Slaughter

“No,” Qui

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Renz said, leaning forward and sliding about a dozen sheets of paper out onto Qui

Qui

“DNA samples are still being worked up, but so far blood taken out of the pipes beneath the tub drains provides no conclusive evidence that the Off the Road and Clovis Hotel fires were set by the same person.”

Qui

He said, “Something’s wrong here.”

“I see it,” Renz said. “The drainpipes under the bathtubs were clogged with blood. Some of the bathtub victims weren’t burned to death or died from smoke inhalation. They were tortured to death while their blood ran down so thick it clogged the drains.”

“It looks like the killer did his routine on both hotels.” Qui

When the killer was finished with what he’d come to do, he probably left in a way he’d pla

Then silence except for the crackling of the flames.

Qui

Qui

Renz tossed down most of his drink in a series of gulps.

Qui

15

“There was a similar mass murder in Florida about five years ago,” Helen the profiler said. She was standing in front of Qui

“The men were collateral damage?”

“Looks that way. Men often are.”

Qui

“I fought the cat all the way,” Lido said.

Qui

“Sandy Toes Hotel?”

Helen shifted her feet and stood up straighter. She and Qui

Lido caught the subtle exchange and smiled. He placed a wrinkled yellow envelope on Qui

The charred debris in the Sandy Toes photos was surprising. The burn victims’ bodies were shriveled black horrors. Breasts had been removed from some of the women. Qui

He was almost relieved when he saw that here most of the breasts—what was left of them—were lying near the victims’ bodies.

None of the male victims of the Sandy Toes Hotel fire seemed to have been tortured, and only one of them, possibly coincidentally, was found burned to death in a bathtub.

They seemed to have simply been in the way.

Collateral damage.

The women, however, were a different story. What was left of them—including their severed breasts—that was too large to fit down a drain was lying in a jumble at the bottoms of the tubs.

Preliminary autopsy reports on the women suggested they were killed and dismembered swiftly. The killer had known he had minimum time.

“He made every second count,” Qui

“He must have known he had a way out without being trapped by the flames or smoke,” Fedderman said as the detectives passed around the files with photos.

“Looks like he went from point to point, killing and dismembering the women, then starting or feeding the fires.”

“Those women didn’t run because they were terrified,” Pearl said. She looked angry, but calm.

Qui

“How did he find them?” Pearl asked. “Look in every bathtub?”

“Listening for screams or calls for help,” Harold said. “Bathtubs are where lots of people trapped by fire take refuge. They fill them with water, climb in, and hope for the best.”

“And have their pleas answered by a gremlin with knives and saws,” Pearl said. “Nightmare stuff.”

Helen studied the postmortem report. “A figure of authority heard their calls and appeared, probably a fireman in a slicker and helmet. That’s why they didn’t run. They thought a rescuer had arrived. One of the first things he did was saw through their Achilles tendons. Then they couldn’t stand up or climb out of the tub. He’d have had to waste a move disassembling them as they got weaker and weaker from loss of blood. He probably eviscerated them last and then unwound and stacked their intestines.”

“Think of it without the blood,” Harold said, “and he sure does neat work.”

“Neat enough to be a doctor or a med-school student doing extra homework,” Sal said.

“Like a project,” Harold said.

Nobody spoke for a moment, thinking that one over.

“Nift says no,” Qui

“And there’s no sign of him having used power tools,” Fedderman said.

“Our guy wouldn’t do that,” Helen said. “That would depersonalize it.”

“Power tools might be noisy, too,” Harold said, and made a buzzing sound with his mouth to demonstrate.

Sal gave him the look, cautioning Harold not to get on a roll.

“The killer in Florida might have used the surf to cover up the sounds,” Jerry Lido said with a sideways glance. He’d been working on his computer while the others talked.

“Drowned them out,” Harold said.

“And the murder in Florida had an element of ca

“Di

Sal came within an inch of telling him to shut up.

“Not the same as the murders we’re investigating,” Sal said with raspy moderation. “The killer six years ago wasn’t nearly as proficient with his instruments as our killer.”