Page 60 of Built of Illusions

What?

Graham walked over and grabbed one of the trays she was holding. “The fancy FBI brains were stuck on ways to lure the jackass here, then one of them spotted your sketch. Kickass skills, by the way.”

Flynn took the other tray and then Tansy and Sam moved into the kitchen to grab more. When she hadn’t moved when they returned, Nico crossed to her with the sketchpad. “Thanks for taking care of food. Come on and we’ll share what we’re thinking.”

In no time, the group was seated and grabbing food. Nico flipped to the sketches of Zenaida. “These are powerful. You’ve captured so many emotions. I saw glimpses of these from her today. You didn’t even speak with her and you picked up on it all.”

He flipped to the final sketch she’d drawn. Adrian Nelson. Now that they’d identified him, she’d been able to access photos of him. Nothing much in recent years, but enough to let her know her earlier sketches had been on track.

For this sketch, she hadn’t delved into the past like she had for his mother. For this one, she’d projected into the future.

Adrian Nelson sat shackled hand and foot in the back of a police van, ready to be transported to prison. The light sent shadows of bars from the window across his face and body. He stared straight ahead, eyes flat and cruel.

Nico pointed at it. “I think you’ve caught his essence in this. He sees himself as the victim of life and circumstances. He feels justified in his actions. He won’t enjoy seeing himself so accurately depicted.”

Josie frowned. “I didn’t think you were planning to release his name to the media.”

Nico grinned. “We’re not. And we can’t release his photo either. But an anonymous source might be able to submit a sketch to an agent…”

He let the sentence drop away as she absorbed the implications. She thought she got it. “So, we’d be taunting him.”

When he nodded, she had to continue. “Taunting bullies doesn’t always go well.”

Nico nodded. “You’re right. But we’re controlling a lot of variables in this situation.”

“To what end?”

Sam spoke from his end of the table. “We all agree we want this bastard in jail before he hurts anyone else. There are multiple agencies across the country looking for him, but no one knows where he is. We suspect he’s on his way here and we want to follow your plan and lure him out.”

Nico nodded. “It probably took him months, maybe years, for him to plan his route and his victims. He’s spent hours and hours researching to find people who hit his profile. Artistic women in their late twenties and thirties. Women who are single and live alone.”

She nodded. “And haven’t given birth.”

The silence around the room had her looking around.

Flynn raised his tea mug in salute. “Another salient point we haven’t identified.”

Nico swore. “He’s been telling himself he’s saving future kids from going through what he experienced.”

Josie nodded. “Which is just stupid. Instead of targeting the women, he should have focused on eliminating the abusive assholes.”

Nico tapped the table. “But he’d rather target people smaller than him, people less likely to win a physical battle. We can use that. I’ll use that in interview to get a confession. You really are brilliant, Josie.”

And then he cupped her face and pressed a smacking kiss to her lips.

Nico looked around the table. “How long does it take to set up a completely untraceable email address? We need to send a sketch to a media outlet from one of the cities he’s been in.”

Tessa laughed. “A minute or two.” Tansy nodded and Tessa opened her laptop.

Josie took back the sketchbook. “If we’re taunting him in an attempt to lure him out, I think I should do a different sketch.”

Nico frowned. “Why?”

She shrugged. “If we’re trying to piss him off, we want him to hate the picture. Hang on.”

She flipped to a new page and started again. This time, she slumped his shoulders and lowered his jaw. His sad gaze was fixed to the side.

When she flipped it around, Graham laughed. “That took you like a minute. It’s still him, but you’ve taken away the arrogance and made him look like he’s afraid.”

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