struggle.” He turned to Bubba. “You said no employees were on the premises last night or early this morning?”
“I didn’t say that. I said no one was here now. Gil Weber is caretaker and leaves about eight in the morning.” He was looking at the blood. “Gil’s an ex-Marine. I wouldn’t have hired him to guard the place if he couldn’t take care of himself.” Bubba took out his phone. “I’ll call and see if he saw anything.” He hung up a few minutes later. “No answer. But maybe he’s asleep. He works all night. That blood can’t be his. If he was hurt, there would be a trail of it, wouldn’t there? Just a couple drops, then he’s gone?”
“Maybe.” Joe turned and left the shop. He stood there and stared thoughtfully out at the muddy pond. He glanced at Bubba, who had scurried after him. “Tell me, is it common for your prehistoric friends to cluster all together like that?”
“No, they generally like their own space. They have to have a reason. Why are you-” Bubba’s eyes widened in his suddenly pale face. “Oh, shit.”
“JOE’S BACK.” EVE LAID DOWN her pencil and went to the window to watch Joe get out of the sheriff’s car and bend forward to talk to the dark-haired young man in the driver’s seat. “It’s been a couple hours. I thought that he’d be here sooner.”
“He might as well have been here,” Catherine said ruefully. “We haven’t gotten far in this sketch.”
“We’ve determined shape of the face and the nose,” Eve said. “That’s important. That scuba hood is messing things up. It’s very tight and completely hides the hair. Even the hairline would be helpful. Whether it’s receding or full. He could even have a widow’s peak. You couldn’t tell anything about that part of his face.”
“I thought I’d be more helpful,” Catherine said with frustration.
“You will be,” Eve said. “You’re distracted. You want it too much.”
“Yes, I do. I want it
“They have prints, but they probably belong to the eighteen-year-old kid he stole the truck from in New Orleans.”
“Damn,” Eve said.
“But we may still have his fingerprints,” Joe said grimly. “He grabbed that motorboat, a wet suit, and a tank from an alligator farm about fifteen miles from here. The equipment was in the equipment room in the back of the gift shop. He broke in and stole a few knives, a speargun, and the suit.” He paused. “Evidently the caretaker, Gil Weber, surprised him at it and they struggled, and he apparently knocked him out, then tossed him in the alligator pond.”
Eve shuddered. “Dead?”
“He didn’t have a chance. I hope he drowned before the gators got to him.”
“So he’d already killed before he even tried to get Jacobs,” Catherine said.
“Probably unintentional,” Joe said. “But he didn’t hesitate when he was discovered.” He frowned thoughtfully. “He thinks very fast and follows through. When he found out where his target was going to be, he examined his surroundings and pulled together a plan that would allow him to kill Jacobs and give him his best chance to survive and escape. He must have caught a glimpse of that alligator farm on the way here, and everything clicked in his mind.”
“I didn’t even notice the alligator farm,” Catherine said.
“But you were looking for the house and nothing else. The fog was heavy and drifting in and out.” Joe looked at Eve. “Eve and I didn’t pay any attention to it when we came here either. We were… distracted. The man who killed Jacobs wasn’t distracted. He had a purpose and was looking for a way to accomplish it.”
“Formidable,” Catherine said slowly.
“Yes,” Joe said, gazing at Catherine. “And with all the signs of a professional.”
“I agree,” Catherine said. “But that doesn’t mean he was hired by Gallo.”
“It doesn’t mean he wasn’t.” Joe glanced at the notebook on the table. “Any luck?”
“Not yet.”
“Really?”
“I’m trying, Joe,” Catherine said between her teeth. “I’ll get there.”
“I’m sure you will. But I don’t want to wait for it.” He turned back to Eve. “Julian is going to take me into New Orleans. I’m going to see if I can push them to get the results from forensics. Do you want to go with me?”
“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
