Based on everything I’d observed and what Linda Ingersoll had told me, Marie was an archetypal bully and Frank had been the classic wishy-washy enabler. Therefore, it wasn’t likely she was accustomed to direct confrontation and my aggressive stance was intended to exploit that potential weakness. But the longer she stood there, with an invisible comic-strip thought-bubble above her head that clearly said, “Pound it up your ass,” the more I worried that I’d miscalculated. She wasn’t under arrest, so we couldn’t stop her from leaving, yet I knew our only chance to get the truth was by surreptitiously bullying the bully, so I continued to look at her with an expression of bored contempt. Finally, Marie closed the office door and sat down stiffly in the chair.I folded my arms. “Okay, let’s establish the ground rules right now. You lied to us during the first interview and you aren’t going to waste our time again. You’ll answer all my questions honestly and completely.
