Page 23 (2/2)

"He had her strip Then he butchered her like that, he got so much blood on the walls that they had to paint the room When did you ever hear of a professional hit like that?"

"Who knohat kind of anily, do a real job on her, h his mind?"

"And then he hires me to look into it"

"I admit it sounds weird, Matt, but-"

"It can't be a crazy, either It was so his kicks"

"How do you know that?"

"He's too careful Printing his na the dirty towels aith hi a shred of physical evidence"

"I thought he used the towels to wrap the machete"

"Why would he do that? After he washed the ht it Or, if he wanted to wrap it in towels, he'd use clean towels He wouldn't carry away the towels he washed up with unless he wanted to keep thes- a hair, a bloodstain- and he knew helinked him to Kim"

"We don't know for sure the toere dirty, Matt We don't know he took a shower"

"He chopped her up and put blood all over the walls You think he got out of there without washing up?"

"I guess not"

"Would you take wet towels home for a souvenir? He had a reason"

"Okay" A pause "A psychohe's someone who knew her, who had a reason to kill her You can't be sure of that"

"Why did he have her co Him and his little machete"

"Why didn't he take his little machete to her place on Thirty-seventh Street?"

"Instead of having herto hookers They aren't nuts about outcalls because of the travel time They'll do them, but they usually invite the caller to come to their place instead, tell him how much more comfortable it is She probably would have done that but he wasn't having any"

"Well, he already paid for the rooet his o to her place?"

He thought about it "She had a doorman," he said "Maybe he didn't want to walk past the doorh a whole hotel lobby and sign a registration card and speak to a desk clerk Maybe he didn't want to pass that doorman because the doorman had seen hie than an entire hotel"

"That's pretty iffy, Matt"

"I can't help it Sos that don't irl and had a personal reason for wanting her dead He may be eenerally go batshit with awoure it? A boyfriend?"

"So 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 uy 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 adistration 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 Doner," I reuy would have let me"

"I suppose we could run the cards"

"Thanks, Joe"

"I suppose we can run the other check, too First-class coistrations for the past six ht"

"The autopsy showed seus 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 semen 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 seerprint, more like a blood type Makes useful circuht, with her lifestyle it doesn't rule a guy out if the semen type's not a match"

"And it doesn't rule hiive hiot some skin under her nails That always helps"

"You can't have everything"

"For sure If she blew him, you'd think she could have wound up with a hair or two between her teeth Whole trouble is she's too ladylike"