Iris Johansen - Bonnie

“No, I want to finish the sketch first. I’ll follow you when I’m done.” She nodded at Catherine. “And Venable is supposed to be here anytime with a crew to take care of Jacobs. Catherine is going to have to see Venable. She said he’s been very insistent.”

“Whatever you say.” Joe brushed a kiss across Eve’s forehead. “Call me when you’re on your way. I’ll let you know if I can accelerate the processing of that forensic report.” He headed for the door. “And, if you hear from Gallo, I want to know about it.”

Eve waited until the door closed behind him before she turned back to Catherine. “Let’s get back to it.” She picked up the notebook and dropped down in a chair beside the window. “What about the lips?”

“Wide.” Catherine thought about it. “No, a full bottom lip, but his upper lip was thinner. And the left side was a little crooked.”

“Crooked?”

“Not really crooked. Just not the same shape as the right. Is that strange?”

“No, few people are born with perfectly balanced features. Some differences are more noticeable than others.” She sketched in a mouth and turned the notebook around. “Like this?”

Catherine shook her head. “Fuller lower lip.” She sat back and watched Eve make the change. “This is a painstaking business, isn’t it? It’s a lot different than those computer age progressions you did for me when I was searching for Luke.” Memories flooded back to Catherine of sitting beside Eve in front of the computer at her lake house and seeing the photo of her two-year-old son slowly become transformed into the picture of the eleven-year-old he was today. It had been a painful yet poignantly rewarding journey they’d taken together. And the journey to rescue him from his kidnapper had been equally rewarding. She had gotten back her son, and she had found a friendship with Eve that was beyond price. “How accurate is this sketching business?”

“You tell me. You have as much say in it as I do. More.”

“Have you done much of this?”

She shook her head. “When I was in college, I did sketching for a photographer, and after I became a forensic sculptor, I occasionally did sketches for the police department. I’m okay at it, but I’m not as good as the usual police artists. You have to know just what questions to ask and take it from A to Z.” She smiled at Catherine. “So stop blaming yourself. It’s my fault, too, that this isn’t going as quickly as it might.”

“Joe thought I was stalling.”

“Joe doesn’t know what to think,” Eve said. “It’s not that he doesn’t trust you.”

“Yeah? He doesn’t trust Gallo, and he’s tossing me into the same camp.”

Eve couldn’t deny it. “You have to admit that the strength of your support of Gallo is a little strange. He thinks Gallo has managed to exert an influence on you that isn’t logical… or professional.”

Catherine made a face. “He thinks Gallo is some kind of Rasputin?” She stared Eve in the eye. “And what do you think, Eve?”

“I’m the wrong person to ask.” She looked back down at the sketch. “I know that some people have a magnetism that is a virtual knockout punch. I believe Gallo is one of them. Why else would I have jumped into bed with him when I was only sixteen? I wasn’t stupid or careless, and yet I was both with him. For God’s sake, I was in such a fever that I risked getting pregnant.”

“And that’s one of the reasons Joe has problems with Gallo,” Catherine said. “He still sees him as a threat.”

“He shouldn’t. Gallo was in my past. He doesn’t exist in my future.” She looked up at Catherine. “Joe is everything to me. You know that.”

“But Gallo was the father of your child. There has to be some kind of bond.”

Eve nodded. “I can’t deny that there is. That’s why I wanted desperately for him not to have been Bonnie’s killer.” How could she explain it? She moistened her lips. “It’s as if Bonnie… She’s part of both of us. I think she loves both of us. Even though Gallo and I will never be together, I don’t believe she’d want us to- She’d want that bond to be there.” She smiled crookedly. “It’s complicated, isn’t it?”

“Particularly since you’re still not sure that Gallo isn’t involved with Bonnie’s killing.”

“I’m trying to think positive. Gallo isn’t making it easy,” she said. “Is he a victim or the Rasputin Joe thinks him? I’ve been going back and forth like a weather vane for the past weeks.”

“So have I.”

“But now you’re defending him. You’re in his camp. You’ve been willing to fight Joe and me and the whole damn world for him. Why?”

“He didn’t do it, Eve.”

“Proof?”

“Dammit, he didn’t do it.”

“I want proof. I need proof, Catherine.”

“I’ll get it for you.”

“You almost died because Gallo didn’t throw his knife when he should have. Are you going to risk being put in that position again?”

“He didn’t want me to be hurt.”

“How can you be sure?” She gazed at Catherine’s expression, then slowly nodded. “Poor Catherine. He’s got you, hasn’t he? Have you slept with him yet?”

Catherine’s face flushed. “No, I have not. I wouldn’t do that.”

Eve smiled faintly. “That’s what I said when I was sixteen. I had everything to lose and nothing to gain, but it didn’t matter. I did it anyway.”

“I’m not sixteen. You’re my friend, and I got into this to help you. I’m a professional, and I’ll do my job.”

“I know you will. Look, I’m not angry or resentful because you’re feeling the same attraction I felt for Gallo. I don’t have the right to be. I’ve moved on, and so has Gallo.”

“I know that,” Catherine said. “But you could resent my not doing my job in trying to find your daughter’s killer.” She paused and then burst out, “Okay, Gallo does- He makes me feel-” She tried again. “He does have an unusual effect on me.” She finally said bluntly, “He turns me on. Maybe you’re right, and he does have that kind of knockout effect on most women. But I’d never let that interfere. In spite of what Joe said, I wouldn’t be emotional about it.”

Eve suddenly smiled. “You’re being emotional right now. If it wasn’t about Gallo, I’d think it was healthy for you. You’re usually too tough and cool. A little disturbance isn’t that bad. Now let’s get this sketch finished. Then I can tell Joe what an unemotional and crystal-clear professional you’ve been.” She turned the notebook around. “Is this his mouth?”

Catherine nodded. “Very close. But his mouth appeared more taut. It was drawn back from his teeth.”

“Like an attacking animal?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That would change the contour of the face. It would make the cheekbones more prominent. We’ll have to take that into account.” She was sketching quickly. “Nose, mouth, eyebrows. We’re getting there…”

“CHIN.”

“I told you, slightly pointed.”

“But when I showed you pointed, you said it wasn’t right. Think.”

“It looked pointed.”

“Then we must have the contour of the face wrong. Since his lips were drawn away from his teeth, maybe it caused the jaw to shift. Why don’t we try a modified square?”

“Whatever. We’ve been at this over an hour, Eve. It’s all blurring.”

“It won’t when we get it right.” She showed her the sketch. “Modified square. Yes? No?”

Catherine straightened in the chair. “Yes.”

“Chin, mouth, nose, eyebrows.” Eve could feel the excitement growing. “Now we go for the eyes. Shape. Round? Oval? Slanted?”