Face in the Mirror: Daphne

By Lynne Lexow

Daphne is a twenty-six-year-old forensic artist. All her life, she had been a model child, a studious teenager, and as an adult, she quickly became one of the best in her field of expertise. Then soon after she accepted a new job offer, someone tries to kill her. When she is accused of murder herself, everything falls apart. She has three choices, stay and be punished for someone elses crime, run and lose everything, or fight back. As the events unfold, Daphne discovers something about herself and her past. Not only is she in physical danger, but she has to cope with the emotional rollercoaster these discoveries put her on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jan 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496992932

Lynne Lexow

Lynne Lexow was born in South Africa to parents who were both teachers. From an early age she was fluent in both English and Afrikaans and excelled in languages at school. Being from a background where the arts were not considered a career, she opted for a professional career in property management. Now that the children are grown and leaving the nest she dedicates her time to her passions, traveling, writing, reading and painting. To date she had brought out two other novels, had an anthology of poetry published in Afrikaans and writes short stories for South African magazines.

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© 2014 LYNNE LEXOW. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse    10/03/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9292-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9291-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9293-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014917705

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

About the Author

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About the Author

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Lynne Lexow grew up in a small town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Although schooled in Afrikaans, her mixed ancestry—a father from Scottish descent (Grant) and an Afrikaans mother—had her fluent in both languages from an early age. It was at school that a language teacher predicted that she would become a writer one day. Life intervened, and Lynne opted for a well-paying profession. She became a facilities manager, managing commercial buildings. Lynne never stopped writing. Notebooks and computers were filled with poetry and outlines for novels. Finally as the children grew up and left home, she could spend time putting together the bits and pieces that then became her first and, now, her second novel.

A former property manager, Lynne Lexow is now a full time author and artist. She lives in South Africa and has two daughters and a grandson

Visit her website at www.lynnelexowauthor.com

By Lynne Lexow

Fallen Angel

Thank you to all my friends and family who are supporting me in the new direction my life has taken.

A special thank you to Joe Segall who started me on this road, I can never re-pay you my friend, your trust and friendship can not be valued enough.

1

Daphne Morgan hesitated before entering the double glass doors which will lead her to her new job and new life. She tried telling herself she had nothing to be nervous about, she did after all study many years to become the best forensic artist she could be. She did also spend a few hard years as police sketch artist before landing this job, thus no reason to be nervous, or so she told herself a few times over before taking a deep breath and stepping on the pressure mat which allowed the doors to glide open silently.

She checked her outfit, shoes were shiny, skirt just the correct length for a professional lady like herself, took another breath and approached the reception desk with more bravado than she really felt.

Morning, I am Daphne Morgan, I…

Morning, I know who you are. Mr Silberman said you were to go straight to his office, first floor, double doors at the end of the corridor. The receptionist smiled a warm smile before pressing yet another button on her impressive switchboard to answer a call.

Daphne decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator, old habits die hard and at police head quarters there was no elevator.

The impressive double wooden doors, at the end of the corridor, were hard to miss. Daphne tapped lightly on the closed doors.

Yes… come in.

The man behind the desk was in his early forties, only slightly graying, attractive without being flashy. He looked slightly out of place in the plush office.

Ah, Daphne, I am so glad to see you! Don Silberman got up from his chair, came round his desk with his hand extended in a warm welcome.

Sit, sit, we have loads to talk about this morning.

Daphne sat down in one of the comfortable chairs while Don Silberman returned to his seat behind his large desk.

As you can see, we are not short of work. With our expertise and so many of our employees having been educated and having worked all over the world with the best technology there is available, we have now received work from government, the police and many private detectives. We no longer have to rely on private work alone. Our staff has grown from only four people two years ago to thirty four people today and still we do not cope. We can not afford to miss deadlines, court appearances, thus it is safe to say we are under an immense amount of pressure at the moment. When Jake suddenly became ill, we were at a loss. As you know there are not many people with the same skills as yourself around and we did not just need the skill, we need experience. We have no time to train anybody. As I have mentioned in the interview you will be working under immense pressure at first, at least until we get caught up on all of this… Don waved a hand over the piles of files on his desk.

I am ready Sir.

Oh please drop the sir part, we all work so closely together here that we are like a family and all on first name basis.

Oh … I am ready… uh… Don.

