course, but I wrote them off to some natural anomaly. You often find unusual surface patterns on skull bone. But to find it in a second skull can’t be dismissed so easily. Especially with the additional evidence of the chin implant.”
“And especially in the case of a second skull that’s been found under identical circumstances,” Jerry said.
Lister nodded. “Now it’s back to the drawing board. I’m going to have to do another reconstruction for our first young lady. Build up her cheekbones.” He looked over at Jerry. “Have I given you something to run with?”
“I’ll say,” Jerry said.
Lister had given them something to run with, all right. But where did they start? Having spent most of her life in Hollywood, Charlotte’s first thought was that the victims had undergone cosmetic surgery in order to alter their identities. She thought of it as the Dark Passage scenario, after the movie that had starred Humphrey Bogart. But Bogart had played a criminal who wanted to elude the law, which would hardly seem likely in the case of two young women in their twenties. The only reasonable explanation she could come up with was that the young women had been patients of the same plastic surgeon, and that he had killed them because he had botched their surgery: a homicidal variation on the old saw that doctors bury their mistakes. In her research on plastic surgeons, Charlotte had come across an interview with the angry patient of a California plastic surgeon who had used liquid silicone injections, which were now against the law, to reconstruct her face. The silicone had migrated from the places where it had been injected to other parts of her face, turning her into a hideous monster. Half a dozen corrective operations had not solved the problem, and she and the other patients whose surgery the plastic surgeon had botched were suing him for malpractice. She knew of several cases of botched plastic surgery herself. She remembered in particular a beautiful woman who thought her nose (which Charlotte considered flawless) needed to be more fashionably retroussé. As a result of her own vanity (or perhaps insecurity), she had ended up with a nose that squiggled down the front of her face, and through which she had trouble breathing. The botched nose job was a constant reminder to herself and others of the folly of tampering with nature, especially when nature had been more than generous to begin with.
Her point to Jerry was that a few irate patients could jeopardize a plastic surgeon’s reputation. And any threat to a reputation that brought in an annual income that could run into seven figures would be motive enough for murdering one’s dissatisfied patients.
Then there was the possibility that the dead young women hadn’t been mistakes, but experiments that hadn’t lived up to their creator’s expectations: the Mr. Hyde scenario. The converse of the premise that a plastic surgeon whose reputation was damaged would stand to lose millions was that a plastic surgeon with a reputation for working miracles could stand to gain millions. Charlotte knew for a fact that the California plastic surgeons, in particular, were on the cutting edge of the profession, so to speak, and had been known to employ techniques that were considered experimental by the more conservative element of their profession. Charlotte herself would have considered a botched experiment an argument for killing her plastic surgeon, but the argument was just as strong for having it the other way around.
Although Charlotte and Jerry discussed all this on the drive back to the police station, they accomplished little else that day. More time than Charlotte had expected had been taken up by their visit with Lister, as a result of which she had to forego their lunch in order to make it back to the city in time for an afternoon appointment with her agent.
But she promised Jerry that she would be back to take him up on his lunch invitation, and to do what
“And especially in the case of a second skull that’s been found under identical circumstances,” Jerry said.
Lister nodded. “Now it’s back to the drawing board. I’m going to have to do another reconstruction for our first young lady. Build up her cheekbones.” He looked over at Jerry. “Have I given you something to run with?”
“I’ll say,” Jerry said.
Lister had given them something to run with, all right. But where did they start? Having spent most of her life in Hollywood, Charlotte’s first thought was that the victims had undergone cosmetic surgery in order to alter their identities. She thought of it as the Dark Passage scenario, after the movie that had starred Humphrey Bogart. But Bogart had played a criminal who wanted to elude the law, which would hardly seem likely in the case of two young women in their twenties. The only reasonable explanation she could come up with was that the young women had been patients of the same plastic surgeon, and that he had killed them because he had botched their surgery: a homicidal variation on the old saw that doctors bury their mistakes. In her research on plastic surgeons, Charlotte had come across an interview with the angry patient of a California plastic surgeon who had used liquid silicone injections, which were now against the law, to reconstruct her face. The silicone had migrated from the places where it had been injected to other parts of her face, turning her into a hideous monster. Half a dozen corrective operations had not solved the problem, and she and the other patients whose surgery the plastic surgeon had botched were suing him for malpractice. She knew of several cases of botched plastic surgery herself. She remembered in particular a beautiful woman who thought her nose (which Charlotte considered flawless) needed to be more fashionably retroussé. As a result of her own vanity (or perhaps insecurity), she had ended up with a nose that squiggled down the front of her face, and through which she had trouble breathing. The botched nose job was a constant reminder to herself and others of the folly of tampering with nature, especially when nature had been more than generous to begin with.
Her point to Jerry was that a few irate patients could jeopardize a plastic surgeon’s reputation. And any threat to a reputation that brought in an annual income that could run into seven figures would be motive enough for murdering one’s dissatisfied patients.
Then there was the possibility that the dead young women hadn’t been mistakes, but experiments that hadn’t lived up to their creator’s expectations: the Mr. Hyde scenario. The converse of the premise that a plastic surgeon whose reputation was damaged would stand to lose millions was that a plastic surgeon with a reputation for working miracles could stand to gain millions. Charlotte knew for a fact that the California plastic surgeons, in particular, were on the cutting edge of the profession, so to speak, and had been known to employ techniques that were considered experimental by the more conservative element of their profession. Charlotte herself would have considered a botched experiment an argument for killing her plastic surgeon, but the argument was just as strong for having it the other way around.
Although Charlotte and Jerry discussed all this on the drive back to the police station, they accomplished little else that day. More time than Charlotte had expected had been taken up by their visit with Lister, as a result of which she had to forego their lunch in order to make it back to the city in time for an afternoon appointment with her agent.
But she promised Jerry that she would be back to take him up on his lunch invitation, and to do what
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