We've grown up surrounded by beauty ideals that promised confidence, but often delivered shame.

In a special episode of a millennial mind, I sat down with Nicola Adams to explore how appearance-based

compliments and body talk shape our self-worth without us realising it. In partnership with the

Dove Self-Esteen project, we unpack the tools to change the conversation for

ourselves and for future generations. Listen now and download the free body confidence journal

at Dove.com forward slash Y2K. The Case of the Serial Killer by Mark Thielman from the

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine May May, June, 2020 edition.

I used a 10-pound bag of organic, gluten-free cake flour as a pillow.

It wasn't goose down, but it seemed pretty soft.

Maybe it was the absence of glutons.

Maybe I felt too tired to care.

I laid on top of my Kennebuk costume with the flower for my head. On farms, the

Kennebik is a fast-growing, late-matured potato. Here it had served as a pad to help me catch some sleep.

I rested about as comfortably as a guy could if one happened to be stretched across a palette

in the back room of the Natural Nation Food Emporium. My potato suit sagged into the

breeches between the boards of the pallet. My legs lay on the chill floor. Still, I got some sleep

until the scream woke me. The last few days had been long. I had spent my nights in the stockroom

of a track and court athletic wear store at a mall on the edge of Lubbock, Texas. I'm a

licensed private investigator. Someone had been sneaking expensive sneakers out the back door after

hours. Selling hijacked shoes is a good way for a retail clerk to supplement his check. The store

manager had hired me to catch the thief. I had signed up for two nights of surveillance because I

had to be in Durango,

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