“You probably don’t remember the World Trade Organization protests,” Nora says. “You would have been too young. But maybe you know about them? The Battle for Seattle?” She fills in another few grids on her pad before continuing. “It’s hard to imagine, but downtown was a war zone. Now when people watch the news and see crowds chucking bricks and flipping cars and getting beaten by batons, the typical response is ‘I would never do that. Not in a million years.’ But whoever is saying that is not in the streets. They are eating spaghetti at the kitchen table or they’re springing the footrest on the recliner in the living room while watching TV. Do you know what I mean?”

Nora tries to determine if Ashley is listening to her. She still isn’t making eye contact, but her breathing is less panicked.

“A riot—like the WTO riot—works like so: One guy gets angry and screams. The screams make someone shake a fist. The fist makes someone chuck a bottle. The bottle bursts, and all of a sudden somebody thinks it’s a good idea to go wild. A window shatters. A fire catches. Someone who would never normally do such a thing sees dozens of people running out of a looted store and then feels justified in snatching a box of diapers, a two-liter bottle of soda, or a wide-screen television. We all have our threshold, Ashley. We just need permission and a little encouragement to push past it. And then we’re participating in the unthinkable.”

Again Nora says, “Do you know what I mean?” and waits for a response beyond the soft rasp of breath, the rattle of the handcuffs.

Nora is not a talker, but she forces herself to keep talking. Sermonizing. Engaging in a call-and-response. That’s how you get the congregation to lean forward, right?

“Murder’s unthinkable behavior. That’s why everybody acts surprised when their coworker, their student, their neighbor ends up cutting their fiancé’s throat or emptying a Glock into a crowd of people. ‘He seemed like such a nice guy,’ everybody says, and you know what? I bet he was. I bet he was a genuinely nice guy until that moment. He just crossed the threshold. The same threshold that makes nice people riot. Let’s say this murderer got fired or he got bullied or whatever and that’s what made him snap. I’m not scared of that guy. And I’m not scared of you. Because I understand that guy, and you know what, Ashley? I bet, if you talked me through what happened tonight, I could understand you as well.”