Page 67 of Mountain Trial

Luc nodded.

“I’m going to need to hear you say it,” she said. “For the record.”

“I saw both Bull and Dogfish, yes.”

“Okay, we’re going to start with Bull.”

The man’s face popped into Luc’s brain so clearly, he wished he could print it out for her.

Castel positioned the tablet on her lap and looked up at him.

“Ready?” she asked kindly.

“Ready,” Luc said. He still didn’t know what was expected of him.

“What did you have for lunch yesterday?”

Luc’s mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

“Humor me, please,” the sketch artist said.

Luc ran through his lunch, surprised by how much detail he recalled when he set his mind to it. She then took him through the afternoon’s activities, all the way to the time Kat had showed up on his doorstep.

“When did you first see the waiters?”

Luc shrugged, embarrassed. “They walked around serving food and drinks for a couple hours, so I must have seen them during that time, but I didn’t actually notice them until the moment Mrs. Larsen started speaking.”

“So Mrs. Larsen was on stage.”

“Everybody was looking at her, yes. I looked away for a second―towards the door. And that’s when I first noticed the waiters who weren’t acting like waiters.”

“How not?”

“Three of them were standing close to the door, and they didn’t have anything in their hands.”

“Bull was one of these?”

Luc nodded.

“Tell me about him.”

“6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3. In his thirties, but with a weathered face. He looked older.”

The sketch artist smiled encouragingly, as if he’d said something truly insightful.

“What was the one thing that stood out for you, other than his empty hands?”

That’s an easy one.

“His eyes. He had eyes like dark pieces of coal. They looked even darker because his skin was so light. He also had large, puffy bags under his eyes―like someone who hasn’t slept well for a very long time.”

“Good, this is good. Could you see the whites around the top and bottom?”

They continued in this way for a long time. Castel must have asked him twenty questions just on the eyes alone, and after every answer she stopped to sketch for a second.

When she finally turned the tablet towards him, he was amazed. Bull’s eyes stared out at him from an otherwise blank slate.

“Wow,” he said.