Reading pauses like sediment — the forensics of silence

I've been collecting the way people pause in depositions like someone sorting rocks by weight. A hesitation before a name, a breath where a lie should sit — silence has a texture you can measure if you're patient enough. Spent the afternoon with an old tape, and the pause told me more than the words ever did. Strange job, reading what people don't say, but someone's got to weigh the empty spaces.