'Maybe,' Rink offered. 'You know how these crazies are. They get to a point where they don't give a damn anymore. They believe they're indestructible, that the police can't catch them. They start taking chances, dropping the feds the odd clue. Makes it all the more exciting for them.'
'So why be so meticulous at the motel? If you want to drop the feds a clue, why not leave your prints at the scene of the crime?' I sat back, crossed my arms over my chest.
'That'd probably be too blatant,' Harvey offered.
'And leaving a car full of evidence isn't?' I asked.
'Not if you never suspect that the car and the killings are going to be connected,' Harvey said.
'Yeah,' said Rink. 'It was only by chance that John was seen getting picked up by the couple. Maybe he didn't think the abandoned car would be tied to what happened at the motel.'
Okay, it was a fair assumption. Not one that I shared. John was no killer. I'd have staked my right hand on it, if the wager weren't inappropriate under the circumstances. I rubbed my hands over my face, groaning with a mixture of frustration and fatigue.
'What time is it?' I finally asked.
'Late,' Harvey replied.
'Does that mean it'll be morning in England?'
Both Rink and Harvey glanced at each other and made faces. Rink finally turned to me and said, 'It'll be
'I'll have to ring her at some point. But that's not who I was thinking about.'
'Who then?' Rink asked.
'Raymond Molloy,' I said.
'Detective Inspector Molloy?' Rink asked. 'The cop you did that job for? What do you want to call him for?'
'I need to check up on any similar murders back home. See if there's a pattern. To show if John's involved or not.'
'What if he won't speak to you? It's not as if you're still on the government payroll, Hunter.'
'He'll speak to me. He owes me a favor.'
DI Molloy did indeed owe me a favor. I'd sorted a little problem for him concerning a pimp who'd tried to extort money from him after Molloy dallied too often with some of the pimp's girls. It wasn't a problem his own resources could handle without his indiscretion becoming public knowledge. It took only one visit to the pimp for him to see sense—and to hand over the incriminating evidence of Molloy getting very creative and athletic on a waterbed.
That didn't mean Molloy was pleased to hear from me. I'd saved his professional reputation, but I'd also made it very clear that rough treatment of a woman—paid or not—might just make me forget about helping him next time. He answered my queries curtly. Little more than yes, no, and kiss my ass.
'Thanks for nothing,' I said as I placed the phone back in its cradle.
'Well?' Rink asked.
'As ever, Mr. Molloy was his charming self.'
'But did he give you what you wanted to know?'
'Yeah,' I said. 'There are no cold investigations into murder victims subject to postmortem mutilation. Rules out the chance that John was killing before he came here.'
Rink hiked his shoulders. 'Doesn't mean that he's innocent. Just that he didn't start killing until he arrived in the U.S.'
I shook my head as I got up and paced the length of Harvey's office.
'You don't go from being totally inexperienced to hacking up bodies and taking skeletal remains as trophies. You build up to something like that. There's nothing in John's background that hints that he was even violent. Christ, he was a number one asshole toward the end, but that was because of the problems he was having. In all that time, though, he never lifted his hand to anyone. Not Jennifer, not his kids. He wouldn't even stick up for himself when Shank threatened him. Does that sound like someone who's capable of murdering people?'
'Most murderers are nothing but low-down cowards,' Rink reminded me. 'It doesn't take a brave man to take a woman hostage at knifepoint.'
'I agree,' I said. 'But it takes some balls to take out a man and a woman at the same time.'
'Unless he took out the man first,' Harvey said. He peered up at me from his swivel chair. 'Sneaked up behind him and slit his throat or whatever. Then he could have done the woman.'
Rink said, 'Regardless if John's their man or not, the FBI is searching for him. Kind of complicates matters a bit, don't it?'
'Yes and no,' I countered. 'They've more resources than we have. They might be able to find him for us. When he's cleared of their suspicions, it could be as simple as going and picking him up.'
'You think they're just gonna let you walk in and take him home?'
'If he's innocent, yes.'
'And if he's not? If he does turn out to be this punk Harvestman?'
'Then they're welcome to him,' I said. The words felt cold in my mouth.
