Sketch of a Murder

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Nita walked into the conference room the next morning juggling travel mug, laptop, and a manila folder. The manila folder made a slap sound as she dropped it on the conference table. She set her cup down and unzipped the laptop case, pretending not to notice the lieutenant's scowl.

"How nice of you to join us, Sergeant Slowater. Did you sleep well?"

A glance up at the clock said she was five minutes late for briefing. She clamped her teeth together, determined not to react to the lieutenant. Everyone else pretended to be engrossed in their computer screens, the occasional click of a keyboard the only sound besides the coffeepot gurgling on the counter. The chair screeched on the linoleum tiles when she pulled it out. "I picked up the computer sketches Mr. Arneau did from Filmore's description. He'll do some computer comparisons later today between the composite he made of Molly's two sketches and the sketch he made from Filmore's description. He said he didn't know if he'd make it to briefing." She sailed the folder to him and sat down. "He made copies for everyone."

The team had given up on the pretense of not listening and was watching the two of them like they were the opponents in a particularly hot tennis match. She shrugged, told herself she didn't give a shit what any of these losers thought. The lieutenant gave her a hard time if she was a few minutes late, but for the last couple of weeks Arneau had drifted into briefings whenever he damn well felt like it. Sometimes he didn't come at all. Damned if she wasn't going to call the lieutenant on that pretty fucking quick.

Lieutenant Williams opened the folder and stared at the computer-generated likeness. "Okay folks, listen up. We might actually have something that smells like a lead. Detective Albert turned up one man, Gregory Filmore at the High Hat, who thought he saw someone follow Westin and the girl into the back hall. Filmore met with Mr. Arneau late yesterday afternoon and they worked off Filmore's description to come up with this."

Nita studied her copy of the sketch while the lieutenant flipped copies down the table like he was dealing cards. "I want everyone making copies of both sketches you now have and I want all of you out there flashing them. Someone in addition to a half-drunk man had to have seen our subject."

He turned to face Dr. Nelson. "Did you turn up anything on the Bureau's databases yet?"

She shook her head. "Still looking. I'll fax this new sketch over to the deputy director." Dr. Nelson tapped a polished nail on the sketch. "See if we turn up anything with it."

***

That evening Nita walked up the steps and found Daniel and Dawn waiting beside her door, holding two pizza boxes, Pagliacci pizzas. How could a woman resist? Now as she tidied up the few remaining slices of the vegetarian pizza with added Canadian bacon, pineapple, and extra cheese, and dumped the empty box from the combo pizza, the other two huddled at the other end of the table, studying a copy of Arneau's computer sketch.

Damn, doing supper with these two is becoming a regular routine. Not sure how she felt about that, she refilled her coffee cup from her dad's battered perculator and wandered to the table. "Well? The slaves have been fed, so I expect results."

Dawn twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her forefinger. "Both sketches look like the same person to me."

He glanced up. "Ditto for me."

Mouth pursed, Dawn studied the sketches. "I swear there's something familiar about this face, like maybe I've seen this person, but..." She spread her hands in defeat. "I don't know how much it's worth."

Nita whirled towards Dawn. "Come on, what do you see?"

"Molly's Ghost has the hands of a pianist. I didn't notice that before." Dawn spoke so softly that if Nita hadn't been standing right next to her she wouldn't have heard the words.