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All your women, Scudder Jesus, a madman wanted to take from me women I didn't have I had barely known Connie Cooperht of her in years And ere his other targets? Elaine, who played a shopworn Lady of Shalott to o, and Jan, o And Toni Cleary, who'd had the bad judger with ht Could he have trailed us all the way out to Richmond Hill? It seehborhood, lurking, and he picked us up on our way to Ar around, trying to sort it out

I packed it in, finally, went back tomy wet clothes up to dry It had turned cold out there and I had paid as little heed to that as to the rain, and I was chilled to the bone I stood under a hot shower and then crawled into bed

Lying there, I had a thought, or skirted close to the edge of one He was out there,all of these wo around like a juggler trying to keep all the balls in the air Trying to save the to protect the to hold on to the, in a sense, to confirm their status as what he labeled the in the process to deny the truth, to turn a blind eye on reality To overlook the bitter fact that these women were not mine, and probably never had been mine That I didn't have anybody, and likely never would

That I was all alone

In daylight you could see the bloodstains, although you would have had to be looking for them to knohat they were I went over there with Joe Durkin, and the door site It was on the side street, perhaps twenty yards west of the building's entrance

The doorman was an Hispanic kid, his shoulders too narrow for the jacket of his uniform, his mustache sparse and tentative He'd had Sunday off but I showed him the sketch of Motley anyway He looked at it and shook his head

Durkin got a passkey and ent upstairs and let ourselves into her apartment No one had troubled to close theand it had rained in some the previous day I leaned out over the sill and tried to see the spot where she cao hten up

Durkin went over to the bed It waswas folded neatly at its foot A navy skirt, an off-white blouse, a dark gray cable-knit cardigan A pair of lacy white panties A bra, also white, with large cups

He picked up the bra, exalanced my way to check arette, shook out the match, and looked around for an ashtray There weren't any He blew on the match to e of the night table

"Your guy said he killed her," he said "That right?"

"That's what he told Elaine"

"Elaine's the witness against him? That's twelve years back when all this shit started?"

"That's right"

"You don't think he's like some of these Arab terrorists, do you? Plane co credit for it"

"I don't think so"

He drew on his cigarette and blew out suess not," he said "Well, it could have been oes out a highare you going to say whose idea it was?" He walked over to the door "She had this locked, had the deadbolt on What's that prove either way? Doesn't e the deadbolt fro here, or you can do it when you leave by locking it with the key He puts her out the , he picks up a key, he locks up after hi"

"No"

"Of course there's no note I never like a suicide without a note There ought to be a law"

"What would you have for a penalty?"

"You've gotta come back and live" He looked around reflexively for an ashtray, then flicked ashes on the parquet floor "Used to be a crih I never heard of anyone prosecuted for it Idiot statute Makes it a cri that's not a crime if you succeed at it Here's one for you, the kind of dieants' exam Say she falls out theand hits the Fitzroy kid He dies but he breaks her fall and she lives What's she guilty of?"

"I don't know"

"I suppose it's either crihter two And there's been incidents like that Not from twenty-odd stories up, but when soet a prosecution, though"

"No"

"Unsound ood defense, I would think What I'll do, I'll call and get a lab crew in here Be a gift from God to find some of his prints on theframe, wouldn't it now?"

"Or anywhere in the apartet lucky that way, do you?"

"No"

"Be sweet if we did Couple of uniforms from our house were first on the scene, so if there's a case it's our case, and I'd fucking love to hang it on your guy's neck But everything says this is a guy who doesn't leave prints He called her twice, right? First tiot on tape, an unidentified ue threat, says it's not her turn yet but doesn't say her turn for what Try et rid of his cigarette His eyes went to the floor, then to the openHe went instead to the kitchen sink and held the cigarette under the tap, then dropped the butt in the trash

He said, "Then when he does threaten her and talks in a normal voice it's after he tells her to turn off the machine, and of course she does what he says and turns it off So we got her word he threatened her, and her word that he confessed to killing Cleary and Fitzroy And even that's thin, because he didn't say exactly what he did or ot so I'll copy that sketch and we'll try it on the door, and the rest of the crew, too, just in case so around the preh And placing hi way froot to establish that there's been a murder, and I don't kno you can do that"

"What about the medical evidence?"