Strawman's Hammock by Darryl Wimberley Page A

twenty.”
    â€œOkay.” Barrett was already scribbling in his spiral pad.
    â€œI won’t know for sure ’til I get to the lab, but I’m pretty sure she was not dehydrated at the time of death. Not badly, anyway.”
    â€œHow you figure?”
    â€œBody’s been torn apart, which complicates things. And then there are the flies and maggots, not to mention the bacterial assault. But looking at what’s left of her arms and hands, I don’t see the kind of dessication you’d expect in someone who, for instance, died of thirst.”
    â€œHow did she die?”
    â€œAt this point it could be anything from a shot of pentothal to the obvious.”
    â€œThe dog.”
    â€œRight. That’ll have to wait for the lab. If the dog killed the victim, she most likely bled to death or died of shock, but at this point that’s conjecture.”
    â€œI understand.” Barrett nodded. “Though that water bucket and pipe make me think that both the dog and the woman had some kind of access to drinking water.”
    â€œShe wouldn’t be sipping on her own,” Midge stated wryly.
    â€œNo, my guess is she was kept. For how long and what purpose, I don’t know.”
    The problem with looking for a motive early in any investigation was that it led to rabbit trails or, worse, a distortion of the actual facts on the ground. Something no more complicated than revenge might have led to this criminal act. Victims both male and female had been tortured to death in retaliation for any number of reasons. But there were some general patterns in cases like these that were hard to ignore.
    â€œYou figure the killer was male?” Bear asked.
    â€œOh, yeah. Male. Late twenties to mid forties. You know the profile. And there is one piece of religious paraphernailia that I find interesting.”
    Out of a blue plastic tub, Midge pulled a plastic bag with a cheap crucifix inside.
    â€œVictim was stripped naked, except for this. Now who might allow a crucifix to remain on the naked body of a victim he meant to torment and kill?”
    â€œYou’re thinking Catholic?”
    â€œPossibility. Could also be a killer with a religious bent or background. Lot of your Latin workers fit that bill.”
    â€œLots of Baptists, too,” Barrett countered.
    Midge shrugged. “Nevertheless, this crucifix taken with the fact that the victim is Latin American suggests to me that we can’t exclude Latin American males from the set of her possible killers.”
    â€œWould not fit the general profile,” Barrett responded.
    Barrett knew, and Midge knew very well, that this sort of crime tended overwhelmingly to be the work of male Caucasians, usually men without strong ties to family or friends, who were somewhere in age from their late twenties to forties. That profile, developed in the need to find serial killers, also conformed remarkably well to most elaborately staged homcides, especially those involving women.
    â€œWhat would motivate a Latino male to go to this trouble?” Barrett asked.
    Midge shrugged. “What made the guy from Texas whack victims along the railroad?”
    â€œThose were targets of opportunity,” Bear pointed out.
    â€œWho’s to say our victim wasn’t?” Midge countered. “Or going the other way, you can look at scenarios for revenge, betrayal. Anything to do with drugs. Folks in the coke business torture people to death routinely. Just on the suspicion of a doublecross. You think every druggie in this district is Caucasian?”
    â€œBut this homicide took time,” Bear mused. “It took planning. And resources.”
    â€œWhat resources?” she countered. “A shack. Some water. A dog.”
    â€œHow about the handcuffs?”
    â€œOrdered from a catalog. Or anyplace that caters to sexual fetishes.”
    â€œThis is Lafayette County, Midge. Not Jacksonville.”
    She smiled. “Just