“I was at your and Sean’s apartment and picked it up. I know you haven’t seen the place, but it’s really nice. I’m glad I got to see it before you trashed it like your truck. Speaking of major landfills, ever think of cleaning your Toyota out? I mean just from the perspective of preventing bubonic plague.”
“My truck might be a little messy, but I know where everything is.”
“Yeah, about two hours after I eat spicy Mexican I know what’s inside my colon, but that doesn’t mean I want to see it. You want to read the letter from your parents? It might be important.”
“If it were, they would’ve reached me some other way.”
“Do they keep in touch with you?”
Michelle crossed her arms. “So is this parents day with the shrink?”
Horatio held up his notepad. “It says right here that I have to ask.”
“I talk to my parents.”
“But you almost never visit them. Although they’re not that far away.”
“Lots of kids don’t visit their parents. It doesn’t mean they don’t love them.”
“True. Do you feel like you have a chip on your shoulder being the only girl and your big brothers and father being cops?”
“I prefer to think of it as healthy motivation.”
“Okay, do you like the fact that you pretty much can physically dominate any man you come across?”
“I like to be able to take care of myself. It’s a violent world out there.”
“And being in law enforcement, you’ve seen more than your share of that. And it’s men who commit the vast majority of violent crimes, isn’t that right?”
“Too many men tend to lead with their muscle instead of their mind.”
“Do you still want to hurt yourself?”
“You have the most awkward segues of any person I’ve ever met.”
“I like to think of them as something to wake you up in case you were starting to doze off.”
“I never wanted to hurt myself in the first place.”
“Okay, I’ll just check that one off in the ‘I’m lying my ass off’ box, and we’ll move on. So what do you see as the problem? And how do you think I can help you?”
Michelle looked nervously away.
“It’s not a trick question, Michelle. I want you to get better. I can sense you want to get better. So how do we get there?”
“We’re talking, isn’t that something?”
“It is. But at this rate I’ll be long dead and buried and you’ll be sucking your dinner through a straw before we figure out what makes you tick. There’s no rule against going for the point of least resistance.”
Michelle blurted out, “I don’t know what you want from me, Horatio.”
“Honesty, candidness, a real desire to participate in this exercise we call soul-searching. I know the questions to ask, but the questions don’t help if the answers to them mean nothing.”
“I’m trying to be honest with you. Ask me a question.”
“Do you love your brothers?”
“Yes!”