Chasing the Night - Iris Johansen [20]
Chapter
4
“I’ve scanned in Luke’s photo.” Eve looked up from her computer. “It’s good that it’s a frontal shot. It will help with the progression. But I need more than this.”
“I know. Family members. I don’t have much that you can use.” She slipped from her stool. “I’ll be right back. I left an envelope in my rental car.” She ran out of the house and down the steps. She was back in a few minutes and handed Eve a large manila envelope. “The photos are all of my husband Terry’s family. I don’t know anything about my mother’s background. I tried to trace my father, but I haven’t been able to find out anything about him. Not even his name.”
“That’s not good.”
“I tried,” she said fiercely. “I can’t help it that I was dropped into this world and everyone just walked away. It’s not my fault, and it’s not Luke’s. Work with it.”
“I will. It just makes it more difficult. What do you know about age progression?”
“Only that it’s easier if you have a battery of photos from both sides of the family. I tried to give it to you. It just wasn’t happening.”
“The reason that we like to compare the child’s photo with any available photos of family members is that there may be a resemblance to the features of a grandparent or uncle or another relative that’s stronger than to the parents. And if we had a photograph of any of them at the same age as Luke, eleven, it could help.”
“But maybe not. My husband always said Luke looked like me.”
Eve gazed at the photo of Luke on the screen. Beautiful, faintly tilted dark eyes with long eyelashes. The lips appeared close to the same shape. She couldn’t tell about the cheekbones. Luke had too much baby fat for her to be able to determine the shape.
“Well?”
“There is a strong resemblance, but we can’t be sure that it will still be noticeable at his present age. The shape of the face changes.”
“We can’t be sure of anything. But it’s something to work with.”
Eve nodded. “But this is Luke at two. When a child is born, the bones of the skull and neck are not nearly complete. The growth process doesn’t complete until a person is twenty-five or older.”
“So?”
“The proportional changes in the amount of the lower face are fundamental. Young children’s faces grow downward and forward. The forehead changes from a bulbous look to an upright and flattened appearance. The lower half of the face drifts downward and either forward or outward. The upper and lower jaws are constantly increasing in size and changing form. They become more prominent and—”
“You’re telling me all the difficulties. Can you override them?”
“I can only try.” She opened the envelope and spread the photos on the table. “Which one was your husband?”
“The man in the brown bomber jacket. He doesn’t look anything like Luke.”
“I can see that.” The man in the photo was tall, broad-shouldered, and had thinning gray hair. “He was quite a bit older than you.”
“Sixty-two, but age doesn’t matter.”
Sixty-two to Catherine’s seventeen.
“It doesn’t matter,” Catherine repeated. “Age is only a number. Venable sent me to Terry as a mentor when I first joined the CIA, and he taught me, guided me, he even saved my life once. He was very good to me. That’s the only thing that was important.”
“Your relationship is your own business. I was just surprised.”
“He was kind, we were partners, he gave me a child. Infinite riches. How could I ask for more?”
Didn’t every woman deserve a young and heady passion at least once in her life? “He has a nice face.” She went to another picture. “Who is the child?”
“Terry, at age six. The other picture is his mother, Gail. She doesn’t look like Luke either. So you may be stuck with me. I was four when that picture of me was taken in Shanghai. My mother had to furnish it for the entry papers.”
Eve picked up the photo of Catherine. It was amazingly