Bronx Justice. Joseph Teller

started up the machine again. “Tell me,” he said, “before you were arrested on this case, had you ever seen Joanne Kenarden?”

      “No,” said Darren, without hesitation.

      Sandusky marked the paper.

      “Is there any chance your fingerprints might have been found on her clothing or things?”

      “No.”

      Sandusky made another mark and shut off the machine. He stood up, came around to Darren, and removed the blood pressure cuff and other straps. Darren stretched.

      “Seeing as this is your test,” Sandusky said, “are there any questions you’d like me to include?”

      Darren seemed to think for a moment. Then he said, “Yes. Ask me if I’ve even been up in that area the past couple of years.”

      “The Castle Hill Project area?”

      “Yes.”

      “Fair enough. Now, are there any questions you’d like me to stay away from, for any reason?”

      Darren thought again before saying no.

      “Okay,” said Sandusky. “Why don’t you relax. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him. Jaywalker got up and moved back away from the mirror in anticipation of Sandusky’s coming into the observation room, fearful that the light from the opening door might reveal him to Darren.

      When Sandusky did enter, the first thing he did was study Darren through the glass. Darren continued to stretch, humming softly to himself. Sandusky motioned Jaywalker to follow him out of the room. When they reached the conference room, he lit a cigarette.

      “He’s very nervous,” he said.

      “I would be, too.” As soon as Jaywalker had said the words, he realized he was being overly defensive of his client. But that was his job, wasn’t it? Besides, there was something about Sandusky’s observation he didn’t like.

      Sandusky ignored the comment. He sat down at his desk and searched through a drawer until he found the form he was looking for. Then he used it to write out the questions he was going to ask Darren. He inserted them in the blanks for questions 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9. Questions 1, 4, 5 and 8 he left open. He stubbed out his cigarette and stood up.

      Jaywalker resumed his post in the observation room. Darren was singing softly when Sandusky reappeared in the testing room. Jaywalker didn’t recognize the tune.

      “All right,” said Sandusky. “These are going to be the questions I’ll be asking you. Who raped Joanne Kenarden? Do you know who did it? Did you rape her? Did you see her blow you? Did you threaten her with a knife?”

      Sitting in the observation room, Jaywalker was a bit surprised that Sandusky would telegraph the test questions to Darren that way. Wouldn’t springing them on him be a more effective tactic? But the more he thought about it, the more he came around to understanding Sandusky’s strategy. By letting Darren know exactly what questions were coming, he was giving him a chance to build up additional anxiety over the fact that he was going to be lying in his responses.

      “How ab-b-b-bout the question I suggested?” Darren asked.

      “I’m afraid I can’t use it,” said Sandusky, without further explanation.

      Darren looked disappointed by the answer, and perhaps by Sandusky’s dismissive tone, as well. Jaywalker wondered if Sandusky was deliberately trying to agitate Darren by first requesting his input and then rejecting it. But hadn’t he just commented on how nervous Darren already was?

      “Now,” Sandusky was saying, “before we begin the actual test, let’s talk about guilt for a moment.”

      “G-g-guilt?”

      “Yes. Darren, when you were growing up, which of your parents would you say was stricter, was more concerned with teaching you right from wrong?”

      “They were both pretty strict.”

      Jaywalker could believe that.

      “Which one would more likely have told you it was wrong to hurt people?”

      Darren seemed to think a moment before saying, “My dad, I guess.”

      “How about sex education? Which one took more of a role in teaching you about sex?”

      Darren thought again. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “I—I—I learned that pretty much on my own.” Then, when Sandusky didn’t react, he added, “I guess it would have b-been my dad again.”

      “Okay,” said Sandusky. “Psychologists and psychiatrists tell us that hurting values and sexual values are taught to us by our parents when we’re very young, and that deviance from these values is what produces guilt feelings.”

      This struck Jaywalker as mumbo jumbo, double-talk. He had the feeling that Sandusky was deliberately trying to lose Darren here, though he didn’t know why.

      “The problem is,” Sandusky explained, “guilt feelings can interfere with the test.” To Jaywalker, that sounded counterintuitive. Wasn’t the test premised upon the existence of feelings of guilt and designed to ferret them out?

      “So,” Sandusky continued, “when we get started, I’m going to include a couple of questions to eliminate them. One will be about hurting, the other about sex. And by the way, these two questions will be between you and me. I won’t report them to anyone, not even your lawyer. Okay?”

      Darren nodded.

      “Do you know what masturbation is, Darren?”

      “Yes.”

      “What is it?” Evidently Sandusky wanted to be certain.

      “It’s when you p-p-p-play with yourself.”

      “Right,” said Sandusky. “Have you ever masturbated, Darren?”

      “Yes,” Darren admitted.

      Jaywalker found himself feeling more like a voyeur than ever. But it was riveting stuff, and he was beginning to see where Sandusky was going with it.

      “When was the last time?”

      “I c-c-can’t recall.”

      “How old are you now?”

      “Twenty-two.”

      “Well,” said Sandusky, “that makes you pretty old. I guess it would have had to have been when you were ten or eleven, huh?”

      “I g-g-guess so,” Darren agreed.

      Jaywalker’s hunch had been right. Sandusky was building a lie into the test, deliberately coaching Darren to be deceitful when the time came. That way, he would have a control response to a lie, against which he could measure the real responses.

      “Well,” said Sandusky, “you can’t remember masturbating in the last ten years, can you?”

      “No,” said Darren, swallowing the bait.

      “Good. Now, have you ever hurt anybody?”

      “Yes,” said Darren. “I guess so.”

      “Who?”

      “I’ve hurt Charlene, my wife, by saying things.”

      “Can you remember anyone else you’ve hurt?”

      Darren hesitated for a moment. “No,” he said.

      “Okay,” said Sandusky. Once again he attached the straps to Darren’s body and inflated the blood pressure cuff. “Now,” he said, “put your hands on the arms of the chair. Feet flat on the floor. I want you to face forward and close your eyes. As I ask you questions, you just answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” He turned on the machine.

      Jaywalker