“Shit, I don’t know, man.”
Hunter leaned forward and leered at him. “Try to remember. It could be very important.”
“Don’t get your pants in a wad. Her ex-husband beat her up pretty bad. Got lots of cracks in the bones right around here.” He ran a finger down the right side of his face. “One cheek had become lopsided. Made her ugly.”
Jamal was no looker himself. “Go on.”
“She figured as long as the doctor agreed to do the work kind of cheap, she’d ask for a chin implant. Said it would help her self esteem. Hell, I was all for it.”
Hunter looked over at Kerry who sat perfectly still. She’d grasped the hem of her blouse and bunched it tight.
Hunter glanced back to Jamal. “How long ago was she injured by her ex?”
“Maybe a couple months before we met.” Jamal slapped the table. “What does this have to do with anything?”
Hunter wouldn’t answer his question. “Do you know the name of the doctor?”
Jamal stretched out his legs and leaned back in his seat. “Hell no. I couldn’t keep track. Once she found a job that gave her health insurance, she was going all the time to dermatologists, eye doctors, you name it.” He waved a dismissive hand.
“Where did she work?”
“Wal-Mart.”
Kerry straightened the photos on the table. “Do you by any chance have a hair brush she might have used? I’d like to compare her DNA.”
“Lady.” He laced his fingers on top of his head. “I tossed all her shit out once she left. Her old lady might have kept her stuff. Ask her.”
Kerry leaned closer to the computer for a better view of the image. Her desk sat in the corner of her lab and rays of the afternoon sun streaked across her screen. She’d scanned the pictures Jamal had lent her into Photoshop. Using the Transform Tool, she rotated and resized the images to match the size of the skull’s X-ray. One at a time, she laid the X-ray of Tameka Dorsey’s skull over each photo.
“Crap.” Too many of the pictures were either blurry or the angle of the head couldn’t be corrected effectively.
“Wait a minute,” she mumbled to herself. Two photos looked like they might line up, and excitement coursed through her. Using the arrow keys, she nudged the photo to the right. While the photo wasn’t a perfect fit, Kerry wasn’t ready to rule out she wasn’t Tameka Dorsey.
Thank goodness she’d asked Hunter to reach Tameka’s mother for her daughter’s dental X-rays along with a hairbrush or toothbrush. Kerry needed just one item to extract her DNA.
Tameka had no filings or crowns, which might imply she hadn’t gone to a dentist in a while. That could hinder the identification.
Her cell rang. Her pulse quickened as she raced across the room to where she’d left her phone. “Hello?”
“It’s Hunter. I was able to locate the dental X-rays and dental report for Tameka Dorsey.”
Hearing his voice brought her relief. “That’s wonderful.”
“The doctor’s office is on my way to your lab, so I thought I’d pick them up and drop them off.”
How sweet. “I appreciate that, but don’t you need a warrant or something for them?” He’d only spoken to Tameka’s mom today. When did he have the time?
“I had her mom sign a consent form for her release. You know, all that HIPAA stuff.”
“Good thinking.”
“Give me about fifty minutes.”
“Okay, bye.”
The wait to discover the identity of #1 was almost over. She might finally have a name on her grave marker.
With her stress level lowered for a moment, Kerry sat on her chair and closed her eyes, hoping for a short power nap before Hunter arrived. She’d spent a restless night on his pullout sofa. Each little noise had woken her up. First, the air conditioning clicked on, then Hunter or perhaps Melissa, had risen in the middle of the night. Strange houses had strange creaks.
At first she chalked up her sleeplessness to the fear of another intruder attack, but Hunter had insisted she lock the office door from the inside. That helped give her some peace of mind, but she kept imagining the creep crawling in through the bedroom window.
Having Hunter down the hall only added to her inability to sleep. Her fertile mind conjured up all sorts of erotic scenarios. Did he sleep naked? What would he be like to sleep next to? Was he a cuddler? She figured her carnal thoughts had to be the result of anxiety since she’d never dreamt about a man like that before.
A knock on the lab door roused her from her daydream. She bolted upright. Hunter walked in with a packet in his hands. “Power napping?”
She must have left the door ajar. She swiped a hand over her eyes to clear them. “Sorry. I suddenly couldn’t stay awake.” Thank God, he couldn’t read her mind.
“No need to apologize.”
Hunter dragged a chair from one side of the room, sat next to her at the computer and handed her the information.
When she fumbled with the clasp, he slipped the envelope from her fingers. “Let me.”
In a flash, he’d pulled out the X-rays, and then passed them to her. Kerry studied the report. “No filings or crowns. We may have our girl.” She looked up and smiled.
“Are you sure?”
The report was sparse, but it did contain a single radiograph that spanned both the upper and lower dental arcades. “Give me a sec.” Kerry placed the dental X-ray over the X-ray of the skull. The tooth roots fit perfectly. “I’d say we have a match.”
Hunter grinned. What she would give for a camera now. “Good job, Doctor Herlihy.”
She prayed her beating heart didn’t show through her surgical gown. “Did you happen to ask Tameka’s mother the name of her plastic surgeon?” She needed to take her focus off Hunter’s handsome face and concentrate on her job.
“Sure did.”
“And what did she say?”
14
Kerry rushed back into her lab with a Tampa phone book she’d borrowed from the reception desk. “Knock yourself out.” She tossed the heavy tome on the desk and it landed with a thud.
Hunter chuckled at her antics and looked up the number for Tameka’s surgeon. An expert in facial reconstruction, Dr. Paul Dalton was a renowned plastic surgeon.
Hunter dialed the office in the hopes of setting up an appointment with Dalton.
“Dr. Dalton’s office, how may I help you?” a sweet-voiced female answered.
He asked to speak with the doctor, and she told him Dr. Dalton was doing consulting work at the River of Hope shelter. Could he call back tomorrow?
“No problem.”
Kerry looked up. “He wasn’t there?”
“No. He’s doing charity work at the women’s shelter.”
“Really? I admire people who give of themselves like that.” Her eyes narrowed. “Battered women need an advocate.”
Had Kerry or someone close to her experienced abuse? “You know Jamal claimed Tameka had an appointment with Dalton the day she died.”
Her eyes widened and her pretty face paled. “All the women we found were battered.”
“I know.” Hunter let her sift through the facts. Sometimes another point of view could unearth a clue he hadn’t noticed.
Kerry paced the floor, her paper covered feet making a soft swishing sound on the tile. “Okay. We know Tameka went to Dr. Dalton to repair her face. What about Janet Kopetski?” She spun around to face him.
Her brows rose and her lips pressed firmly together. If only he knew for sure how these women had died, he’d tell her in a heartbeat. “What about her?”
“Did she go to Dr. Dalton? If she did, and if both disappeared after their appointments then—”
“Whoa. Who said they had the same surgeon? Besides, we have no idea when Janet Kopetski disappeared. All we know is that she’d cut her finger sometime before her death.”
“Then call Janet’s father to see if he knows who worked on her broken jaw and finger.” Her breath came out ragged.