The Soul Catcher

CHAPTER 32

MONDAY

November 25

FBI Academy

Quantico, Virginia

Maggie stole a glance at Agent Tully as they watched Agent Bobbi LaPlatz scratch several pencil lines. Magically the face on her sketch pad developed a thin, narrow nose.

“Does that look close?” she asked Emma Tully, who sat beside her, hands in her lap, her eyes examining the line drawing.

“I think so, but the lips aren’t quite right.” Emma glanced at her dad, as if waiting for him to comment. He only nodded at her.

“Too thin?” LaPlatz asked.

“Maybe it’s the mouth, not the lips. You know, like he never smiled. He sorta had this…um…frown, but not like he was mad. Just maybe like he was too tough to smile.” She flipped her hair back and gave her dad another glance. “Does that make sense?” she asked, turning back to Agent LaPlatz, her eyes darting back to check Tully’s face before returning to the paper.

“I think so. Let me give it a try.” And LaPlatz’s hand went to work, making quick, short movements. A line here, one there, transforming the entire face again with her simple number two pencil, a magic wand with teeth marks embedded in its sides.

Maggie could see Tully had that worried indent in his forehead. She had noticed it earlier, even before he now started rubbing at it as if he could make it disappear. Earlier when he stopped by her office he seemed more than just worried. Disoriented was the best word Maggie could come up with.

His daughter, Emma, had never been to Quantico before, and this morning, unfortunately, was not going to be one of those fun tours to see where Daddy worked. Emma seemed to be handling the situation just fine, but Tully was still fidgeting. His toe kept tapping. When he wasn’t rubbing the indent off his forehead, he was pushing up the bridge of his glasses. He remained silent, saying not a word since Agent LaPlatz had sat down. Once in a while his eyes strayed from the face materializing on the paper to Emma’s. Maggie watched as his fingers found a paper in his breast pocket and he began an accordion fold. His fingers worked without the aid of his eyes, as if on a mission of their own.

Maggie had a good idea why her normally laid-back partner looked like he had been injected with caffeine. It wasn’t just that Emma had known the dead girl, but that she had also been at the rally Ginny had supposedly attended. Some rally held at the monument Saturday evening. This was probably why he had been on edge at the crime scene and at the autopsy. Was Tully wondering how close Emma had come to being the killer’s target?

“How’s that?” LaPlatz asked.

“Close. Is there any way I can see it in color?” Emma looked back at Tully again, as if waiting for an answer from him.

“Sure.” LaPlatz stood. “Let me scan it into the computer. I like to use the old-fashioned method first, but if you think we’re close, we can let the computer mess around with what we have.” She started for the door with Emma alongside of her, but turned just as Tully was getting to his feet to follow. “Why don’t you two wait here,” LaPlatz said casually, but her eyes looked from Tully to Maggie.

When Tully looked like he might still follow, Maggie put a gentle hand on his arm. He looked down at it, a sleepwalker suddenly waking.

“We’ll wait here,” he said, and watched the door close before sitting down again. Maggie stood in front of him, leaning against the table, studying him. He didn’t seem to mind. If he even noticed. He was off somewhere else, if not in the other room with Emma, then back conjuring up that horrible murder scene.

“She’s doing an excellent job.”

“What?” He looked up at her as if only now realizing she was still there.

“Emma might be providing the only clue we have as to who this killer is.”

“Yeah. I know.” He rubbed his jaw, pushed up his glasses for the tenth time.

“Are you okay?”

“Me?” This time there was surprise in his tone.

“I know you’re worried about her, Tully, but she seems to be okay.”

He hesitated and took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes. “I just worry about her.” Back went the glasses. The hands found the pamphlet again and the folds began in the other direction, putting new creases in a picture of a man’s face. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a clue how to do this parenting thing.”

“Emma’s a brave, smart girl, who came here today to help in a murder investigation. And she’s doing a great job while remaining calm and diligent. Judging from that alone, I’d say you’ve done a damn good job with her.”

He looked up at her, met her eyes and managed a weak smile. “Yeah? So you don’t think it’s totally obvious that I’m winging it?”

“If you are, it’ll be our secret. Okay? Hey, didn’t you tell me once that there are some things, some secrets, that only partners should share?”

Finally a real smile appeared. “I said that? I can’t believe I would ever encourage secrets or withholding information.”

“Maybe I’m becoming a bad influence on you.” She checked her watch and started to leave. “I need to go rescue Gwen from Security. I’ll see you in the conference room.”

“Hey, Maggie?”

“Yep?”

“Thanks.”

She stopped at the door and gave him a quick glance over her shoulder, just enough to check his eyes, and was immediately relieved to see that deer-in-the-headlights daze gone. “Any time, partner.”