Chapter 3 #2
David shrugged. “I always do, and nobody ever says anything, but maybe it depends on what kind of relationship you have with the law here. Still, I would go for it,” he added, with a smile. “I just had one.”
Hayden nodded, got up, and walked over to pour a couple cups.
Nobody said anything or even really noticed, so he figured it was standard fare for anyone in the office.
As he sat down, giving her one cup, he saw that the two of them had already started, which was good because the sooner they could get something, the better.
She went on for a couple minutes, just trying to describe the guy.
David nodded. “Let me get a few things down.” As he started to work on the facial features themselves, she made a few corrections, then a few more, already had a decent image in front of him.
She stared at David. “I didn’t think it would be possible to get that close, though something is not quite right about the eyes.
I don’t know what to say about them,” she noted, frowning as she considered the drawing.
He took the features that they had and changed the perspective.
“Oh, okay, yeah. Now make that a little lighter.” As she gave more details, the sketch artist seemed quite happy with the drawing when they were done.
“That wasn’t so bad, huh?” he asked her.
“It was easier than I thought it would be,” she admitted. “I wasn’t sure what to expect.”
“Nobody ever is, but we try to make it as simple as possible. The details are in your brain. It’s just a matter of getting them out and putting them down on paper.”
She got up and walked around, then came back, looked at the picture a couple times, and noted in frustration, “The eyes—they still aren’t quite right.”
“How so?”
“They were a little beadier, a little narrower. He was always glaring, but it was—” She winced and then raised her hands in frustration. “I don’t know what this would look like if somebody asked me to draw it, but all I can think of was how he had a feral look to his gaze.”
The artist stopped. “When you say feral …”
She hesitated, then looked at Hayden, who nodded in support. “He was looking forward to hunting me,” she explained. “And his obvious enjoyment—that gleam of what was to come, I think—is the thing that freaked me out the most.”
“Yeah,” David agreed. As he kept working, he whispered, “Psychopath.”
“Yeah, that’s how I felt about it,” she murmured back.
He nodded. “Some really strange people are in this world, and, for the bulk of us, we never really encounter them. Then all of a sudden you come across somebody like that, and it’s hard to understand how on earth they could possibly survive as they are, but somehow they seem to.
” He shook his head. He kept sketching, and suddenly he stopped and turned to her. “How about that?”
Taking a sip of her coffee, she set it down, then turned and looked, gasping audibly. “Oh my God, that’s it. Oh, Christ.” She backed up several paces, staring at it with a horrified expression.
He looked at her and nodded. “In my field that’s considered a good reaction.”
“I don’t know about a good reaction,” she began, her hand at her throat, “but, Jesus, I don’t want to see him again.”
“And hopefully you won’t have to,” Hayden stated. “If this works out as planned, you don’t have to.”
She nodded several times, but it was obvious that the picture truly bothered her.
Hayden got up, walked around the table to have a look at it himself. The artist had done a really good job of identifying that gleam in his eye. “It’s the gleam that really sets it apart,” Hayden noted. “And you were right. … Something is feral about that gaze, isn’t there?”
She nodded. “And it’s not anything you can ever really describe,” she muttered, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It’s just so … very direct. You don’t know what he’ll do, but you know it won’t be nice, and you won’t like it.”
“The good news is,” Hayden reminded her, “he is out of our life, and that’s no longer an issue.”
“I don’t ever want to see that face again,” she whispered. “He really got to me.”
“That’s understandable, considering the fact that you were being hunted.” Hayden reached out a hand.
She took his and hung on tightly. “I didn’t really understand just what that meant, until I came face-to-face with him in that drawing.” She looked over at David. “That is way too freaky.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” David replied, “but I’m really sorry you had to go through that and then relive it here.”
She shuddered. “It’s not your fault, and you’ve done an amazing job. I don’t know if they’ll identify him from your sketch, but it won’t be for lack of effort or of a quality image. This is way closer than I ever imagined we could get.”
“And that’s what the police need,” he said. “I’ll get this over to the detective and get it scanned in,” he shared, “so that it’s digitized.”
