"Come on," she said, and we headed to one of the interview rooms down the hall. In a few minutes a guard brought Halpern in. He was handcuffed, and he looked even worse than he had when we brought him in. He hadn't shaved and his hair was a rat's nest, and there was a look in his eyes that I can only describe as haunted, no matter how clichéd that sounds. He sat in the chair where the guard nudged him, perching on the edge of the seat and staring at his hands as they lay before him on the table.

Deborah nodded to the guard, who left the room and stood in the hall outside. She waited for the door to swing closed and then turned her attention to Halpern. "Well, Jerry," she said, "I hope you had a good night's rest." His head jerked as if it had been yanked upward by a rope, and he goggled at her. "What-what do you mean?" he said. Debs raised her eyebrows. "I don't mean anything, Jerry," she said mildly. "Just being polite." He stared at her for a moment and then dropped his head again. "I want to go home," he said in a small, shaky voice.

"I'm sure you do, Jerry," Deborah said. "But I can't let you go right now."
He just shook his head, and muttered something inaudible.
"What's that, Jerry?" she asked in the same kind, patient voice.
"I said, I don't think I did anything," he said, still without looking up.
"You don't think so?" she asked him. "Shouldn't we be kind of sure about that before we let you go?"

He raised his head to look at her, very slowly this time. "Last night…" he said. "Something about being in this place…" He shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know," he said. "You've been in a place like this before, haven't you, Jerry? When you were young," Deborah said, and he nodded. "And this place made you remember something?"

He jerked as if she'd spit in his face. "I don't-it isn't a memory," he said. "It was a dream. It had to be a dream." Deborah nodded very understandingly. "What was the dream about, Jerry?"
He shook his head and stared at her with his jaw hanging open.
"It might help you to talk about it," she said. "If it's just a dream, what can it hurt?" He kept shaking his head. "What was the dream about, Jerry?" she said again, a little more insistently, but still very gently. "There's a big statue," he said, and he stopped shaking his head and looked surprised that words had come out. "All right," Deborah said. "It-it's really big," he said. "And there's a…a…it has a fire burning in its belly." "It has a belly?" Deborah said. "What kind of statue is it?"