A Death in the Family

Chapter 6

Rosie Cortez was a slender young woman in her late 20s. With a bit of color to her caramel colored skin and her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, she appeared to be sharp and intelligent-which she was.

Today, she was doing another sketch, another case that the police wanted a face for... Another potential suspect. She parked across the street from the witness's house and cut the engine as she gathered her supplies all shoved haphazardly into a totebag on the passenger seat of her gray SUV.

Shouldering the bag, she exited the car and made her way up to the porch knocking briskly on the door.

The man who answered appeared to be a little older that she was with short brown hair, an average looking face and appeared to be slightly overweight.

"You must be the artist." He sighed. He reached out to shake her hand. "Richard Solomon." He led her inside, "Fern is in the bedroom."

Rosie entered the master bedroom to find an equally average looking woman with equally nondescript brown hair lying in the bed. She was wearing a sweatshirt despite it being almost halfway through March. Rosie introduced herself.

"I'm Rosie. They sent me to see if I could get a sketch of what you remember of this potential suspect." She never pushed, she found people actually remembered less or their description was inaccurate. She never wanted to put words in their mouth.

Fern nodded slowly and shifted herself in the bed, Rosie immediately noting her swollen abdomen-clearly pregnant.

Richard brought a chair and Rosie sat down taking her supplies out of her totebag. Settling her sketchbook on her knee, she began talking in a soft, friendly voice.

"So tell me about this man you saw your neighbor drawing."

Fern sighed then slowly she began to speak.

"He was average... Average build and looks."

"Long hair or short?" Rosie asked as she put pencil to paper.

"Short," Fern answered, "but kind of medium length... Sort of wavy."

"Can you describe his face?" Rosie continued.

"I only saw a profile, but I remember he had a prominent nose, sort of hooked and he had a pimple on his cheek. That was Lana," Fern smiled, "she always had an eye for details."

"How would you describe the shape of his face?" Rosie asked as she continued to sketch, filling in the details as she went. She could start from anywhere and come out with a full drawing.

"Like a slender oval, I guess." Fern replied frowning, "but it was hard to tell from the angle most of what stood out to me were his nose and his chin, sort of protruded."

"What about his eyes?" Rosie continued.

"Kind of narrow, like he had a far away look... As if he wasn't really paying full attention to what he was looking at."

"His mouth?"

"Thin and straight, he gave his chin a receding look." Fern murmured.

Rosie made another change to the drawing, her hand moving quickly.

"His eyebrows?" Rosie asked, going back to the top of the drawing.

"Thick, but not bushy." Fern answered after a moment.

"Lastly, what type of clothes was he wearing?"

"A beanie and a bulky looking sweater-I don't know what color it actually was. It was that thicker knit, I remember Lara had drawn the knit itself... Cable knit, I think."

"I think that's all I need." Rosie replied as she finished her last pencil stroke. "I'll finish this up and get it to the precinct as soon as I can so they can find this guy."

Saying a final goodbye to the couple she left. Rose still had a lot of work to do on the sketch, she had to finish the shading and she thought it wise to do a profile as well since that was what Fern had originally seen. She was going to be up half the night with this one, it had been a while since she had such a big assignment.

Later the following morning, Rosie arrived at the precinct. After asking to speak to Sgt. Douglas at the front desk the detective sergeant came down ruddy faced and harried; clearly he was busy today.

"Ah, Rosie! Good to see you! You have the sketch, I trust?"

"Yes sir." Rosie replied as she handed him the folder with the sketches inside.

"Good, good."

"Look, I got a minute let's see what you got." He ushered her in the direction of the nearest conference room.

Throwing down the folder on the table over they satisfying "phump" Sgt. Douglas sat across from her and flexed his fingers as he opened the folder.

"Excellent!" He said as he flipped through the sketches and the face of the potential suspect glowered shrewdly at him from the paper.

He extended a hand.

"Another excellent job, and we'll see what comes of it."

He stood.

"Good to see you. Hate to shove you out the door but I got a suspect interview and witnesses coming in for a lineup-all in the next 20 minutes."

"I understand, sir." Rosie replied as she gathered her bag and prepared to leave.

"Right, then." Sgt. Douglas mumbled then he nodded to Rosie and bustled away in the direction of his office.