“Hey, I think I recognize you,” you speak as your next interviewee takes the seat in front of you and Jack. He'd already left the prison after a morning visit, but IFA agents were able to retrieve him before he got too far. He has to be inconvenienced, but he seems in a fairly pleasant mood nonetheless.

Jimmy Aexotle pulls his reptilian lips up to a mangled smile. His slim, scaley appearance shines in an odd way in the fluorescent light above the three of you. “Is that good or bad?”

You chuckle. “A little bit of both I guess. You’re from that case six months ago. How’ve you been holding up?” You almost shiver at the thought of what Jimmy’s condition was when you had talked to him after his escape. It was your first case.

He had been abducted after a night out with friends, locked in the basement of his captor with little to no heat or other resources. Since Jimmy's species is cold-blooded, he's weakened by extreme cold, needing light and warmth to function and move properly. Therefore, he was essentially immobile and pliable for whatever his abductor wanted. He was somehow able to escape after three days of imprisonment and was able to point us in the direction of his captor, Cedric Emers. Emers was then arrested and brought to this very jail. He was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping, not to mention charges for murdering five other young victims. You remember him mentioning how helpless and scared he felt, and you wonder if he’s still feeling that now.

Jimmy was the last of six victims, and, although the other five victims' families thanked him for bringing their relatives' murderer to justice, the captor's imprisonment didn’t seem to matter to him. Probably still feeling that sense of hopelessness.

He lowers his head and clenches his fists. “Fine. I’ve been fine.”

You pause and give him a once-over. Just by looking at his body language, you can tell he isn’t telling the truth about that. “Would you mind telling me what you're doing here today?”

“To see the same guy I got locked up.” He utters like his visit is a common thing among victims of a murder attempt.

“Ah, wanting some closure?” you continue.

He nods, feeling both relief that you understand how he is feeling and seemingly with a slight amount of apprehension that you are just trying to get on his good side.

“The warden actually let you visit?” you ask while jotting some notes down, glancing back at Jack from time to time. You think that this guy must know you’re new, perhaps by the way you interrogate in a much more diligent way than Jack does.

The rueful smile returns to his face. “Took a bit of a fight, but yeah.”

“A fight?”

“Visitors could be a security risk,” he shrugs, trying to conceal his anger and frustration—you can tell by his clenched jaw; you assume it’s because he was denied a visitation before this time. “Wouldn’t let me through for a while.”

“What made him accept?” Jack chimes in.

He pauses and shrugs again. He shivers as his arm brushes the metal table, too cold for a guy like him. He brings his arm to his chest and tucks it under his other one. You know the cold is worse for him now after what had happened to him six months ago. “No idea.”

You wonder if maybe the warden had continued to deny Jimmy permission. You wonder if Jimmy might have resorted to murder to get access to Emers.

You and Jack decide that’s all you need from him right now but tell him he shouldn’t go too far. You never know if you could need him again.

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