A Shadow of Death in The Woods (26 page)

Success depended a lot on what Robert remembered from some days ago. How much would he remember? Well, we would find out tomorrow if I could wait that long.

Chapter 44

The Artist

Brenda had just logged onto her computer to check her email when her phone rang. She checked the number and didn’t recognize it. She let it go to the answering machine. A male voice came on saying, “Hey, Brenda. It’s Mike Randall. I have an urgent job for you. Pick up your phone.” She hadn’t heard from Mike in ages. She didn’t know him well. She had met him through Lydia Harding and she had done police sketches for him a few times. He also bought some of her art. She decided to pick up.

“Hey, yourself. What is happening?”

“I am in southern Ohio with some friends. My friend’s son has disappeared and we are searching for him. We have a witness with a possible lead but we need you to draw sketches of what he has seen. Could you help us out?”

She thought about it. How could she turn down helping parents find their child? Besides she could use the money. She replied, “Sure, I can help. When do you need me?”

“Tomorrow morning at eight o’clock here in southern Ohio.”

“What?”

“Brenda, you heard me. Here in southern Ohio tomorrow morning. Eight o’clock.”

“How can I possible get there by tomorrow morning? Not to mention I have to teach classes tomorrow afternoon.”

“That’s great. We can have you back there by the afternoon. I’ll have a car pick you up at your apartment and take you to the airport. We’ll fly you down here and a car will take you to a motel where we will do the work. After, we will reverse the process and get you back to Pittsburgh to wherever you need to go.”

“Can you get tickets that fast?”

“No tickets required. It will be a private corporate plane. You will fly in luxury. What do you say?”

Brenda thought about this. It sounded like it might work plus she could probably get a sub to teacher for her, if needed. She thought about the little boy. Back on the phone she said, “I can probably get a sub in case I don’t get back in time for class but I would have to pay the sub.”

“Hey, that’s no problem. Just list that as an expense. We will pay all of your expenses, including the sub teacher or teachers.”

“Okay. I guess I can do it then.”

“We didn’t discuss your fee. How much do you want?”

She wasn’t prepared for this conversation. She didn’t want to take advantage of someone searching for his son but she needed the money. She decided to go for her last fee plus a little extra for the short notice. She quoted a figure. It was as much as she could earn in several weeks teaching. Mike surprised her when he agreed immediately with no attempt to negotiate. Then she realized that she could have asked for more but on the other hand she was already feeling guilty about charging parents to look for their son.

Mike said, “Great. The fee is fine. There might even be a bonus in it if things work out.”

“Mike, I feel a little guilty about the fee but I need the money.”

“Hey, no problem. We are just glad you can come down and help us on such short notice. I know you can do a great job and that is what we are looking for. Be ready and I will have a car pick you up at 5:30 in the morning. Sorry about the early hour but we will have breakfast on the plane for you. See you tomorrow.” Mike closed his phone.

He had asked her what she wanted for breakfast. She told him and he said that he would have it ready on the plane. She just hoped it would be a smooth flight so she could eat.

Brenda was in a tizzy. She decided to make some calls to get a sub. First, she needed an excuse. She decided something close to the truth was the way to go. She would say that she was called away to help a friend in an emergency. She would pay them what they wanted and they might want a premium because of the short notice. Mike said that they would pay so that would be all right. She made the calls and found a sub. She hoped that Mike wouldn’t demand a receipt because then she would have to explain to her sub about being reimbursed and that would lead to other factors and her story would unravel. She remembered that Mike worked for a private company plus she thought he had his own security business. She guessed he would be loose on the receipt requirement because the businesses were private. Besides she might be back in time and not need the sub.

She needed to pack for the trip. No, she wouldn’t. What was she thinking? She was only going to be gone part of the day. She wouldn’t need to take any clothes other than what she was wearing. It was hard for her to wrap her mind around flying to another state, doing some art work and flying back the same day in time for classes. It just wasn’t something an assistant professor in an art department ever did. None of the other artists consulted, let alone went on plane rides to consult. That is what engineers did except she didn’t think that they ever flew on a private plane. She was going to be the only passenger.