Much better. Well then, I already sorted files for you in order of importance and deadline dates. I’ll take you on a quick introduction tour and then to your office. I trust that you will find everything you need there, but please if you need anything else, please, I am only two doors away.

Don was obviously in a hurry as he literally ran her through the other offices along the corridor and Daphne hardly had time to memorise all the names and faces.

Now, here we are, your office. Don opened the door to an air-conditioned, carpeted office. No more bare white and green walls, these walls were painted a light soothing grey with a hint of blue as the sunlight from the picture window highlighted spots on the wall.

On the far side of the large office was a desk, a computer and the office was equipped with printers, copiers, scanners and easel and work bench.

Wow, all this for me? Daphne, could not believe the detail and equipment for her own use. She was used to sharing office equipment with hordes of police officers and admin staff.

No time to waste here my dear, but believe me you are going to earn your keep. Don smiled and handed her some files.

I suppose I better get to it then.

Good, so let us run through these assignments.

Don sat down in front of Daphne’s desk, waiting for her to move in behind the desk.

I believe the first case falls into your field of expertise and what you are most famous for, age progression. This here is Dawn Landers, eleven years old on this photo. She disappeared fifteen years ago. The case went cold after a number of years. Her parents never gave up hope though, they kept searching until her mother passed away from cancer two years ago. Two weeks ago, her father received an anonymous call from somebody who claimed to know Dawn. Mr Landers went to the address given by this person, but there was no-one by the name of Dawn there. It was a nightclub and although he asked around nobody knew of a Dawn working there. He went there for a few nights but could not recognize anybody who he thought could resemble his daughter fifteen years later. Although we do not have a deadline as such on this one, the man is prepared to pay us handsomely and is not the most patient man I have ever come across. I promised him that our new forensic artist will be on it within a week or two at the most. Everything you need, photos, already scanned for your computer I may add, family history and so forth are in the file.

Daphne flipped through the file and found various photos, computer disks and about a hundred or so typed pages of information in it.

The next one is also an age progression composite, this time from the Police. This man was apprehended for multiple counts of rape about ten years ago but due to some error in the investigation walked away scot-free after a lengthy court case about eight years ago. Recently there were new cases with the same MO. They need something to go on as there were no finger prints or DNA on the scene. One victim however got a partial look at the rapist as he thought she had passed out and took his time ransacking her flat. What she saw of him was not enough to identify him as the man previously apprehended. The Police are hoping that a newer picture might help.

Again Daphne found the file to be about two inches thick, filled with computer disks, photos and typed pages.

These are the two cases I want you to start on immediately, but I would appreciate it if you could go through the others before you actually start working on it as at least three of the others have deadlines and I would want you to be aware of it so you could work out a schedule and time limit on each. I am not going to give you a run down on each and every file, but again, do not and I repeat, do not hesitate to come see me if you need clarity on anything, assistance, equipment. Our business rests on our reputation.

I promise. Daphne found Don a supportive and caring person, but now wished he would leave so she could get on with her work.

She was totally emerged in her work, making notes on each file and stapling it to the front inside cover, when there was a light knock on her door. A red headed woman of Daphne’s age stuck her head around the half opened door.

Around here we are encouraged to take lunch… the woman laughed.

Oh, I did not realise.

Yes, it is lunch time and my name is Anna, lab tech… just down the hall from you. Come I’ll show you our favourite place to have lunch.

Daphne picked up her bag and followed Anna out of her office. The coffee shop was only two doors away from their building. Walking in Daphne immediately recognized some of the faces at one of the tables as those of some of her new colleagues.

Come, let me re-introduce you, Don rushed you so this morning I am sure you did not take in half of the names, although we were warned that you are some genius.

No, no you are right, I was so nervous I hardly registered any of the names.

Anna introduced Daphne to Andre, head of the forensic laboratory, John, client/media liaison, David the law specialist, Marie, secretary and Gary, photographer and research assistant. Daphne soon felt at home and spent half an hour laughing at their jokes and relaxing for the first time that day. After her second cup of coffee and a marvellous scone with cream and strawberry preserve she started itching to get back to work.

Hey guys, thank you for this lovely relaxing break, but as the new kid on the block I better get back to my office before it is my head on the chopping block she laughed.

Back at her office she inserted the disk with Dawn Landers’ photos