Chapter 31 A Name to the Face
Matt and Duncan looked painfully at each other, their expressions cold and disappointed. It was 8am – almost twelve hours had passed and they still had no name for their body. The more time that passed the guiltier Matt felt towards her parents, whoever they were, and wherever they were, completely unaware their daughter was now in the morgue.
Suddenly Matt's mobile phone buzzed, jolting the two men from their slumped positions at the briefing table. Matt pressed the phone to his ear eagerly.
"Karen?" he asked expectantly.
Matt nodded into the phone, scribbling down what the sergeant told him before hanging up and looking jubilantly at his colleague across the way. "They got her name."
The two sprang from their desks and almost collided with Jen as she walked into the desk area, her jacket still wrapped tightly around her, her hair slightly messy from the morning wind. She was feeling refreshed from several days off, and positive about her health, and had been keen to get to work that morning to put her energy to good use.
"Woah!" she cried, jumping back. "Where's the fire?"
Duncan and Matt offered hurried apologies and sprang on Matt's desk. Jennifer frowned at their actions. As Matt opened the search page and began typing in the name, Duncan finally filled Jennifer in.
"We got a cold one last night," he informed her as she sat down at her desk nearby, offloading her handbag and jacket. "Super young, probably only 20, if that, shot and thrown behind a dumpster out the back of a take away chicken joint. They tried to hide her with more garbage," he explained, turning his nose up in disgust at the way the perpetrators had tried to cover up their crime. "Manager of the place found her, about 9pm."
Jennifer nodded, still feeling removed from the investigation that had so far been entirely in Matt and Duncan's hands. She turned on her computer and settled in to her seat as Matt read the name out sombrely.
"Requel Farinacci," he told Duncan and Jennifer. They looked at him, no recognition in their faces. Matt continued. "And her slate is completely blank. No priors, no history, nothing. No life at all it seems. There aren't even contact details. No medical history, licensing details, employment history, next of kin." Matt looked thoroughly confused. He turned to Duncan, scratching his head. "What, did she just arrive on the planet before she was killed or something?"
Duncan shrugged, as confused as Matt. Both stood up and headed back to the briefing room, Jennifer hot on their heels. "Well, at least we have a name to go with her face now," Matt said, trying to feel good about such a small victory. He wrote her name on the whiteboard in large capital letters and then reached over to the table, rifling through the files and papers that were scattered all over its top. After a few seconds he pulled out the crime scene photo, now lamenated and magnetised, and let it attach itself to the whiteboard above his handwritten scrawl.
When Jennifer saw the face she felt her blood run cold. She hadn't recognised the name, but she sure as hell recognised that face.