“He retired. No notice, just said he had grandchildren on the way and he needed to leave. Usually we get two weeks, but he’s taken leave for the last two weeks. We need you to fill the vacuum that he left behind. Now, I know you can do it because you’re a damn good artist. So you’ve got your first case. Willy always went out to the crime scene and took his own photos and measurements. Detective Holmes will take you out there. He’s waiting on you now.”
“What about the witness I was supposed to sketch for?” That was what her boss had called her in for. Sometimes she had a one-track mind.
“The witness’s mother called and said she would bring her in later today.”
“Okay.” Sierra had no idea if she could create a face from a dead body if it had deteriorated a lot. She hated that she might draw something that was so unlike the person who had died that someone might think it was their beloved missing family member or friend when it wasn’t. Or if she couldn’t draw it well enough, that no one would be able to recognize the body.
She had never been involved in gruesome work with dead bodies. Her real love was creating art. Not like this kind of art. She shuddered.
She was so glad Willy hadn’t been fired though.
“All right, I’ll do the best I can. I love working part-time on the witness sketches so I just want to do the full-time job until you can find a replacement for Willy’s position.” She didn’t want to give up the part-time job because it gave her real purpose.
“We can do that. But if you decide you like the expanded benefits and money working full-time before I find someone else to replace Willy, the job is yours.”
“Okay, thanks.”
She figured after she did one sketch of a cadaver, she would be history as far as forensics sketches went. She had enough money from her army retirement so she wouldn’t be hurting for a paycheck. Maybe she could work for a different police department if the bureau hired someone else full-time and they didn’t need her here any longer.
“I appreciate that you’re helping out since Willy left.” The chief sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, his mouth a grim line. “You’re good at what you do, and once you start a thing, you have to finish it. You know the families and friends, not to mention the police and the victims, need all the help we can give to identify the bodies we find.”
“There are more than one?” She envisioned a mass grave of thousands of bodies.
He cast her a small smile. “Only one in the field. For now. Get your feet wet. See how it goes. But I’m telling you right now, I have every faith that you can give us a good idea of what the man looked like, a hell of a lot better than what we have now, or I wouldn’t have asked you to do this. I want to see what you come up with after you have a chance to do it,” her boss said by way of dismissal.
“All right. I’ll give it my best shot.”
She left her boss’s office and saw Adam coming into the bureau. He solved cases involving anything from robberies to kidnappings to carjackings, and he was always needing her to do a witness sketch for him. “I hear you need me to see a dead body.”
“Yeah, sorry about this, Sierra. I know how you feel about it.” Adam was dressed in a dark suit and was already wearing a raincoat.
“It’s not your fault that Willy decided to retire.” On the way out, she grabbed her raincoat and the camera bag containing the bureau’s camera Willy had used. “What is this case about?”
“This one involved a carjacking. The driver crashed into a tree and flew out the front windshield, and his face was shredded badly. Sorry, Sierra. Truly. I wish Willy had handled this one before he left. We don’t have any video on the carjacker and no way to identify him, so we really need your help with this.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best. The boss said you told him last night that I returned home from my vacation early.”
Adam smiled down at Sierra. “He did, did he? He told me last night that he heard you had returned. You know him. He seems to know everything about everyone on the force before we even do.”
“True.”
Adam glanced down at her high heels and raised his brows. “You might want to wear some more sensible shoes from now on if you’re going to be doing this kind of work.”
“I was wearing sensible shoes when I came into work this morning. How was I to know my job description was going to change so drastically? The boss called me in to do a sketch for a witness of yours. Besides, not all sketch artists go to the crime scene. I could do this from photos.”
He shook his head. “I know you. You’re too particular. I’m sure you would want to see the body after you saw the photos because they didn’t capture the remains the way you wanted them to. Thanks for helping us with this. We’re doing DNA testing and checking into dental records, but all that takes time. He might not have either on file anywhere. If you can make a sketch of his facial features, maybe we can find someone out there who recognizes him, and we’ll catch a break.” He unlocked his SUV’s doors and Sierra climbed into the passenger seat.
“I might not be able to do this. I’ve never done a real, live postmortem sketch before.”
“You’ll be able to do it. I know you will. You’ve taken the training. You can do it.” He glanced at her as he pulled out of the parking lot. “By the way, have you ever seen a dead body?”
“Only on TV.”
He cleared his throat. “Okay. If you get sick, move away from the crime scene.”
“Thank you. Good to know.”
He pointed to the glove box. She opened it and found a baggie.
“Use that to barf in if you need to.”
Oh, just great. She really didn’t want to do this now. But if she didn’t actually see the person and get the pictures that she thought she needed, she might not be able to capture the actual person’s features well enough to make the sketch recognizable to family, coworkers, and friends.
She pulled the baggie out and set it on the console, then closed the glove box.
“Are you free this weekend?”
She glanced at him. “I am. We’re boating on Sunday, right?” Was he interested in a date? She wasn’t really planning on dating anyone for a while. Sure, dating someone new could be an ego booster and make her feel that someone really cared for her after what she’d gone through. It could be fun. But she wasn’t sure she was ready for that emotionally. “I’m just staying home and chilling otherwise.”
“Yeah, we are boating on Sunday. The rest of the time, we could have more work for you then.”
She frowned at Adam. “The boss said there was only one body.”