Strangely Familiar

"I've got a school girl crush on Heikens' leading man, James Julius that just won't quit. And I can't wait to see what this smart, sexy, offbeat rebel does next. Keep writing Heikens!" Lisa Cerasoli, Award-winning Author and Filmmaker ---- Luis steps to my table, flicks his Ray Ban Aviators and says, “What's new with that whacko kid you cuffed last week?” I tilt my head. “Troubled kid.” Luis grimaces, sitting back in the booth. “You call stabbing her uncle and gouging him in the eye a troubled kid. She’s bonkers. Did she also have a dragon tattoo?” “Could be something like that. Maybe she was getting revenge.” “You don’t think that’s screwed up?” “Of course it is, but you have to wonder why she stabbed him.” “I don’t. It’s a crime, black and white. Her reasons don’t matter to me.” A Botero-shaped waitress approaches. “You boys want beer mugs or you gonna drink out of the pitcher like the cops from St. Paul.” ”I’m from St. Paul. Gimme a pitcher of Ultra…and one iced mug, for my dandy here,” I say. … She squints one eye. “I’ve noticed a quirk in my sexual harassment cases that may be relevant. Sexual harassers have an uncanny ability to target the most vulnerable female in the workplace. It’s as if they instinctively know some deep dark secret about the woman—something that is not public knowledge.” “You’re bullshitting me.” I shake my head sideways. “No. Perpetrators sense stuff they can’t possibly know. As if they have a homing device for picking out a certain type of female. There are lots of other women in the workplace, but the guy finds the one who was most vulnerable.” “How often? Two or three times?” “More like 75% of the time.” “That’s impossible. How could they?” “No idea.” The conversation lulls, until I ask, “Are you suggesting that the kid is like a perpetrator—she picked up on the guy's vulnerability and targeted the victim because she suspected he was vulnerable?” “No. The opposite. Usually, the female is the vulnerable one, but it may go both ways. I’m saying that sometimes we all know stuff, but we don’t know how we know it.” … “Don’t most kids go through a phase of magical thinking where they think they can read minds?” “I didn’t. Did you?” I shrug. The Story After stabbing her uncle, fourteen-year-old Amy explained that she “saw into his mind” and knew he intended to hurt her. James Julius arrests her and doesn’t buy her “telepathy” story, but he has doubts about the uncle’s innocence. When Amy’s lawyer is stabbed in a similar manner and she vanishes, Julius must go below the surface. Julius is a brash, hard-nosed detective who believes that crimes are solved by the facts…especially when hashing them out over nice Irish ale with Luis, his former partner. As Julius probes the co-incidents, he begins seeing things that others don’t see and hearing voices when no one’s talking. These sensations may be side effects of shutting down his own emotions—a long-time job habit. However, they also point to an unconscious link between perpetrators and victims. Fellow cops label him unstable, but with the help of Sarah, a sassy lawyer, he uncovers a hidden connection between the uncle’s therapy center and the juvenile justice system. When the police chief suspends him, Julius becomes a temporary journalist and continues his investigation, undercover. Julius is forced to recognize that we unwittingly broadcast emotional pain that may be picked up by strangers, who have had similar experiences. As Julius pries open this emotional Wi-Fi link—it becomes clear that solving this crime goes beyond the facts on paper and hi-tech tools: he must tap into his own empathy to locate the real victim. Similar Pain Makes Us …Strangely Familiar thru Emotional WiFi