Part 35 (1/2)

'I can't help it. Somebody did a whole batch of things that don't make sense unless he knew the girl and had a personal reason for wanting her dead. He may be emotionally disturbed. Perfectly levelheaded people don't generally go bats.h.i.+t with a machete. But he's more than a psycho picking women at random.'

'How do you figure it? A boyfriend?'

'Something like that.'

'She splits with the pimp, tells the boyfriend she's free, and he panics?'

'I was thinking along those lines, yes.'

'And goes crazy with a machete? How does that mesh with your profile of a guy who decides he'd rather stay home with his wife?'

'I don't know.'

'Do you know for sure she had a boyfriend?'

'No,' I admitted.

'These registration cards. Charles O. Jones and all his aliases, if he ever had any. You think they're gonna lead anywhere?'

'They could.'

'That's not what I asked you, Matt.'

'Then the answer's no. I don't think they're going to lead to anything.'

'But you still think it's worth doing.'

'I'd have gone through the cards myself at the Galaxy Downtowner,' I reminded him. 'On my own time, if the guy would have let me.'

'I suppose we could run the cards.'

'Thanks, Joe.'

'I suppose we can run the other check, too. First-cla.s.s commercial hotels in the area, their Jones registrations for the past six months or whatever. That what you wanted?'

'That's right.'

'The autopsy showed s.e.m.e.n in her throat and esophagus. You happen to notice that?'

'I saw it in the file last night.'

'First he had her blow him, then he chopped her up with his boy scout hatchet. And you figure it was a boyfriend.'

'The s.e.m.e.n could have been from an earlier contact. She was a hooker, she had a lot of contacts.'

'I suppose,' he said. 'You know, they can type s.e.m.e.n now. It's not like a fingerprint, more like a blood type. Makes useful circ.u.mstantial evidence. But you're right, with her lifestyle it doesn't rule a guy out if the s.e.m.e.n type's not a match.'

'And it doesn't rule him in if it is.'

'No, but it'd f.u.c.king well give him a headache. I wish she'd scratched him, got some skin under her nails. That always helps.'