You know, I sort of hired this really sweet guy today. It was pretty funny when he first came into the office. He must’ve had some kind of brain fart, ‘cuz he just stopped and stared at me, and then these words fell out of his mouth: “God, you’re beautiful!” It was sooo hard not to laugh, especially since he looked like a tomato in his face when it hit him what he’d said, and I swear he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole. I said something like, “Why, thank you, you’re not bad-looking either”, which he wasn’t, and he just stammered something about that he didn’t mean what he just said, but he did, but I looked really smart too. Then, I couldn’t hold it together any longer, and I just laughed out loud. Poor guy, he didn’t know where to look. That’s when I saw this glint in his eyes, this shadow over his face, that he must’ve gone through something really traumatic just recently, and I felt really bad for laughing at him, so I apologized and told him I wouldn’t tease him anymore. That apparently just startled him even more, and I decided to try and start all over again, as if the previous minutes hadn’t happened. Anyway, when we started talking business, I wanted to know if he was, you know, like that guy says in ‘Men in Black’: “Best of the best of the best, SIR!”, and he didn’t want to say it, so I’m kind of hesitating, ‘cuz I really don’t have the time to coax people – and then I sort of just falling off the chair, ‘cuz he starts to tell me everything about me and how I feel about the situation – AND IT’S JUST SPOT ON!!! I couldn’t believe it, but I hired him on the spot. Can’t let this treasure trove of a psychologist get away when I have this massive case on my hands. I think it was the right decision, ‘cuz he has great talent for analyzing the M.O. and he actually found the weekday pattern in the different murders. I didn’t expect him to. Plus, he’s nice, even though he tries to keep his distance and not talk about personal things, but I got him to open up a little bit at least during lunch. There’s something huge on his mind that he tries to not think about. I wonder what it is. If I can get him to trust me and open up to me, I might be able to help him. Anyway, I did a stupid thing and invited him here on Friday for game night. I don’t know why. Probably just because he looked so lonesome and hurt, and stupid Allie can’t let creatures like that suffer. To my surprise, he actually said yes. I didn’t really think he would, but there was this thing again on his mind that haunted him, and I think game night is going to be a way for him to evade whatever it is that has hurt him. Maybe he’ll like it so much he’ll create a character for himself. That would be fun, and totally unexpected. But I like people, and he might be a nice add-on to the Gang. I look forward to this upcoming week. It’s going to be super interesting to puzzle the case together, and I think Carl will be a great help.
Allie – over and out.