that he was straight-looking and older than her. The time frame fits
with the coroner’s ETD of between two and four. The coroner also found
cocaine and booze in her system.
A lot?”
“Enough to dull her judgment. If she had any in the first place-which
is doubtful, seeing as she was traipsing around the Union District in
the wee hours, all alone.”
“The landlords said she was smart-Ph.D. student in biomath.”
“Yeah. Well, there’s smart and there’s smart. The actual killing took
place on a side street a couple of blocks away from the club. In that
little Mazda of hers. The keys were still in the ignition.”
“She was killed in the car?”
“Right in the driver’s seat, judging from the spatter pattern.
Afterward, she slumped across both seats. The body was found just
after sunrise by a couple of garment workers arriving for the early
shift. Blood had seeped through the door and into the street. The
slant of the street made it run down into the curb and pool. It was
the pool they noticed.”
The waiter brought my ale, a bowl of soup oysters, and Milo’s pea
soup.
He waited while Milo tasted. Milo said, “Perfect, Irv” and the old man
nodded and disappeared.
Milo took a couple more spoonfuls, licked his lips, and spoke through
the steam. “The Mazda’s convertible top was up but there was no blood
on the headliner, so the coroner’s certain the top was down when it
happened. The spatter pattern also indicates that whoever did it was
outside the car, standing on the driver’s side.
Standing over her, maybe a foot or two behind her. He hit her on the
head. From the skull damage it must’ve knocked her out, may even have
killed her. Then he used some kind of blade to sever her jugular and
her windpipe. Once that was done, he did the mechanical rape, so maybe
we’ve got ourselves a necrophile.”
“Sounds like overkill,” I said. “Some kind of frenzy.”
“Or thoroughness,” he said, sipping soup. “He was cool enough to raise
the top.”
“Was she seen dancing with anyone in the club?”
“Nothing on record. Only reason the bartender remembered her leaving
was he was on a smoke break, just outside.”
“He wasn’t considered a suspect?”
“Nope. Tell you one thing, the asshole who did it came prepared-think
about all those weapons. We’re talking a predator, Alex. Maybe
someone watching the club, prowling the area cause he knows there’s
lots of women around. He waits until he sees exactly what he’s been
looking for. Lone target, maybe a certain physical type, maybe he’s
just decided tonight’s the night. With the added bonus of a
ronier’ible on a quiet, dark street. With the top down.
Which is like You are cordially invited to assault me.”” “Makes sense,”
I said, feeling my gorge rise.
A grad student, huh? Too bad she flunked Logic One-A. I’m not trying
to blame the victim, Alex, but add the dope and booze to her behavioral
pattern and it doesn’t sound like a lady with strong instincts for
self-preservation. What’d she steal?”
As I told him, he ate more soup, used his spoon to wedge marrow out of
the bone, and ate that too.
I said, “The Murtaughs said she seemed to have plenty of money even
after she quit her job. And you’ve just added cocaine to her budget.
So blackmail makes some sense, doesn’t it? She latches on to the fact
that one Jones kid died and the other keeps coming back into the
hospital with unexplained illnesses. She steals the evidence and tries
to exploit it. And now she’s dead. Just like Ashmore.”
He put his glass down slowly. “Big leap, from petty pilfering to
putting the squeeze on biggies, Alex. And there’s no reason, from the
facts of the case, to think a psycho didn’t cut her up. In terms of
where she got her money, we still don’t know her family didn’t give it
to her. For that matter, the coke could have been asset, not a
debitmaybe she dealt dope, too.”
“If she had family money, why would she rent a cheap single room from
the Murtaughs?”