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“Perfect.” Bethany flashed a reassuring smile as they began.
The process of capturing the face of the shooter was painstakingly slow. More so than Elly had anticipated. She hadn’t remembered as many details as she’d hoped, but Bethany seemed to have tireless energy, making small tweaks along the way.
Describing the man’s eyes were the easiest, although she couldn’t really say for sure what color they were. She’d gone with dark brown or black, although it had been difficult to see the color clearly in the darkness.
“What about facial hair?” Bethany asked.
She shook her head, then hesitated. “Maybe a five o’clock shadow along his upper lip and jaw. But not a full beard.”
“Great.” Bethany beamed as if she’d gotten a difficult test question right. “Like this?”
Elly gasped when she saw the image. “Yes, that’s him.” A shiver snaked down her spine as if the evil man was standing before her once again. The likeness matched her memory better than she could have hoped.
And she found herself silently praying she would never come face-to-face with him ever again.
* * *
Stayingin the background so as not to distract Elly, Joe listened to her descriptions. Bethany was amazing, pulling out small details that Elly likely wouldn’t have recalled on her own.
And when Bethany turned the sketch toward him and Elly, he knew they’d nailed it. The guy looked exactly like the shooter, matching the face he’d only glimpsed from afar.
“Good job, Elly. Bethany.” He nodded as he stepped forward. “May I take that? We’re going to scan it into the system and see if we can’t get a facial recognition match.”
“You can do that?” Elly asked.
“Sometimes.” He didn’t want to lie to her. “It doesn’t always work with a sketch. Photographs are better.”
“What about looking at street cameras?” Elly suggested. “That may help.”
“That’s being done. Unfortunately, that particular stretch of the road didn’t have any cameras.” He scowled, thinking that fact may have been the reason the shooter had targeted that portion of the parade route, rather than using the beginning or the end.
“It’s yours,” Bethany said as she tore the sketch free. He stepped over to take it from her. “I hope this helps.”
“Me too,” Elly said in a low voice.
“It will.” He felt certain that once this BOLO went out, every single cop within the entire metro Milwaukee area would be on alert for this guy.
No one could hide forever.
The more concerning piece of this was what this guy might do in the meantime. He’d staked out the Christmas parade for a reason. Was there another target out there?
Most likely.
“Stay here, Elly. I’ll be back soon.” He took the sketch to the copy machine to get it scanned to his computer. From there, he sent the sketch to Rhy and to Rhy’s boss, Assistant Chief Michaels.
Rhy must have been on his computer at home, despite being on vacation over the holidays, because he got an instant reply.Issue a BOLO ASAP.
Joe typed his response.Done.
When that task was completed, Joe took a moment to head into the locker room to change out of his uniform. Officers were not allowed to wear their uniforms while off duty, which he now officially was. After dressing in black jeans, a dark-gray sweater, and his leather jacket, he clipped his gun holster to his belt and went back for Elly. Rather than chatting with Bethany, the way she usually did when meeting people, Elly stared off into the distance as if lost in thought. His heart squeezed painfully in his chest at how this may have changed the normally cheerful and carefree youngest Finnegan. And he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on the shooter.
“I’ll be heading out now.” Bethany rose to her feet. She’d packed her sketchbook and colored pencils into a large backpack that she slung over her shoulder. “It was nice meeting you, Elly.”
“Yes, thanks for your help.” Elly’s smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“We appreciate you coming in on a Saturday night,” Joe added.
“Always for something this important,” Bethany murmured. She nodded solemnly, then brushed past him to leave.