“I’ll need a copy for my office as well,” Hayden added.
He turned to Hayden. “Sure, I just need to scan it in and add some administrative details, then I’ll get you a copy and can email it as well.”
Hayden smiled and nodded. “Thank you. That would be great.”
“Much appreciated,” she murmured.
“That’s what I’m here for.” David smiled again at her. “Just give me a minute.” He quickly finished something he was doing on the picture on his e-tablet and then got up and disappeared to complete the process and to get it ready to distribute.
She sat down beside Hayden to wait, and she was obviously still spooked. She glanced at him sideways. “I never … I never want to have that reaction again,” she shared. “I know it’s hard for anybody to understand, but it was such a godawful feeling to see him come to life like that.”
“And yet that is exactly the reaction we need,” he noted.
“I understand,” she muttered, “but, my God, I didn’t think anybody could put that down on paper—even me, if I’m being honest—but he did.”
Hayden smiled. “He’s good, isn’t he?”
She shook her head. “That’s not quite the word I would have used, but, yes, he’s very talented.” She closed her eyes. “My God, just even seeing the Hulk again—” She held up her hand, which was shaking at this point. “I just, wow. That was awful.”
“Breathe. You did great last night, getting away from him, and you’re doing great now too,” he said. “Just hang on and don’t let everything get to you. As soon as we’ve got that image, we can send it out to everybody who needs to know about it. Now he’ll pay the price of letting you go.”
“But next time, he might just kill the person who they leave him in charge of.”
“I suspect he’s done this a couple times, and it was his choice to play the hunter instead of killing you immediately. He chose to deliberately play his game. He wanted that chase. Remember that. If he gets killed, that’s his fault, not yours.”
She sagged against him, and he just held her close. “It’s okay,” he murmured, “and, if something does happen to this guy, believe me that I won’t cry any tears over it.”
She looked up at him and asked, “Do we lose our humanity doing this?”
“No, but it certainly puts things in perspective, as you realize what people are doing to each other.”
“Right,” she murmured, still obviously shaken.
He sighed, then pulled her into a big hug.
“I know that doing this completely freaked you out, but you did a great job. I can tell by your reaction to this sketch that it’s as close to your memory as you could possibly get.
And I know that’s hard, but we really do need to have the best image possible, and it sure seems you’ve given us that. ”
She nodded. “I think so. I can’t imagine there being any other changes, but I’m going by my memory.”
“And that can be very deceptive at times of high stress too.” He smiled at her. “Nobody is expecting miracles. We just wanted the best image we could get to capture the Hulk, and you’ve clearly done that.”
She let out her breath and then nodded.
As David walked back to them again, Hayden smiled and gave her a quick hug again before releasing her and standing up. Hayden whispered in her ear, “You’re doing fine, just remember that.”
The artist gave him several printed-out copies, which Hayden held at his side. While they were talking, David emailed him a digital copy so he had it on his phone to send out too.
With that done, Hayden turned to her and asked, “Now, how about getting a coffee someplace else?”
“Yes.” She shuddered. “Someplace far from this nightmare,” she suggested.
David turned to her and shared, “Your help in the creation of this sketch may help you get this image out of your brain so it doesn’t lurk there indefinitely.
It may help prevent this from becoming a nightmare that threatens you in the middle of the night.
With any luck, you’ll sleep better because now this guy is on paper and not tormenting your mind.
” He smiled. “I’m done here, so I’m leaving for the day.
” And, with that, he turned and headed out.
They followed a short time later, after Hayden had spoken to somebody in the department, thanking them for the assistance.
He left his card, and then he and Andrea headed back out again.
As soon as they got outside, he stopped to let her catch her breath, knowing that this had been a bit more than she expected, probably a whole lot less than what they would need from her to capture the Hulk.
They walked around a few minutes, with her just staring off into the distance. Then out of nowhere, she was breathing hard, laboring to get air in.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“I can’t breathe—”
She was probably having a mild panic attack, a common result of trauma, so Hayden talked her through normalizing her breathing.
“I know that what I’m doing is the right thing, but I feel as if I’ve just cemented his death sentence.”