Page 113 of Psychopath

Quinn hit the button. “I’m here.”

Zane closed his eyes in a long blink. “Fucking hell, Quinn.”

“If you’re finding it too uncomfortable, we can stop—”

“No.” Zane chuckled lightly. “It’s okay, just don’t go so quiet on me, yeah?”

“Sorry,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me you were claustrophobic?”

“I didn’t want you to think I was unmanly or something.”

Quinn snorted. “I wouldn’t have thought that, and you know it.”

“You might have removed me from the study, though…”

And maybe Quinn would have.

Quinn side-eyed Doctor Hart. He didn’t circle with the curser or stroke his chin as he studied the images in front of him. He glanced back at Quinn and mouthed, “normal”.

Normal.

“Quinn…” Zane bit his lip. “You said you wouldn’t go quiet.”

“Sorry.” He tapped his laptop, bringing up the first file of images. “I’m going to flash some pictures up on the screen in front of you.”

“Okay.”

“I’m here,” Quinn promised.

“I know.”

Quinn clicked the first slide show, and like the day before, the nurses and Doctor Hart grew visibly uncomfortable with the pictures on screen. Quinn didn’t go quiet; he spoke a number before each image appeared, just so Zane knew he was there.

Zane’s expression didn’t change, but his brain function did. It lit up in areas Quinn hadn’t seen the day before, bright and stable when both Harris’s and Richard’s had been fleeting sparks.

“Normal,” Doctor Hart mouthed at him again.

“Quinn…”

“I’m here,” he said. “You good?”

Zane nodded jerkily.

“Next, I’m going to play you some sounds…”

Like with the images, Quinn said a number before each sound began.

Normal.

“And now, a word association game like we played in the sessions.”

Normal.

Zane Black lied with his face and with his words, but his brain, it couldn’t lie.

“We’re all done,” Quinn announced, voice trembling slightly.

He watched through the window as Zane came out of the scanner, and Cleo, Simon and Gemma all rushed to him.

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