Page 56 of Protected By Duval
She looked up at West and Fox, wondering what kind of expression she’d see.
She didn’t see any judgement for the strange bent of her art.
She saw appreciation.
And it felt good.
“I guess it’s one thing when you’re a child, but asanadult?” Fox shook his head. “I’m grateful for your skill and the energy you put into this.” He looked at West. “I feel like we’re going to get hits on this image and not just random people ‘seeing’ likenesses in general ways.” He looked at her. “No matter the information we put out when he asks for help from the public, we’ll always get hundreds of… tips that aren’t helpful.”
West agreed. “Sometimes we get hundreds of tips that come from people who can see…” He bit into his bottom lip as he was struggling to find the right words. “Forgive the bad likeness here, but people would can see Jesus in a piece of burnt toast.”
Fox nodded. “I saw someone selling a potato chip that he swore looked like Jeff Goldblum’s profile.”
West leaned back with confusion on his face. “Really?”
“I think it sold for a couple thousand dollars.”
Noelle stared at him. “What?”
He shrugged. “People can see what they want to see when they’re looking at it, but this,” he gestured toward the drawing, “there’s a real… tactile feeling to it. I feel, really feel like we’re going to get some helpful tips off of this.”
She nodded, lightly tapping her fingertips on the hard wooden desktop. “I hope so. In examples I’ve seen by other reconstructionists I’ve always felt that they look… flat. Like the image they’ve created is just like one of those flat masks that they had in the seventies.”
Fox and West nodded at her words.
“I try to create a portrait like I’d make for my family or friends.” She chuckled a little. “If it didn’t weird them out that I normally draw dead people.”
Fox’s smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. He whispered in a young boy’s voice. “She draws dead people.”
West hung his head. “Oh boy.”
Fox gave her a wink before turning to West. “You take this to Chief Fagan, yet?”
West shook his head. “That’s what I’m going to do now.”
He looked at her and he lifted a brow in a silent question. “Do you want to come with me?”
Noelle hesitated. “Will the Chief need to ask me questions?”
West and Fox shared a look before West answered her. “I don’t think so. You don’t… you don’t want to see him?”
She swallowed. “When I met him during the vetting interview… he kind of scared me.”
Fox laughed out loud, a quick barking laugh as he clapped a hand down on West’s back. “Does the Chief scare you?”
For a moment she thought they were making fun of her but Fox quickly explained.
“West’s father-in-law is Chief Fagan.”
West nodded. “He didn’t scare me until I fell for his daughter. Now,” he shrugged with a smile, “he terrifies me.”
That nightwhen she walked in the door at home, Ciela launched herself at her legs. “Whoa there!”
“Whoa there!” Ciela parroted her mother. “That’s for horses!”
“Yes,” Noelle reached down and lifted her daughter into her arms. “And you’re my sweet little pony.”
“Neigh! Neigh!”
