. He gave us her name with a shrug. “Always knew how to make a guy look good in public, but not worth the drama. She’s ancient history now.”
Jacob made note of her. “And the two of you got together, when?”
“What are we doing here,” Sledge chuckled. “Speed dating?”
Jacob didn’t return his smile. “Just filling in the blanks.”
Evelyn and I exchanged glances. At this point, any normal person would have demanded to know exactly which agency we represented and what this line of questioning was all about. ButSledge was unperturbed. “I’d have to check my Insta feed to be sure. Sometime last spring.”
“Was that before or after you split up with Sarah Dombrowski?”
“After.” Had Sledge paused before he said that? There might have been a pause—microscopic enough I couldn’t have said for sure. “Guess that kinda chick just digs what I’m putting out.”
“And what kind of ‘chick’ is that?” Jacob asked.
“Smoking-hot…and totally high maintenance.”
Jacob continued to press Sledge for more info. According to the mailman, there were no other live-in girlfriends. (We’d just see about that.) Sledge claimed he hadn’t mentioned Sarah because he didn’t think it was important, since he was the only occupant at the end of his tenancy, and Sarah had moved out a couple of months before Sledge’s lease was up. “Though if you know where I can get hold of her, you might wanna tell her I found her grandma’s wedding ring.”
“I could pass the ring along for you,” Jacob offered, the epitome of helpfulness.
Sledge smiled, but his eyes were cold. “It’s not as if I carry it around with me.”
“Right.” Jacob didn’t flinch.
But neither did Sledge. He held the eye-lock long enough that I had to lock my knees to keep from fidgeting. Finally, after several excruciating seconds, he said, “Unless there’s anything else…” he grinned and gestured toward the open mail panel. “These slots won’t fill themselves.”
Annoyed at being dismissed, I said, “One more thing—did you get your security deposit back?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I left the place just like I’d found it.”
On our walk back to the car, Evelyn chafed her arms to scrub off the ick Sledge had been emanating. “Sorry you had to endure that,” I told her. “But I could use your take on the guy.”
She paused by the curb and put her hand on a tree as if to siphon off some of the attitude. She took a few centering breaths, then said, “He was enjoying himself.”
Good to know my cop sense was still intact.
“There was a beat,” she said, “when you mentioned his former girlfriend Sarah, that his energy shifted. I wouldn’t exactly call it fear—people like that might not feel fear, not like the rest of us.”
“People like that,” I echoed. “Who are we talking about—psychopaths?”
Evelyn considered her response for a long moment, then said, “No. Sadists.”
I shuddered.
“I’m no psychologist,” she hastened to add. “But psychopaths feel…different than he did. Sledge had plenty of emotions, they just didn’t match up with what most of us would expect. He was excited to see you. He relished stringing you along. And once he got over his surprise that you had information on him that he didn’t anticipate, he was intrigued by the game.”
“And that thing he said about her grandmother’s wedding ring?” Jacob asked. “What was that?”
“A challenge.”
Jacob nodded as if it confirmed his suspicions. “Because he wanted to see whether we were in contact with Sarah or not?”
“I can’t speak to his motivations,” Evelyn said quickly. “In fact, one thing I’ve learned, it can be dangerous for an empath to presume too much. Most people feel pretty much like you’d expect in any given situation: happy, sad, embarrassed, slighted, and so on. That doesn’t even land on my radar. And also, I don’t think much of it when people force a smile when they’re crying inside. After all, everyone’s got an inner life, and it’s our prerogative to choose when and how we want to share our feelings. But I do notice when emotions flare out of proportion to the situation. Or when they really don’t match up with what I’d expect.”
