Chapter 10 #2
Alyssa had been targeted not that long ago by a drug cartel. If anyone understood what Katherine was going through, it was her.
Jasper still didn’t like Katherine having to describe what she remembered of the man, but a sketch might help.
The corridor camera showed the two of them emerging from the common room.
Alyssa stepped out first, holding a sketchpad, and Katherine followed a moment later with Priss in her arms. Even through the camera feed, Jasper saw the tension in Katherine’s posture.
Her shoulders were squared. Her chin was up.
She looked like someone walking through a room full of trip wires and refusing to let anyone see her count them.
He was out of his chair before Vivi said anything. “My turn to counsel her.”
Vivi nodded. “She needs you.”
Jasper met up with them halfway down the corridor. Alyssa hailed him, tucking a strand of her long, blond hair behind her ear. Katherine stood beside her, holding Priss. The cheek bandage was gone, and a slim red scratch marred her cheek.
Alyssa smiled as he approached. “We’ve got a working version.”
“Can I see it?”
“It’s the best I could do,” Katherine said. “But it’s not enough.”
“It’s more than enough,” Alyssa said, laying a hand on Katherine’s arm. “You gave me the head shape, eyes, mouth, and the visible part of his cheek structure. That’s substantial considering the mask.”
“It doesn’t feel substantial.”
Alyssa gave her an encouraging smile. “Memory never feels substantial after trauma. It feels like smoke until we give it edges.”
Katherine glanced at her, and gratitude moved across her face.
Jasper kept his attention on Katherine. “Are you okay?”
She hesitated, and that hesitation told him more than any answer could. The sketch wasn’t just evidence to her. It was a door back into the bedroom. “Yes,” she said finally. “But I need you to understand that I might be wrong.”
“That’s why it’s a lead, not a conviction.”
Alyssa’s mouth curved faintly, approving.
She turned the sketchpad toward him. She’d drawn him as Katherine remembered him—mostly hidden by the dark ski mask—but what was visible made the back of Jasper’s neck prickle.
The mask fit tight against his head, suggesting little hair beneath.
His heavy brows pushed out over narrowed eyes that had a flat, watchful quality.
His upper lip was thin, the lower one fuller, and his mouth was slightly asymmetrical.
Alyssa had shaded only the visible portions around the mask line, enough to suggest a long face and lean cheek structure.
Jasper looked at the mouth and thought of Katherine saying, I’d know those lips anywhere.
His anger sharpened. “That’s good,” he said.
Katherine shook her head. “The mouth is right, yes, but the eyes.. I don’t know. They’re close, but I’m not certain about the distance.”
Priss was purring, kneading Katherine’s arm. Jasper scratched behind her hear and the cat leaned into his caress. “We can work with close.”
“I want exact.”
“I know.” He stepped nearer, and Priss reached one paw toward him to bat the sleeve of his shirt. “But close gives me somewhere to start.”
Alyssa angled the pad back to Katherine. “We’ll do another pass tomorrow if you want. Sometimes the brain gives back details after sleep.”
Katherine’s laugh was small and dry. “Sleep seems optimistic.”
“Rest, then,” Alyssa said. “Your brain doesn’t care whether you call it sleep as long as you stop interrogating it for a while.”
“Good luck with that,” Jasper murmured.
Katherine frowned at him, and for a second, the strain in her face softened. “Are you telling me to stop working?”
“You need rest.”
“And you don’t?”
Alyssa tore out the sketch and handed it to him. “I’ll leave this with you unless you want me to deliver it to Blackridge PD.”
Jasper took it, studying the man’s eyes again. “I’ll send them a copy.” He would scan it into his system. Detective Mallory would be thrilled. “Thanks for doing this, Lyss.”
“Any time. Mack’s waiting in the conference room.” She turned to Katherine. “I’ll see you tomorrow after work for that second pass.”
Katherine offered a half-hearted smile. “Thanks.”
Alyssa touched Katherine’s arm again. “You did well, Katherine. Really.”
Katherine looked as if she wanted to argue with everyone in the building for continuing to say that. Instead, she nodded once. “Now if only it helps catch the bastard.”
Alyssa exchanged a look with Jasper. She knew how important it was for a victim to find empowerment again. “It’s one more step in the process and wouldn’t be possible without what you just did here.”
Alyssa gave a small wave goodbye and left. Katherine remained where she was, Priss tucked against her chest. “I keep thinking about his mouth,” she said. “That’s terrible, isn’t it?”
“Not at all.”
“He said that thing about the archives, and I remember his mouth moving. I remember the shape of it more clearly than his eyes, which seems absurd, because eyes are more useful.”
“Your brain kept what it kept.”
“That’s what Alyssa said.”
“She knows her job.”
Katherine glanced toward his office door. “Have you found anything?”
“Not enough.”
“That means yes, but you don’t trust it.”
He almost smiled. “You’re getting good at translating me.”
“I’m an archivist. Difficult texts are my specialty.”
He let the moment breathe because she’d made a joke, and they both needed it. “Come see what I have.”
She followed him into the room, where Vivi had left the second mug of tea beside his keyboard. Katherine’s attention went to the monitors, moving from the sedan image to the Caldwell file to the contract data now filling the right screen.
“Legacy Shield,” she read aloud.
“Vivi’s contacts gave it to her. Upton chaired or advised on classified review boards tied to the program. Caldwell’s firm worked a support contract connected to it.”
Katherine shifted Priss to her other arm and stepped closer. “Legacy review, archival transfer, historical risk mitigation. Those are containment terms.”
“Yeah. Vivi said one of her contacts described Upton as the man they send in when the past becomes inconvenient.”
Katherine’s gaze swung to him. “That’s exactly what my dissertation was about.”
“I know.”
“And what they used against my Cinder flag.”
“Looks like it.”
Her brow furrowed. “If Upton’s tied to Legacy Shield and Caldwell’s firm supported that program, then Caldwell may not be a retired anomaly in Vance’s papers. He may be part of the mechanism.”
“My theory, too.”
“He was supposedly out of operational work by 1995, but Vance’s memo had him handling a secondary asset interview.”
“Which means the official file is wrong or intentionally misleading.”
“Administrative encryption.”
“Your favorite.”
She gave him a look. “It’s not my favorite.”
“You light up when the paper trail gets ugly.”
“I absolutely do not.”