‘I’m going out on a limb here,’ said the guy behind the counter. ‘But would I be right in saying you two are not, like, together?’
‘That would be right,’ said Joe.
‘And you never would be.’
‘He’s not my type,’ said Danny.
‘Well, you need to look a little closer at the graphic on that T-shirt,’ he said to Danny. ‘Because you might not be sending out the message you want to.’
‘Oh,’ said Danny. ‘That’s not what I thought it was. You’re right. Thanks for that.’
‘Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time. If you seemed like assholes, I would have let you go. And get hit on, like, ten times, when you’re out with your wife.’
Danny headed quickly for the door. Joe followed, laughing.
‘You should have bought it. I wish he’d let you.’
‘I’m not an asshole, remember?’
‘Here we go,’ said Joe. ‘Open.’
They walked in to Dawg On It and the backwards motion of Buck Torrance in a purple cowboy shirt and tight white jeans with purple diamante paw prints on the pockets. He didn’t hear them over the vacuum cleaner, but turned it off when he caught their reflection in the mirror.
‘Hi. Buck?’ said Joe.
‘Yes.’
‘Detectives Lucchesi and Markey, NYPD. You’re the promoter at Bed, Bad and Beyond?’
‘Yes, sir. I am. Can I help you?’ said Buck.
‘I was speaking with Mark Branham from Gay Alliance. He said you were the man to talk to. We’re looking into some pretty violent attacks on men that have happened over the last year,’ said Joe.
‘Gay men,’ said Buck.
‘One of them was gay. We were wondering if we showed you a few photos…’
‘Sure. Go ahead.’ Buck took the photos. ‘No to this guy, doesn’t look familiar. No again. And yeah. I know this guy’s face. That’s William Aneto.’
‘Did you know him?’
‘I’d seen him around – in bars, in the club, whatever, so I knew his face. And then there were the posters all around the place last year. People lit candles on the street by the club, that’s it. I’m sorry.’
‘Did you notice him with any particular crowd, any one guy?’
‘I just didn’t know him that well. Do you want to leave those photos here with me? I could ask around for you?’ said Buck.
‘No. We’ll hold onto them. Thanks for your help.’
‘My pleasure. If you need anything else, let me know.’
‘Sure,’ said Danny.
‘Should guys be worried around here?’
‘Don’t be,’ said Joe. ‘And you don’t want people staying away from the store because you’re freaking them out.’
‘Yeah. Who’s going to dress all the dogs in the neighborhood if you go out of business?’ said Danny.
‘Sweetheart? Those dogs you see out there? A lot of them? Don’t even have names.’
Danny frowned.
‘Those little doggies are sniffing butts so their owners can. The ohmygod-let-me-stop-talk-to-you-bout- your-dog/enough-about-the-dog-wha t-about-me approach. I mean, this store is, like, a major pick-up joint. You want to check out the dog run at Waterside Park. Sit on a bench there and you’ll have a date in no time.’
Danny was standing at one of the shelves trying to put something back where he found it.
‘That little red dog collar isn’t you,’ said Buck.
‘You haven’t met his wife,’ said Joe.
‘Wife?’
‘Funny,’ said Danny.
‘I know,’ said Buck. ‘Look, seriously? I know it’s hard for you to work a case like this. I’ve seen it before. I mean, gay men spread themselves far and wide. But they get to know the ones who like it rough and the ones who like it way too. So if I hear anything, I’ll let you know.’
‘This guy is really wrong,’ said Joe. ‘He’s not someone you want to be alone in a room with.’
‘Oh don’t worry about me.’ He laughed. ‘I’m straight, sweetheart.’
Danny and Joe paused, then walked out onto the street and took a left towards the car.
‘He is fucking serious,’ muttered Danny, waving back to Buck.
‘He is,’ said Joe.
Back at the office, Reuben Maller called again.
‘Joe? I’ve come up with a loose profile for you. Want me to fax it through?’
‘Machine’s bust,’ said Joe. ‘Can you run it by me now?’
‘I would say – surprise, surprise – white male in his thirties, most likely lives alone. He will come across as quite a regular guy. He won’t give off any weird vibes. He lives in the city – we’ve got one victim in SoHo, two on the Upper West Side. He’s mobile, drives to and from the scene. Reasonably stable work history, but probably with gaps in between jobs or maybe with a job that means he works alone, but has intermittent interaction with people. He must spend a lot of time alone to finely tune this fantasy of his. There’s hardcore evidence of overkill at the scenes, which suggests all this is personal, so maybe you should be looking at linking the victims or maybe they’re people who slighted him along his path.
‘The guy is a mixed offender. He plans well: he gets in to the apartments easily, no forced entry, so he must be doing something right. He brings tools with him: his hammer, his twenty-two caliber handgun. He doesn’t leave behind any evidence. Yet his attack is frenzied, which implies he also lets his control slip.
‘Think carefully about the locations. Killers usually ease themselves into it by operating in an area that’s very familiar to them, so we could be looking at someone who lives on the Upper West Side or grew up there, same goes maybe for SoHo.’
‘Great,’ said Joe. ‘Thanks for that. Did you come up with anything sexual? You know, the whole nudity thing?’
‘I’m just not getting that. It seems more like a humiliation thing. Or a control thing. I’d be surprised if there was a sexual motivation. But as they say, guarantee: no guarantees.’
‘Sure.’
‘Listen, if you need anything else-’
‘Yeah, I’ll be in touch.’
When Joe got home, Anna was sitting at the kitchen counter with a stack of pages she had cut out of magazines. Joe kissed her on the cheek, then reached out to pull open the tall narrow cabinet that was wedged between the fridge and the wall. It rocked wildly from side to side.
‘This thing feels like it is going to fall apart every time I touch it.’
‘Pull it quick,’ said Anna, ‘and lift it at the same time.’
He closed it and tried it again.
‘I have a lot of practice here all the time,’ she said.
‘Well maybe I can tempt you out on Friday. It’s Gina’s birthday. Danny has booked a table for the four of us in Pastis. Are you OK with that?’
She paused, but then nodded. ‘I think so.’
‘You can always cancel at the last minute. No pressure.’
‘Thanks.’
‘But I’d love you to be there.’
‘I know’.
‘Let me go change,’ he said. He went upstairs, took a shower, then came down in jeans and a blue T-shirt
