More Twisted

apparently approached a fellow prisoner due to be released from Capitola and tried to bribe him to run an errand after he was free. Pell told him about some evidence he’d disposed of down a Salinas well years ago and explained he was worried that these items would implicate him in the unsolved murder of a wealthy farm owner. He’d read recently that Salinas was revamping its water system. This jogged his memory of the items he’d ditched and grew concerned that the evidence wouldbe discovered. He wanted the prisoner to find and dispose of it.
    Pell picked the wrong man to enlist, though. The short-timer spilled to the warden, who called the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators wondered if Pell was talking about the murder of farm owner Robert Herron, beaten to death a decade ago. The murder weapon, probably a claw hammer, was never found. The Sheriff’s Office sent a team to search all the wells in that part of town. Sure enough, they found a tattered T-shirt, a claw hammer, and an empty wallet, with the initials R.H. stamped on it. Two fingerprints on the hammer were Daniel Pell’s.
    The Monterey County prosecutor decided to present the case to the grand jury, and had asked CBI agent Kathryn Dance to interview him, in hopes of a confession.
    Dance now asked, “How long did you live in the Monterey area?”
    He seemed surprised that she didn’t immediately begin to browbeat. “A few years.”
    “Where?”
    “Seaside.”
    A town of about 30,000, north of Monterey on Highway One, populated mostly by young working families and retirees.
    “You got more for your hard-earned money there,” he explained. “More than in your fancy Carmel.” And examined her closely.
    His grammar and syntax were good, she noted, ignoring his fishing expedition for information about her residence.
    He continued, “And now my home is beautiful downtown Capitola.”
    Dance continued to ask him about his life in Seaside and in prison. Observing him the whole while: how he behavedwhen she asked the questions and how he behaved when he answered. She wasn’t doing this to get information—she’d done her homework and knew the answers to everything she asked—but was instead establishing his behavioral baseline.
    In spotting lies, interrogators consider three factors: nonverbal behavior (body language, or kinesics), verbal quality (pitch of voice or pauses before answering) and verbal content (what the suspect says). The first two are far more reliable indications of deception, since it’s much easier to control what we say than how we say it and how our body responds when we do.
    The baseline is a catalog of these behaviors exhibited when the subject’s telling the truth. This is the standard the interrogator will compare later to the subject’s behavior when he might have a reason to lie. Any differences between the two suggest deception.
    Finally Dance had a good profile of the truthful Daniel Pell and moved to the crux of her mission here, in this modern, sterile courthouse on a foggy morning in June. “I’d like to ask you a few questions about Robert Herron.”
    Eyes sweeping hers, now refining their examination: the abalone shell necklace, which her mother had made, at her throat. Then Dance’s short, pink-polished nails. The gray pearl ring on the wedding band finger got two glances.
    “Where were you living in January of 1996?”
    “Monterey.”
    “What street?”
    He pursed his lips. “Beats me. North part of town, I think.”
    Interesting. Deceptive subjects often avoid specifics, which can be checked and which you can recite back to them later if they offer a contradictory statement at trial.And it was rare not to remember where you lived. Still, his kinesic responses weren’t suggesting deception.
    “How did you meet Robert Herron?”
    “You’re assuming I did. But, no, never met him in my life. I swear.”
    The last sentence was a deception flag. Once again, though, his body language wasn’t giving off signals that suggested he was lying.
    “But you told the prisoner in Capitola that you wanted him to go to the well and find the hammer and wallet.”
    “No, that’s what he told the warden.” Pell offered another amused smile. “Why don’t you talk to him about it? You’ve got sharp eyes, Officer Dance. I’ve seen them looking me over, deciding if I’m being straight with you. I’ll bet you could tell in a flash that that boy was lying.”
    She gave no reaction, but reflected