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He didn’t entirely understand his intellectual fascination with murder He did not have a particularly ruminative or philosophical bent--or at least he didn’t think of hi day after day in a world of violence and blood and death, it was ie of years Maybethe dark side of human potential; ; it wasn’t the kind of thing most cops talked about
In his case, of course, perhaps his need to understand murder and the murderer’s mind was related to the fact that both his brother and sister had been uely of other che up at Dan, Luther Williams said, ’Listen, Danny, next week there’s a really terrific debate between--’
Dan interrupted him ’Luther, I’m sorry, but I don’t have tiht away’
’What’s the big hurry?’
’I gotta pee’
’Look, Danny, I know politics bores you--’
’No, really, it isn’t that,’ Dan said with a straight face ’I actually gotta pee’
Luther sighed ’Someday the totalitarians will take over, and they’ll pass laws so you can’t pee unless you have permission from the Official Federal Urinary Gatekeeper’
’Ouch’
’Then you’ll co, and you’ll say, "Luther, my God, why didn’t you warn me about these people?"’
’No, no I promise to craay somewhere, all by myself, and let my bladder burst in silence I promise--swear--not to bother you
’Yeah, because you’d rather let your bladder burst than have to hearat the lab table on a wheeled stool Dan pulled up another stool and sat down in front of hihts, Doctor Williaht McCaffrey, Hoffritz, and Cooper’
’They’re scheduled for autopsy this evening’
’They haven’t been done already?’
’We have a backlog here, Danny They kill ’em faster than we can cut ’em open’
’Sounds like a violation of free-market principles,’ Dan said
’Huh?’
’You’ve got a lot more supply than you have demand’
’Isn’t that the truth? Would you like to go into the cooler, see the tables where we have all the stiffs stacked on top of one another?’
’No thanks, but it sounds like a char excursion’
’Pretty soon, we’ll have to start piling thes of ice’
’You at least seen the three I’m interested in?’
’Oh, yeah’
’Can you tellabout them?’
’They’re dead’
’As soon as the totalitarians take over, they’re going to do aith all s’
’Hey, that’s what I’ you,’ Luther said
’You’ve examined the wounds on those three?’
His dark face darkening even further, the pathologist said, ’Never seen anything like it Each corpse is acontusions, scores of them, maybe hundreds Such a uration Dozens of points of fracture too, but there’s no pattern to the bone injuries The autopsy will tell us for sure, but based on just a preliminary examination, I’d say the bones sometimes look snapped, sometimes splintered, sometimescrushed Now, there’s no damn way a blunt instrument, used as a club, can pulverize bone A bloill crack or splinter bone, but that’s strictly impact Impact doesn’t crush--unless it’s treet when a car raainst a brick wall Generally, you can only crush bone by applying pressure, by squeezing, and I’ a lot of pressure
’So, ere they hit with?’
’You don’t get me See, when souys were, you’ll find a pattern of the striking face--rough, smooth, sharp, rounded, whatever And you’ll be able to say, "This fella asted with a ha surface, one inch in diae" Or maybe it’s a crowbar, the dull end of a hatchet, a bookend, or a salami But once you’ve examined the wounds, you’ll usually be able to put a name to the instrument But not this time Every contusion has a different shape Every injury appears to’ve beenon his left earlobe, Dan said, ’I suppose we can rule out the possibility that the killer walked into that house with a suitcase full of blunt instruments just because he likes variety I don’t see the victi still while he traded the ha wrench’
’I’d think that was a safe assu isI didn’t notice one wound that looked exactly like a ha wrench Each contusion was not only different from other contusions, but each was unique, oddly shaped
’Any ideas at all?’
’Well, if this were an old Fu Manchu novel, I’d say we have a villain who’s invented a fiendish neeapon, a compressed-air er wielding a sledgehammer’
’Colorful theory But not too damned likely’
’You ever read Sax Rohmer, those old Fu Manchu books?’ Hell, they were full of exotic weapons, far-out methods of murder’
’This is real life’
’That’s what they say’
’Real life isn’t a Fu Manchu novel’
Luther shrugged ’I’ the news lately?’
’I need so better than that, Luther I need a whole lot of help with this one’
They stared at each other
Then, without a trace of humor this time, Luther said, ’But that is what it looks like, Danny Like they were beaten to death with a haed Melanie to coirl up from the hypnotic state Well, not up exactly: The child didn’t rise to full consciousness Rather, she moved out of the hypnotic trance andto the semicatatonic state in which she’d been since the police had found her
Laura had nurtured a small hope that terirl out of her catatonia as well Briefly the child’s eyes did fix on Laura’s, and she put one hand against Laura’s cheek as if disbelieving her mother’s presence
’Stay with irl slipped away nevertheless The ly brief
The therapy session had taken its toll from Melanie Her face was slack with exhaustion, and her eyes were bloodshot Laura put Melanie to bed for a nap, and the girl was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow
When Laura went out to the living room, she discovered that Earl Benton had left his chair and had taken off his suit jacket He had also drawn the revolver froht hand, down at his side, not as if he would use it that very ht have a need for it soon He was standing at a French , staring outside, a worried look on his broad face
’Earl?’ she said uncertainly
He glanced at her ’Where’s Melanie?’
’Napping’
He returned his attention to the street in front of the house ’Better go sit with her’
Her breath caught in her throat She sed hard ’What’s wrong?’
’Maybe nothing Half an hour ago, a telephone-coot out’