Iced!: The 2007 Journal of Nick Fitzmorgan Read Online Free
Author: Bill Doyle
Put together the pieces of the puzzle.”
I heard a voice call out to Judge. It sounded like Mr. Bulldog telling her that they were running late. Judge’s eyes never
left mine. “Nick, look for Maura,” she instructed. “But be careful whom you trust. At least for now. All right?”
“Okay, Judge.”
“I’m sure this will all work out, and you’ll see your dad soon. I’ll be back in touch the second I finish with the Notabe
case.”
We said our good-byes, and the screen went dark.
I looked around the office. I felt better after talking with Judge, but was still pretty much at a loss. What could I do to
help track down my dad?
“Put together the pieces of the puzzle,” Judge Pinkerton had told me on the phone.
But how could I do that if I couldn’t even find the pieces? I felt as empty-headed as the skull.
The piece of cloth from the strange man’s coat! The skull! They must be clues. I followed my instincts. First, the cloth.
It would be faster. When I pulled it out of the baggie, I saw that there were several hairs stuck to it.
I did a quick hair/fiber analysis. The hairs didn’t match any of the human samples on my database. But then I was struck by
a thought. What if the hair hadn’t come from a person — but from an animal?
Tec Tip
FROM ESME HUNTER’S DETECTION HANDBOOK
HAIR AND FIBER ANALYSIS
Under a microscope, it can be determined whether or not a hair or fiber is from a human. Once the determination has been made that it’s not human, there are four choices of what it can be: minerals, vegetable, animal, or synthetic. Once the hair or fiber has been narrowed down to one of these four groups, it can be compared with other known samples, and a match can be determined.
I tapped into the Museum of Natural History’s computer and discovered that the hair had come from a yak. And what was more
interesting was that the follicle was still attached.
This fact meant that the hair came directly from a yak and had not been processed into a shirt or something. One of the only
ways this hair could have gotten on the strange man would be if he had recently been at a yak farm — or, I thought dryly,
a petting zoo with yaks.
Now for the skull. Tearing a page from my forensic anthropology textbook, I got to work.
USING CLAY IN FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION
STEP 1 : Try to determine the sex of the person and age at time of death. For age, examine teeth. For gender, look at three points: bone at lower back of skull, ridge above eyes, bone below ear—these areas are larger in males.
STEP 2 : Attach 20 to 35 pegs to show the thickness of flesh the average person has in those spots.
STEP 3 : Insert plastic balls for eyes. Using pegs as guides, place clay “flesh” on the skull to form facial muscles.
STEP 4 : Shape the nose. There are no bones to guide you, so use your best judgment. Fill in the rest of the face with clay until the tops of the pegs are covered.
STEP 5 : If you know the age of the person at death, add appropriate signs of aging and hairstyle.
CHECK THIS OUT! IT’S FROM MY FORENSICS CLASS.
Pictures of the final work in our example ran in a newspaper in 1989. Someone recognized the once-unknown face as Karen Price
— and later, two men were charged with her murder.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR TO SEE IF THIS INFO IS TRUE ABOUT YOU!
TIPS FOR SHAPING THE FACE
•The inner borders of the iris in a person’s eyes are directly over the corners of the mouth.
•The distance between the inner corners of the eyes is about the same as the width of the nose.
•The nose and ears are about the same in length (but older people have longer ears).
Trying io rebuild a face from just a skull can be like reconstructing a piece of fruit from an apple core. It’s part art,
part science, and part guesswork. Hopefully, when you’re done, the face will look enough like the living person that an identification
can be made.
I reconstruct faces with clay. To do this, I’ve had to learn
I heard a voice call out to Judge. It sounded like Mr. Bulldog telling her that they were running late. Judge’s eyes never
left mine. “Nick, look for Maura,” she instructed. “But be careful whom you trust. At least for now. All right?”
“Okay, Judge.”
“I’m sure this will all work out, and you’ll see your dad soon. I’ll be back in touch the second I finish with the Notabe
case.”
We said our good-byes, and the screen went dark.
I looked around the office. I felt better after talking with Judge, but was still pretty much at a loss. What could I do to
help track down my dad?
“Put together the pieces of the puzzle,” Judge Pinkerton had told me on the phone.
But how could I do that if I couldn’t even find the pieces? I felt as empty-headed as the skull.
The piece of cloth from the strange man’s coat! The skull! They must be clues. I followed my instincts. First, the cloth.
It would be faster. When I pulled it out of the baggie, I saw that there were several hairs stuck to it.
I did a quick hair/fiber analysis. The hairs didn’t match any of the human samples on my database. But then I was struck by
a thought. What if the hair hadn’t come from a person — but from an animal?
Tec Tip
FROM ESME HUNTER’S DETECTION HANDBOOK
HAIR AND FIBER ANALYSIS
Under a microscope, it can be determined whether or not a hair or fiber is from a human. Once the determination has been made that it’s not human, there are four choices of what it can be: minerals, vegetable, animal, or synthetic. Once the hair or fiber has been narrowed down to one of these four groups, it can be compared with other known samples, and a match can be determined.
I tapped into the Museum of Natural History’s computer and discovered that the hair had come from a yak. And what was more
interesting was that the follicle was still attached.
This fact meant that the hair came directly from a yak and had not been processed into a shirt or something. One of the only
ways this hair could have gotten on the strange man would be if he had recently been at a yak farm — or, I thought dryly,
a petting zoo with yaks.
Now for the skull. Tearing a page from my forensic anthropology textbook, I got to work.
USING CLAY IN FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION
STEP 1 : Try to determine the sex of the person and age at time of death. For age, examine teeth. For gender, look at three points: bone at lower back of skull, ridge above eyes, bone below ear—these areas are larger in males.
STEP 2 : Attach 20 to 35 pegs to show the thickness of flesh the average person has in those spots.
STEP 3 : Insert plastic balls for eyes. Using pegs as guides, place clay “flesh” on the skull to form facial muscles.
STEP 4 : Shape the nose. There are no bones to guide you, so use your best judgment. Fill in the rest of the face with clay until the tops of the pegs are covered.
STEP 5 : If you know the age of the person at death, add appropriate signs of aging and hairstyle.
CHECK THIS OUT! IT’S FROM MY FORENSICS CLASS.
Pictures of the final work in our example ran in a newspaper in 1989. Someone recognized the once-unknown face as Karen Price
— and later, two men were charged with her murder.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR TO SEE IF THIS INFO IS TRUE ABOUT YOU!
TIPS FOR SHAPING THE FACE
•The inner borders of the iris in a person’s eyes are directly over the corners of the mouth.
•The distance between the inner corners of the eyes is about the same as the width of the nose.
•The nose and ears are about the same in length (but older people have longer ears).
Trying io rebuild a face from just a skull can be like reconstructing a piece of fruit from an apple core. It’s part art,
part science, and part guesswork. Hopefully, when you’re done, the face will look enough like the living person that an identification
can be made.
I reconstruct faces with clay. To do this, I’ve had to learn
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