Free Bonnie by Iris Johansen Page B

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?”
    “Not round. Oval, I think.”
    Eve’s pencil was flying over the paper. “Big? Small? Medium?”
    “Medium.”
    “Wide set?”
    “No, ordinary.”
    “Color.”
    “Light. Gray, I think.”
    “Skin? Tan? Pale?”
    “Sort of tan and weathered-looking.”
    “Any lines?”
    “On either sides of his mouth. The rest of his face was smooth.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, no. Wait. He was wearing that wet suit, and the rubber headpiece appeared very tight. It was pulling his face taut. I think I remember faint indentations around the corner of his eyes.”
    Eve quickly added the lines in a sunburst effect. “That looks more natural.” She held the sketch up and gazed at it appraisingly. She said absently, “But he’s older than—” She stopped, her eyes widening in stunned surprise.
    Crazy. It couldn’t be. Impossible.
    “Eve?”
    She shook her head to clear it. Impossible.
    But anything was possible in this crazy world that had become her own.
    Her hands were shaking as she turned the notebook and showed Catherine the sketch.
    “Is this … him?”
    Catherine’s eyes widened. “My God.”

CHAPTER
    5
    “ANSWER ME.” EVE TRIED TO STEADY her voice. “Is this the man who tried to kill you?”
    “Yes.” Catherine took the notebook and gazed down at the sketch. “Congratulations. I had no idea you could come this close. It’s him. ”
    “You’re absolutely sure?”
    “I told you, it’s him. That chin is the—” She broke off as she raised her eyes and saw Eve’s expression. “What’s wrong? You’re pale as this notebook paper.”
    “I just have to make sure you’re positive this is the man. I have to know that I didn’t make him up out of some subconscious memory.”
    Catherine stiffened. “Memory?”
    Eve took the sketch back and looked at it again. The eyes, the facial features, the brows were all the same. Only the deep wrinkles at the corners of the eyes and the ferocity that was imprinted in every line of that face was different.
    “What memory, Eve?” Catherine asked. “You’ve seen this man before?”
    “I think I have. But it doesn’t make any sense.”
    “Who is it? Give me a name.”
    Eve shook her head. “But he’s a dead man. Gallo told me that he was dead.”
    “Dammit, who is it?”
    “His name is Ted Danner.”
    “And you’ve seen him before?”
    Eve moistened her lips. “A long time ago. And only a couple times. He’s John Gallo’s uncle.”
    “What?”
    “Ted Danner is Gallo’s uncle. He was the reason John Gallo came to Atlanta. I would never have met Gallo, never had Bonnie, if it hadn’t been for Ted Danner.” She looked down at the sketch. “He was an ex-Ranger who had been injured in the Army. He had been sent down to the Veterans’ Hospital in Atlanta from Milwaukee so that he could go to a specialist there. I remember that he could hardly walk.”
    “Then they must have performed a miracle,” Catherine said dryly. “He moved like an Olympic athlete at that bayou this morning. Providing the athlete had all the instincts of a serial killer.”
    Eve shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t understand it. I liked Ted Danner. I felt sorry for him. Gallo told me that he was the only