Detective and mystery stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Police -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Science fiction
"He was hoping the body wouldn't be found until it was too late for us
to know that it was a rape killing. And that means that he knew that
he would be on our list if we did find out that it was rape.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered. If I'm right, then he has
outsmarted himself. He has told us that we know him, and he's told us
that he's smart enough to figure out a dodge--that he's not one of the
helplessly stupid ones."
"That should help to narrow the field down," he said in a hard voice.
He felt in his pocket for a cigarette, found his pack, took one out,
and then held it, unlit, between the fingers of his right hand.
"Inspector Royall, I've studied the new law of this state--the one
you're working under here--and I think it'll be great if it works out.
I wish you luck. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to call the office."
As he went out to the desk phone, I gave him a silent thanks. Words of
encouragement were hard to come by at that time.
I turned and went back towards the clean-up room.
She didn't look as though she were asleep. They never do. She looked
dead. She'd been head down in the sewer, and the blood had pooled and
coagulated in her head and shoulders. Now that the filth had been
washed off, the dark purple of the dead blood cells showed through the
translucent skin. She would look better after she was embalmed.
Doc Prouty was holding up a small syringe, eying the little bit of
fluid within it. "We've got him," he said in a flat voice. "I'll have
the lab run an analysis. We're well within the time limit. All we have
to do is separate the girl's blood type from that of the spermatic
fluid. You boys find your man, and I can identify him for you." He
put the syringe in its special case. "I'll let you know the exact
cause of death in a couple of hours."
"O.K., Doc. Thanks," said Inspector Kleek, closing his notebook. He
turned to one of the other men. "Thompson, you notify the parents. Get
'em down here to make a positive identification, and send it along to
my office with the print identification." Then he looked at me.
"Anything extra you want, Roy?"
I shook my head. "Nope. Let's go check the files, huh?"
"Sure. Can I ride with you? I rode in with Thompson; he'll have to
stay."
"Come along," I told him.
* * * * *
By ten fifteen that evening, we had narrowed the field down
considerably. We fed all the data we had into the computer, including
the general type number of the spermatic fluid, which Dr. Prouty had
given us, and watched while the machine sorted through the
characteristics of all the known criminals in its memory.
Kleek and I were sitting at a desk drinking hot, black coffee when the
computer technician came over and handed Kleek the results at ten
fifteen. "Quite a bunch of 'em, Inspector," he said, "but the
geographic compartmentalization will help."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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