The Kills Read Online Free PDF Page B

court
shrink. 'The guy either hates his mother, or he loves his mother too much. Your
perp either has an Electra complex, or his mother beat him when he was a child.
The guy either needed to control his victim, or has a thing about-'"
    "How
much does it take to control a semi-invalid eighty-two-year-old? I realize
profilers are useless."
    "Have
you checked burglary patterns? Try Special Victims. We've had a few cases with
a guy who pretends to be a plumber, sent by the superintendent. Gets in, beats
the women up pretty badly, and usually tears the place apart looking for cash
and jewelry. Then he rapes them, almost like an afterthought."
    "Women
as old as this?" Mike asked.
    "No.
But he's just opportunistic. He takes whoever is there."
    He opened
the car door to get out. "Will you look at the crime scene photos with me,
and go over the autopsy report, in case I'm missing anything?"
    "I'm
in court all day today."
    "What's
this?" he asked, checking the date on his watch. "Thursday morning? I
won't have much to show you in the way of pathology results until
Saturday."
    "Fine.
Meanwhile, I'll get Sarah to assign someone to work on it with you."
    Mike
closed the door and I started the engine. He walked around to my side and
leaned on the roof of the Jeep. "Did your mother let you wear white shoes
in September when you were a kid?"
    I was
anxious to get down to the office. "What are you talking about?"
    "The
Chapman babes," he said, referring to his three older sisters, "after
Labor Day my mother never let them be seen in white."
    "Yeah,
I know what you mean." I laughed, remembering my own mother's stories of
the fashion rules of the fifties.
    "So
around two o'clock this morning, there's a squad car parked in front of the
projects where your buddy Kevin Bessemer disappeared. The guys see this fashion
vision walking down the street. White high-heeled patent leather shoes and a
white shoulder bag. The whole outfit just didn't seem to fit."
    "With
what?"
    "Thermometer
almost hit ninety last night. I'd give her a pass on the color of her footwear
in that temperature, but she was sporting some kind of muskrat at the very same
time."
    "Coat?"
    "Yeah,
a full-length fur-bearing rodent. May even be a mink for all I know. Kevin sure
was grateful to his main squeeze and her rear window."
    "You
got his girlfriend? Where is she now?" This brought us one step closer to
getting a break on Bessemer's whereabouts. "Talk about burying the lead.
No wonder you came to deliver this news in person."
    He tapped
his hand against the car door. "She's up in the squad. I'll keep you
posted. We're about to go interview her. Tiffany Gatts. And you can add a
charge to Kevin's arrest warrant."
    "What
now?"
    "Statutory
rape," Mike said, backing away from me up the ramp to the street.
"Little Tiffany's only just turned sweet sixteen."
    4
    "People
of the State of New York against Andrew Tripping. The defendant, his attorneys,
and the assistant district attorney are present," the clerk announced in a
flat monotone.
    There
were only three other people seated in the pews behind Peter Robelon, on what
Mike Chapman referred to as the groom's side of the courtroom.
    Harlan
Moffett put aside the racing sheet he was studying and asked each of us if we
were ready to get started. The judge had a fondness for the ponies, and would
often interrupt proceedings to check the off-track-betting phone line for the
outcome of a wager.
    "Who
you got here today, Alexandra?"
    "Your
Honor, I don't think any of the parties in court consider themselves
prosecution witnesses. I assume," I said, turning to look at the two women
seated in the second row of benches, "that Ms. Taggart is present. I spoke
with her last evening but she hasn't identified herself to me."
    The
middle-aged woman in a flowered dress that hung to the top of her ankles rose
and stepped forward. "I'm Nancy Taggart, sir. I represent the Manhattan
Foundling Hospital."
    She
motioned to the woman sitting beside her, who was