Skin Deep

11

“How could anyone want to kill her?”

“I really don’t know.”

“I’m not sure how well you knew my sister, Lieutenant, but she was a wonderful person.”

“I only knew her in passing,” Steve said, “but that was my impression.”

“I can’t think of anyone who would do that to her.” Cynthia Farina-Morgan looked at her brother Richard.

“Neither can I,” he said. “But I’m afraid we really didn’t communicate much. And I didn’t know her friends.”

Terry Farina’s only immediate family, they had flown in earlier that Monday, Cynthia from Buffalo, Richard from Chicago. Before arriving at headquarters, they had made the funeral arrangements for their sister.

It was late that afternoon, and they met in a small conference room overlooking Tremont Street. Neil had taken his daughter for her weekly psychiatrist’s appointment, so only Steve interviewed them. Cynthia was the woman with Terry in the photograph from her bedroom. He could see a resemblance. But although Cynthia was two years her junior, Terry looked younger.

The brother, Richard Farina, a mutual funds investor, was balding, portly, and dressed in a white button-down shirt, a tie, and a blue blazer and chinos. Earlier in the day he had been brought to the M.E.’s office where he had positively identified his sister.

Only a few minutes into the meeting and Steve had sensed a low-grade contention between them. “Did you know anyone she was dating or had dated?”

“No. She broke up with a guy last year. A Phillip Waldman,” Cynthia said.

“Do you have any reason to think this Phillip Waldman might have wanted to harm her?”

“No. He was out of her life and on his own. I didn’t know her friends either. But she never mentioned anyone giving her trouble.”

“And when was the last time you spoke to Terry?”

“Maybe two weeks ago.”

“Did she mention any personal problems she might have had?”

“No. In fact, she was enjoying life and taking new directions.”

Steve turned to Richard. “When was the last time you spoke to your sister?”

“Maybe two months ago. She called to thank me for her birthday card.”

“Was there anything she said that might suggest she had made enemies, anyone giving her any problems, or someone she might have crossed?”

“No. But frankly she never confided in me about her personal affairs. Just chitchat.” Then he added, “She had a whole other life she never talked about.”

Cynthia glared at him. “Richard!”

“‘Richard’ what?” he snapped back. Then he looked at Steve. “I’m sorry, but Terry was in a world of people with questionable credentials.”

“How’s that?” Steve asked.

“Richard, she’s your sister.”

“Yeah, and my sister was a stripper.”

“A stripper?”

“Yes. Health training was her day job.”

Steve looked at Cynthia. “Is that right?”

Cynthia’s face flickered with fury. “Yes, but so what? And it was exotic dancing.”

“Call it what you want,” Richard said. “She was in the sex business, and who knows the kinds of people she interacted with?”

“This is the first time we’ve heard about this,” Steve said. “Do you know where she performed?”

“I know nothing about it,” Richard said.

“I don’t know where she was dancing,” Cynthia said, her voice still scathing. “But it was a side thing she did for the money so she could go to grad school in the fall. She wanted—”

Richard cut her off. “Lieutenant, the important thing is that your investigation be confidential regarding the details of how she was found. Please. This could be a great embarrassment to our family.”

“I understand, but it adds another dimension to the investigation which the media will probably get wind of.”

Richard Farina nodded, his face grim.

Cynthia began to tear up again. “It’s so unfair. She had so much going for her.”

“How long did you know she was an exotic dancer?” Steve asked Cynthia.

“For a while. And frankly, Detective, I didn’t care. And I still don’t.”

“Well, I didn’t know until this morning,” Richard said. “And, yes, I’m shocked and upset. I’m just grateful Mom and Dad never knew.”

“Richard, she was dancing two nights a week. It was a part-time job. The rest of the week she was a full-time fitness trainer.”

“Yeah, but once it gets out—and it will—all the headlines will blare ‘Stripper Found Dead,’ ‘Stripper Murdered,’ ‘Stripper’ this and ‘Stripper’ that. That will be her public persona: Terry Farina, stripper.”

Cynthia flared up at him. “She was your sister, too, and you speak of her like trash.”

“I guess I’m not so liberated. But when I think of strippers I think prostitution, pornography, drugs, and frankly, low-life,” Richard said. “I have children who will know tomorrow that their murdered aunt stripped at some bar. It’s a disgrace to our family.”

“You’re the disgrace, disparaging her when she’s dead.”

“I’m not sure it’s useful squabbling over this,” Steve said.

“Lieutenant, I knew my sister,” Cynthia said. “She graduated magna cum laude from NYU and she was beginning to make a more meaningful life for herself.” She shot her brother a look of rebuke.

“When was the last time you saw your sister?” Steve asked Richard.

“At my father’s funeral. A year and a half ago. We weren’t close.”

Cynthia glared at him. “Maybe if you ever pulled your head out of your damn investment portfolio you might have gotten to know your sister.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just what I said. Where were you when she was breaking up with Phillip and needed support?”

“She didn’t confide in me.”

“Gee, I wonder why.”

Steve was growing weary of their snarling. He pulled a photocopy he had made of Terry’s kitchen calendar and asked her about some of the names they could decipher in the day boxes. Some had turned out to be movie dates with Katie Beals, a hairdresser’s appointment, a doctor’s checkup, the GRE exams.

“It says here that last month she’d gone to the Pine Lake Lodge in Muskoka, Ontario. She was there for a week. Did she tell you about that?”

“Ontario? No, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Farina shook his head.

“Did she ever mention having friends in Ontario or visiting anyone in Canada?”

They both shook their heads.

Steve made a mental note to look into the Muskoka thing.

The interview continued another few minutes. Before they left, Cynthia asked if they could go to Terry’s apartment to gather some of her things. “Not for another day or so. We’re still investigating it. But I’ll call you when you can.”

They shook hands. “Again, I’m very sorry about this,” Steve said. The words sounded so flat when they hit the air.

Cynthia wiped her eyes. “Please find the monster who did this, Lieutenant. Please…”

“We will.”