FBI - 揭密联邦调查局 - 9

Boylan believes that a witness's memory is as crucial to a case as any physical evidence.

What I would ultimately want would be for police to really protect that memory as evidence like they would any other piece of evidence in case whether it be fingerprints¹ on the murder weapon or fibers².

But when Boylan arrives in Petaluma, Polly's father is skeptical³ that she can help.

She showed up with an entourage of TV producers and FBI agents, and I found it very disconcerting that this beautiful blonde woman being escorted through the police department and being portrayed⁴ as an individual who might very well break the case open. My concern was that they had taken my daughter's tragedy and gone Hollywood with it, because Jeanne didn't seem like a person from the real world to me.

I wish that I was here telling you tonight that we had found Polly and she was gonna be coming home safe.

But Boylan refuses to be distracted by the media circus. She focuses her attention on Polly's friends. Her secret approach is to do the opposite of what a police sketch⁵ artist would normally do.

The usual police process for preparing this composite is just a visit for an artist, or an investigator⁶ to sit down and have an eyewitness⁷ look through a selection of features.

Him, those are the eyes.

You choose eyes, you choose a nose, you choose a chin, etc.

But Boylan says looking at so many faces in the composite book can confuse witnesses and contaminate their memory.

What happens when you sit a crime victim down, and you have them look through a catalogue, the typical catalogue has 960 fore⁸ facial photographs in it. You're taking 960 images, you are overlaying it over that original recall. That's how the distortion and the contamination takes place. If I'm lucky and only if there's a trauma⁹ in the circumstance under which this eyewitness saw the suspect. That information will be encoded deeply into memory and would still be there, but I have to work through all the contamination and try to retrieve¹⁰ that, that deeply embedded¹¹ level of recall.

Because of inconsistencies in the girls' stories, the police suspect that they might actually be covering for Polly.

They have been, basically been called liars¹², the profile that had been drawn¹³ up was that Polly had run away with her boyfriend and that the girl friends were covering up for that in some way. But the girls insist that Polly was abducted¹⁴ by a stranger. In order to get the investigation¹⁵ back on course, Boylan knows she has to gain the girls' trust to get a better depiction¹⁶ of the suspect.

The real secret is, was to create a situation in which both of the kids individually felt that they were in control, and I was a guest on their territory.

One of the ways Boylan gains the girls' trust is to dress like them.

And I put on something that a 12-year-old would be comfortable in being around the plump blue jeans, the sweatshirt, pull my hair back and I just became more like them.

entourage: the group following and attending to some important person; staff

disconcerting: upsetting; that causes an emotional disturbance; disturbing

1 fingerprints   

n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
• They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

3 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

4 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

6 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

7 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

8 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。

9 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

10 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

11 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

12 liars   

说谎者( liar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The greatest liars talk most of themselves. 最爱自吹自擂的人是最大的说谎者。
• Honest boys despise lies and liars. 诚实的孩子鄙视谎言和说谎者。

13 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

14 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

15 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

16 depiction   

n.描述

参考例句：

• Double rhythms, resounding through the lyric depiction and connecting with each other, indicate the thespian place of mankind and the cognition of the writer to this thespian place. 这双重旋律互为表里，表明了人类的某种悲剧性处境以及作家对这种悲剧性处境的感受和认识。
• A realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. 日常家居生活的写实画。