All she was going to need were her art supplies and her laptop. She needed to check them over and make sure she had everything. Once she was at the motel room she was going to have to have everything she needed to do a first-class job.

She started gathering her tools into a carrying bag. It didn’t take long. She knew exactly what she would need plus most of the work and maybe all of it would be done on her computer. She would flip through facial components and let the witness select the parts, which the computer would integrate together. Technology was great, even for art work. The software she was using was purchased by Mike on another assignment. He always seemed to have money to spend. She still took her paper, pencils and pens because sometimes she liked to sketch the final results in color. It would depend a lot on the witness.

The more she thought about it the more excited she became. It was going to be hard to sleep and she needed to sleep to get up at such a ridiculous hour.

She selected her clothes for the next day and got them ready. She wasn’t going to get up until the last minute. Then she was going to wash, put on minimal makeup, get dressed and be out front for her ride.

Sketching was second nature to her. It came naturally. She drew pictures of people and animals even as a small child. She was so good at it that she got scholarships to go to college. In the end though she made very little money. It was one of the injustices of life.

Normally her life was pretty humdrum but tomorrow was going to be exciting. Especially so if she was able to help them find the little boy. She had heard some on the news about his disappearance and they were asking people to contact authorities if they had any information that might help. Tomorrow would be a big day in more ways than one.

Chapter 45

The Sketch

Bob was driving me nuts, which was pretty amazing since he wasn’t doing anything. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe I was just going nuts. I thought Bob appeared to be tense. It always worried me if Bob seemed to be worried about something because he was the coolest character I had ever met. Nothing seemed to ruffle his feathers. Maybe he was just impatient waiting for Robert Thompson and the artist.

We were sitting in the motel conference room. A car had been sent to collect Robert and another car was at the airport picking up the artist. The plane had landed just a few minutes ago. If things worked out right, both the artist and Robert would be here about eight o’clock as planned.

I had never seen a police sketch artist work except on TV. Our artist was actually an assistant professor at the same university where Lydia worked. She wasn’t really a police sketch artist although she had training in the field. It was my understanding that Mike had found her through Lydia for a special job several years ago. He was thoroughly impressed with her work both as a police sketch artist and as an artist. I think he even bought some of her paintings.

I also knew that he paid her what she considered a lot of money for the sketch work. She probably didn’t make much as an art teacher but I wondered how much he paid her. My thinking was that he was going to pay her a lot for this job, which in the end I would be paying. It was worth it if it would help us find Will. I didn’t care about the money except I was curious about how many years I would be an economic slave to Bob while I paid off the debt.

On a table to the side sat a computer with faxing capability although no one faxed anymore. It was all done with email now but we wanted to be ready for anything. A color printer and a scanner were connected to the computer. We had a stack of paper for the printer, including photo quality paper.

We had plenty of coffee and there were enough donuts to satisfy a decent-sized police department. I had arranged for the coffee and donuts since it was my previous hometown. I contacted my favorite bakery and made sure I would get the Bavarian cream-filled powdered-sugar-coated donuts that I liked. I ordered a lot of them in case some of the others started eating them. I wanted to make sure I got some. Then when they arrived, I ate one so I was ahead of the game but on the way to gaining more weight.

When I ordered the donuts, I ordered a nice cake for Robert and Mrs. Thompson. That made me feel better since we had devoured their cake like a pack of hungry wolves.

I hadn’t gone for a run or worked out because I didn’t bring my workout clothes and running shoes. Also the exercise room at the motel wasn’t set up for guys like me. I needed something more professional. I could have had Mary send my running gear over but it didn’t seem like it would fit in with the other activities. If this went on much longer, I was going to be fat.

