*She stood before a videophone with a styrofoam cup of coffee in her hand as her upper teeth nervously worked her lower lip. She and Tim were waiting on a connection between them and forensic wizard Annie back at HQ. After what seemed to Claire an eternity, her dark hair, pigtails, and perpetual grin came into view.* ~Hey guys!~

Annie, how's the video?

~Oh, it came out great. I had to run it through three different filters, because the tape was really old. By my estimates, they'd been reusing the same tape for over three-~

Annie!

*She paused mid sentence, her head cocked to the side like a curious dog.*

Did we get a clear picture of the psycho or not?

~Yeah. Of course we did. Several actually. This one, I think is the best.~ *She tapped her keyboard a few times and the viewscreen split. On the left, Annie's smiling face and on the right, the Lucy killer.* ~He looked right at the camera, can you believe that?~

*It was true what people said about murderers, they look just like everybody else. If Claire had run into him on the street, she wouldn't have given him a second look. He had dark eyes and hair.*

Description, Annie?

~He's about 5'8"-5'10", 160 pounds. No tats or obvious disfigurements that I could detect.~

Send his picture to- ~The New Orleans police and your field office. Already done.~ *A fax machine that Claire had been unaware of suddenly ground to life, spitting out several copies of the killer's face. He stared up at Claire through dead soulless eyes.*

Any face matches?

~Don't I wish! Still working on it, though.~

Good work, Annie. Lemme know if you find anything else.

~Sure thing, boss.~ *The videoscreen went dead. Tim was looking at the killer's picture. He sighed, before raising his eyes to meet Claire's.*

~He looks like someone I went to school with.~

Yeah, me too.

~*~Back~*~