Skin Deep

58

Sometime later Steve headed back up the beach to leave. The sun had nearly set. The father and son were gone and the crowd had thinned out. As he moved up the boardwalk his PDA phone jingled. It was not Dana’s number. It was not a number or exchange he recognized.

Steve turned to face the ocean, his eyes fixed on the horizon where a sailboat cut across the darkening seam of sky and sea.

“Lieutenant Detective Markarian?”

“Yes?”

“This is David Greggs, manager of Pine Lake Resort in Muskoka, Canada. You called the other day asking about a Terry Farina.”

“Yes.”

“Well, the last time we talked I had told you we had no record of a guest named Terry Farina staying with us last month or at any time. Well, I had circulated the photograph you had e-mailed among staff members, and one of our waiters said he recognized the woman. She had stayed here the same six days that Ms. Farina had allegedly been a guest. Because she paid in cash, we have no record of her real name. She’d registered as Jennifer Hopkins.”

“Jennifer Hopkins.” Steve jotted down the name. “Is it possible to speak to this waiter?”

“Yes, he’s right here. His name is Peter Good.”

Steve heard another voice say hello. “Peter, Mr. Greggs said that you recognized the photo of Terry Farina, who apparently registered as Jennifer Hopkins.”

“Yes, but it took me a while to recognize her,” Good said. “In fact, nobody recognized her. She had a hat on kind of low plus she had large sunglasses on all the time.”

“Do you recall if she was alone?”

“All the times I saw her she was.”

“Which was how often?”

“Well, she took all her meals in her room, and when she went outside she sat alone in lounge chairs in back where it’s pretty woodsy and private. I don’t think I ever saw her by the pool or in the main lodge. Same with the other staffers.”

“So you’re saying she didn’t mingle with any of the other guests.”

“Not that I saw, and that’s the same with the others. Nobody saw her mingle.”

“Can you ask Mr. Greggs if she used the phone in her room?”

“We already checked that. No calls in, no calls out.”

“Okay.”

“The thing is, I think she was kind of hiding, if you ask me.”

“Hiding?”

“Yeah, kind of embarrassed maybe.”

“Embarrassed?”

“Well, her face. It was kind of messed up.”

“Messed up?”

“Well, my first thought was that she’d been in a bad car accident, you know, bruised and cut up. Which is why nobody recognized her at first. But I was her waiter, because her cabin is one of my assignments, so I saw her more than the others. It’s the same woman.”

“You’re positive.”

“Yeah.” There was a pause. “But, you know, I mean given the circumstances, I’m starting to think that maybe it wasn’t an accident but that somebody beat her up.”