The Secret Friend

She rang the doorbell again.

The woman smiled as the door opened. The smile faltered a little when she saw his face. It took her a moment to recover.

'Hello, I'm your new neighbour, Gloria Lister.'

Walter didn't answer. He stared at the snow melting against her boots, knowing she was shocked by his face, knowing she was judging him. He wanted to swing the door shut and hide.

When he didn't introduce himself, the woman broke the uncomfortable silence. 'The lights were on, and when I saw your car in the driveway, I thought you were home,' she said. 'I didn't want to leave this pie out here, so I rang the doorbell a few times. It's apple. I'm a baker -'

'I'm allergic to apples.' A lie. He wanted her to leave. Now.

'Oh… okay, well, I'll take it back then.' She waited a moment, and when he didn't answer, she said, 'I didn't mean to disturb you. Have a good night.'

Walter slammed the door shut. He put on the padlocks and shut off all the lights. He felt dizzy.

He should have said hello. He should have taken the pie. Tomorrow, when his new neighbour went to work, she would tell all her friends at the bakery about her strange neighbour, the man with the ugly, scarred face. I was glad to go, really, he looked like a monster, Gloria would say, and they would all have a good laugh. People would talk. Word would get around – it always did in small towns – and sooner or later the police would get wind of Gloria Lister's strange neighbour who didn't invite her inside his home, who left her standing outside in the cold with her pie. Maybe the police would pay him a visit, decide to come inside and take a look around. You never knew.

He should have at least said hello.

Using the wall for support, he stumbled into the living room and looked out the window again, watching his new neighbour carefully manoeuvring her way over the icy patches on the street. Walter wondered what it would be like to invite a woman inside his house. That would be a first.

73

Darby was reviewing the DVD Malcolm Fletcher had sent to Jonathan Hale when she heard a knock on the door.

'I've got some news on the unknown makeup sample,' Keith Woodbury said. He wore a winter coat and his face was red from the cold. 'Follow me to my office.'

Seated behind his desk, Woodbury removed a sheet of paper from a folder. He handed her the FTIR graph showing the breakdown of the chemical compounds and their individual concentrations.

'For the past week, I've been playing the chemical version of Scrabble with my MIT friend, rearranging the compounds,' Woodbury said. 'What threw us off were the levels of titanium dioxide. It's a mineral. You can find traces of it in everything from food to cosmetics. You don't need to take notes. This will all be in my report.

'One of the products found in the sweatshirt sample is called Derma. It's a cosmetic concealer used to hide severe facial scarring caused by acne, surgery or burns. The product comes in a variety of shades so the patient can match it to their individual skin pigmentation. A good number of plastic surgeons and dermatologists recommend it to their patients. It's not a prescription item any more – it used to be, until the late nineties – but you can't buy it at a store, at least not yet. The company is manufacturing a new line of cosmetics that, starting next year, will be carried nationwide in department stores like Macy's. At the moment, you can only order Derma through the company website.'

Woodbury handed her another graph. 'This is the unknown sample,' he said. 'It's LYCD, shorthand for live yeast cell derivative. It's a relatively new chemical – that's the reason why FTIR couldn't identify it. LYCD isn't listed in any of the cosmetics databases.'

'What is it?'

'To put it simply, LYCD provides oxygen to the skin, allowing it to breathe. It's a facial cream but not a traditional one. LYCD is supposed to help facilitate the healing. You apply it to either a fresh incision or a severe burn. It's also supposed to help relax scar tissue. Did Judith Chen have any facial scarring?'

'No.'

'What about Emma Hale?'

'Her face was flawless.'

'Did either woman get a chemical peel?'

'I don't know. Judith Chen didn't make enough money to afford something like that, but I wouldn't be surprised if Emma Hale did.'

'The sweatshirt sample contained both Derma and LYCD. As I said, LYCD is designed for fresh incisions, burns or scars. You apply the LYCD cream to your face in the morning and then at night, before bed. A container lasts about thirty days. Derma is used to camouflage the scarring. It's for people who have sensitive or problematic skin. It doesn't contain any alcohol. Most over-the-counter cosmetic concealers contain some alcohol-based preservative which, for some people, can irritate the face.'

'Let me ask you this,' Darby said. 'Could someone with normal skin use it as a beauty treatment?'

'You mean younger, healthier looking skin in thirty days or your money back?'

'Exactly.'

'I suppose you could use it for that purpose, but there are better products on the market, ones you can readily purchase in high-end specialty stores. What do you ladies call it? Hope in a jar?'

'I wouldn't know.'

'Don't you watch Oprah?'

'No.'

'I thought all women watched Oprah. It's like a law or something.' Woodbury grinned as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. 'Okay, let's say you wanted to use LYCD because you believed it would help make your skin more youthful. You'd have to go to a dermatologist's office or a burn clinic. I doubt they'd sell it to you on that basis. Did you find any evidence of recent facial trauma on either victim?'

'Given the advanced state of decomposition, it was impossible to tell.'

'If Chen and Hale didn't have any facial scars, if they hadn't suffered some sort of facial burn, then there was no reason they would be carrying either product in, say, their purse or backpack when they were abducted. The other problem is Derma. The shade doesn't match Judith Chen or Emma Hale's skin colour. That leaves us with two possible scenarios. The first is that these products belong to another victim. The second is that their attacker uses both of these products. If Chen's killer was wearing Derma and LYCD, it's possible he might have accidentally transferred the products to her shoulder when he picked up her body.'

'How would I go about finding out who sells this LYCD cream?'

'That's where we're in luck,' Woodbury said. 'Only one company manufactures an LYCD product – Alcoa, based out of Los Angeles. The product is called Lycoprime. You can't buy it at a drugstore or purchase it legally online. You have to find a dermatologist or burn clinic that sells the product. Lycoprime is relatively new. Alcoa started manufacturing it less than two years ago.'

'So we're talking limited distribution.'

'I took the liberty of speaking to one of their sales reps this afternoon. Eli – that's the name of the sales rep I talked to, Eli Rothstein – he faxed me a list of doctors and clinics who sell the product in New England. I assumed you'd want to start there.'

'You assumed correctly.'

Woodbury handed her a sheet of paper.

The list of New England doctors was surprisingly small. Shriners Burn Center was a major customer, as were the burn centres in Boston's two major hospitals, Beth Israel and Mass General. A handful of local dermatologists also prescribed the product. There were fewer than a dozen dermatologists in Rhode Island and New Hampshire that used Lycoprime.

Boston hospitals and doctors' offices wouldn't release any patient files without a court order. Neil Joseph could get the court order, but it would take time. Darby checked her watch. It was coming up on 4 p.m. If Chadzynski asked for the court order, people would jump through hoops.

Darby stood. 'This is amazing work, Keith. Thank you.'

'I'm sorry it took so long.' Woodbury's expression turned serious. 'Hannah Givens… Do you think she's still alive?'

'I hope so.' Darby said a quick prayer as she reached for Woodbury's phone to dial Chadzynski's number.