While I was eyeballing another donut, Robert walked in with Paul who had gone to collect him. I introduced him to the donuts. I was pleased when he took one of the other kind of donuts. I don’t know why. We had enough Bavarian cream donuts for everyone.

In a few minutes Mike walked in with a nice looking woman who I guessed was in her early thirties. She had the look of someone who was sleep deprived but was pumped on adrenaline. It was my guess that she wasn’t accustomed to events like this. Neither was I.

Mike made the introductions. Her name was Brenda. I liked the feel of her hand when she shook hands. She had a nice business-like grip, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything but it made me feel better.

My role this morning was to stay out of the way and eat donuts. Mike was in overall charge but would leave it up to Brenda and Robert to work out whatever sketches they could. They got right to the work since we didn’t have time to waste.

I was watching intently. I was in awe of people who could draw.

She set up her laptop and opened the software. Paul grabbed a larger monitor and hooked it up to her laptop. That way we all had a good view. Robert and Brenda were focused on the laptop display. Robert pointed to face components that he liked. In a surprisingly short amount of time they had built a picture of the passenger in the car. The passenger was the one Robert had seen the best because the man turned his head to talk with Robert. He hadn’t seen the driver as clearly so that was more problematical.

Since Robert had only seen a profile of the driver, her laptop software wasn’t as useful. Instead she took out paper and pencil and started sketching. She sketched while Robert described what he saw. She used pencil and eraser to capture an image. She sketched the car window as Robert saw it with the two men being framed by the car window. Shortly, a picture emerged that Robert thought captured what he saw.

Paul had pulled up pictures of Honda Civics on the Internet and Robert picked out the one he saw with the right color. Brenda grabbed colored pencils and colored in her sketches, capturing the car color and the color of the men’s hair. She even drew in the car dash, using the Internet pictures.

When done, Robert was very happy. He said it captured exactly what he saw. The two men on the paper were the guys on the street in front of his house a week before Will disappeared. He was very positive.

I was impressed with the pictures. They were clear and detailed. They were also realistic in appearance. It filled me with awe that people can draw like that. Me? I need a camera.

The pictures looked very useful except the driver’s face was not shown. He was seen only in profile. This couldn’t be helped. We could capture only what Robert saw.

The work seemed to be wrapped up. Brenda had to get back to Pittsburgh so Mike took her to the airport. Before he left he and Bob talked quietly off to the side. Later I found out that they had agreed on a bonus for Brenda. I agreed that was the right thing to do. She had done an outstanding job on very short notice. Paul took Robert home.

The next question was what were we going to do with the pictures? I had been giving this a lot of thought and had briefly discussed it with Bob. We didn’t think it would be good to plaster the photos all over town for a couple of reasons. First, the police weren’t going to like our involvement. It was better if our work could remain undercover or at least not so public. Second, posters might drive the guys we were looking for underground and we would never find them. We therefore decided to work quietly if there was a way of doing so. Bob deferred to me on this since I had lived in this city for a time and had ridden with local bikers. Did I have any connections that could help?

My immediate thought was Woody. Woody was a friend who would help if he could. He also had contacts with the rougher elements where I didn’t. I proposed that we go to Woody’s Bar and Grill for lunch. We could talk about contacts there. It was going to be late so it wouldn’t be crowded and Woody ought to be there. It was during his normal working hours. Just to be on the safe side I gave Woody a call about ten o'clock.

Woody was glad to hear from me and expressed his concern about Will being missing. I told him what we had in mind and that we wanted to come over for lunch. I guessed we could be there about one o'clock. Woody got all excited and said he would have hamburgers, steaks or whatever we wanted. I told him that hamburgers would be fine.

None of us had eaten anything since breakfast other than donuts. We didn’t finish the donuts because I had bought so many. We gave them to the motel staff along with free coffee, making us heroes in the minds of the staff.

When Mike got back from the airport and Paul was back from dropping Robert off, I would drive us to Woody’s bar.