“He didn’t specify anything in particular?” Eve asked.
“He said he’d heard I specialized in school pictures and that there was good money in it. He wanted to see all of those.”
“And you showed him?”
“Some. Then I threw him out.”
“Why?”
“I told you, he was a creep.” His lips tightened. “Look, I may not look like what you’d call— I’m my own person. I go my own way. But I take good photos, and those kids are safe with me. I know there are lots of sickos out there, and I didn’t like Walsh’s poring over all those school photos. Particularly the young kids.”
“And you reported him to the police?”
“Not then. What grounds? Suspicion? I just threw him out.” He shook his head. “But two days later, I came out of the dark room and found him going through the photos in my file cabinet. That’s when I called the police.” His lips twisted. “I thought that Walsh was going to go for me. Ugly. Real ugly. But then he apologized, said that he didn’t think I’d mind, and walked out. But I still reported him to the cops when they came.” He looked at his wristwatch. “Sorry, I’ve got to go.”
“One more thing. Which school pictures was Walsh looking at in that cabinet?” Eve asked.
“Brownroot Elementary.” He shook his head. “I told the cops that was where he was digging. And I kept an eye out to see if there was any fallout from his coming here.”
“No fallout?”
“Nope.” He headed for the door. “Come on. You’ll make me late. I have a reputation.”
And he also had scruples and integrity, Eve thought. She could see why he was able to overcome that bizarre appearance to become popular in his profession. “I wouldn’t think of it.” She moved toward the door. “But we may have to call you if we run across anything on which we need help.”
“Yeah, whatever.” He was locking the door. “I didn’t like Walsh. I hope you put him away.”
“So do we,” Joe said. “But first we have to find him. You don’t have any idea where he is?”
“He said he lived here in Sacramento.” He turned toward his van. “But he showed me a couple of his photos, and they weren’t cityscapes. They were just pretty vineyards and rolling hills.”
“Vineyards?”
“Uninteresting, and the composition wasn’t even that good.”
“Sonderville,” she murmured.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” He jumped in the van. “All that matters is that I protected those kids from him.”
“Yes, that’s what matters.” Eve watched the van go down the street before she turned to Joe. “I think we need to go back to that precinct and look through those records again. Walsh was obviously interested in locating a child or children in the area. You said that there was no sign that any child at Sutter Elementary had been targeted. But what about Brownroot Elementary? He was looking at those photos when Nick caught him in the act.”
“And he may not have found what he was looking for.” He took her elbow and propelled her toward their car. “And, if he did, he might not have acted. But we’ll definitely check it out.”
*
“There’s nothing here,” Joe said in disgust as he shut down the precinct computer two hours later. “The captain was right. No sign of any serial killings or child attacks of any kind in the city during the period that Walsh was here.”
“No.” Brownroot Elementary had been a complete failure, so they had meticulously gone through the other elementary and private schools in the area. They had found zilch there also. “I’m going to start calling other photographers and see if they had visits from Walsh.”