[He stops for a moment, muscles tense. And then he relaxes until he is holding Mello almost gently. He lovingly sticks out his tongue and runs it along the side of Mello's scar.]

You can't scare me that way, Mihael Keehl. You are only lying to buy yourself time. I know now that you were not strictly a detective, working perhaps off the record. Had Nate River beaten you so badly that Roger would not even give you the case?