His first instinct was to interrogate her and make her tell him what it was. But then he remembered something that Ava had mentioned when they were dancing at the Hometown Heroes Ball. She’d said that the best way to get people to open up was just to let them know that you’re there if they need or want to talk. She said that giving someone a safe, judgement free zone was the shortest line to getting them to talk.
That was a far cry from how he treated suspects. There was a lot of psychology in interviewing someone. It wasn’t as simple as they made it look on TV when they played good cop, bad cop. Or the other that was portrayed a lot was the we-already-know-what-you-did-so-you-might-as-well-tell-us.
He wasn’t saying that those techniques were never used but there were other, more subtle and in-depth methods as well. And Asher had studied three of the most widely used. As a homicide detective, his job had been to solve murders. A huge portion of him being successful or not depended on how much information he could obtain from suspects, witnesses, and informants. He needed to be able to suss out who was lying, who was holding back, and who was being cooperative and truthful.
There was the Reid Technique which was developed by John E. Reid and was popular in the U.S. that relied heavily on factual and behavioral analysis. There was the P.E.A.C.E method which was an acronym for preparation and planning, engage and explain, account, closure, evaluate. And lastly, he’d studied the kinesic interview method which was basically becoming a human lie detector. It involved analyzing a person’s behavior to assess deception.
But, over the past few months, he’d realized that none of those techniques worked on his teenage daughter. So, he thought he might as well try Ava’s.
“You know I’m here if you ever need to talk to me. About anything. And I won’t freak out. I promise. You can tell me anything and I’ll just listen.”
Blake didn’t immediately respond. She just kept looking out the window. He was about to chalk his attempt up to a massive fail when she leaned across the console, wrapped her arms around his arm, and laid her head on his shoulder.
“I love you, Daddy,” she said in a soft voice.
“I love you, too, baby girl.” He patted her knee and she rode the entire way back to the cabin cuddled up against him like she used to do when they watched movies on the couch when she was little.
And when they got home, she hugged him for nearly sixty seconds before disappearing in her room.
She might not have told him what was bothering her, but the technique definitely worked. He couldn’t remember the last time Blake had snuggled up to him or told him that she loved him when it wasn’t a response to him saying yes to something she wanted to do or have.
That had been a totally unprovoked declaration of love and a hug from his fourteen-year-old. And he had Ava to thank for that moment. And, if it were up to him, he would have Ava to thank for a lot more good moments in his life.
