Skin Deep

86

Steve called Dana, but she wasn’t home. Nor did she answer her cell phone. He left a message to call him as soon as possible.

He stared at the blowups of Corrine Novak in disbelief. The last shot before her death showed a red-haired younger woman with tighter skin, more fetching open eyes, a chiseled nose, bee-stung lips, a smooth, tapered jaw, and other differences he couldn’t put his finger on. It may have been the lighting and angle differences, but she could have been Dana’s sister.

It was a little past one and he was certain that Captain Ralph Modesky was not at his office at the Cobbsville P.D. But he called anyway. A desk sergeant named Eames answered. Steve identified himself and said it was urgent that he reach him. The sergeant said that he thought Captain Modesky was at a luncheon. “Then, Sergeant Eames, I’ll need his cell phone in addition to his home number.”

Steve heard hesitation. The sergeant probably shared the same small-town mind-set that they were not going to be pushed around by the big blue bullies from Beantown.

“I’m not sure Captain Modesky will appreciate a call at this time. It’s a public event.”

“So is the New Hampshire Union Leader, The Boston Globe, and every other news organ in New England should word get out that a desk sergeant held up the investigation of serial murders.”

Eames read off the numbers.

On the second ring, Steve reached Modesky, who let him know he was at a muckety-mucks function. “I’ll be quick. It’s about the Novak case.” He explained the differences in the woman’s photographs. “Do you recall if she had ever had cosmetic surgery?”

“Is that important?”

“It might be.”

“I can’t imagine why. Yeah, I think her father said something about that.”

“You’re saying she had some face work done.”

“That’s what I said. So what’s the problem?”

“It wasn’t mentioned in the autopsy report.”

“Because it wasn’t relevant to the cause of death. Is that it?”

“Not quite. The autopsy chart that asks for scars, blemishes, et cetera. They’re filled in with none.”

There was a gaping silence. “Lieutenant, nose jobs are done inside, through the nostrils, so nothing was there to pick up, and she died by strangulation so nobody went looking up her nose.”

“Uh-huh, but from the photos it looks like she had some work done on her eyes, plus her lips look plumped up in the later photo.”

Modesky made an exasperated sigh in Steve’s ear. “I don’t know, Lieutenant Markarian. Maybe the plastic doc was very good. Maybe the M.E. missed the scar. Most likely he didn’t and just dismissed it as irrelevant to the case and entered none, okay?”

“You’re probably right.”

“Look, Lieutenant Markarian, if you’re saying we have the wrong photos, you’re in gross error, you got that? I know we may appear to you like the Mayberry sheriff’s office up here, but those are the same woman, Corrine Novak. Nobody messed up. Nobody mis-IDed her. Okay?”

“Yeah.”

Modesky clicked off. I know they’re the same woman. And another Dana look-alike.