After introducing himself to McCormick, he stood across from her desk and told her he had received some information in regard to the rape that was mentioned in the paper earlier in the week.

Jack studied McCormick briefly as she spoke. She was exceptionally young to be handling these types of cases. A lack of a wedding ring and a picture of two cats on her desk told Jack who she lived with. She was strikingly beautiful and had long, blond curly hair. Did she bat her eyelashes at the right person to get the position? Jack soon discovered that she knew her stuff.

“Amanda Evans.” McCormick nodded. “Yes, that’s my case. What do you have?”

“Bits and pieces that might all be bullshit. Would you mind if I took a quick look at your file?”

“Sorry, the file is off-limits. Contains sensitive holdback information. Things that only the real perp would know.”

“I understand. Then could you verify for me if —”

“You said you worked organized crime.”

“That’s right.”

“Not exactly an organized-crime type of venture, so let me guess,” said McCormick, as she leaned back in her chair and clasped her hands behind her head. “You’ve probably got a snitch who threw a name at you.”

“Yes, what I have comes from an informant. Someone whose credibility is as of yet, still unproven.”

McCormick leaned forward in her chair, briefly running her fingers through her hair and shaking her head before clasping her hands on top of her desk. “Let me tell you something. So far we’ve had about twenty of them come forward, all hoping to get a cash reward. None of them know squat and are throwing out names of anyone they think could be capable, causing us to waste a lot of valuable time. Did your informant give you anything other than a name?”

“Well, it so happens that I —”

“Jack! You son of a bitch! What are you doing here? Dumping off more bodies for us to work on?”

Jack turned and saw Corporal Connie Crane smiling at him as she approached.

“Hi, CC. Yeah, if you’re short of work, I think I’ve got five bodies I could toss your way.”

Connie smiled and looked at McCormick. “With this guy he could be telling the truth.” She looked back at Jack and said, “Joking aside, what are you doing?”

“He told me he might have some information in regard to the Amanda Evans assault,” said McCormick.

Connie looked sharply at Jack and said, “Really?”

Jack nodded.

“That is one demented … sick puppy,” said Connie. “Everyone in MCU would like to get their hands on him.”

“He asked to look at the file,” said McCormick, “but of course I said no because of the holdback info.”

“What do you have, Jack?” asked Connie, gravely.

“Yes,” sighed McCormick. “You have another name to add to my list?”

“Not a name,” replied Jack. “But let me take a guess at what the holdback info is. Could it be that the bad guy grated a knife back and forth on her headboard during the assault, or was it that he masked his face in white flour?”

McCormick’s mouth dropped open and she gawked up at Jack. “That … that’s it,” she finally stammered. “Both those things. Who told you that?”

“Well, that’s a bit of a problem,” said Jack. “I can’t really help you with your case. I only came to verify what I heard.”

“You have to tell me,” demanded McCormick. “That really is the holdback information. Only the perp knows about it.”

“And you,” said Jack. “And whoever the perp told and whoever Amanda told.”

“Of course, but I told Amanda not to tell anyone … so … you have to tell me. I’ve got four other cases on my desk that I can link him to.”

“DNA?” asked Jack.

“Got it once. He wears condoms, but in one instance he was obviously aroused before putting it on, because we found semen on the floor at the foot of her bed. What links the other cases comes from the lab matching the marks left by the knife. If we catch him with the knife, his goose is cooked.” McCormick’s eyes watered with emotion. “God, finally. This is the break I’ve been praying for. Who is it?”

Jack paused, feeling the bile in his stomach surge as he thought of the knife outside in his glove box.

“Well?” prodded McCormick.

“Believe me, I would love nothing better than to tell you, but I can’t because … well, it’s one of those, uh, strictly on a need-to-know basis kind of things.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I need to know! I’m the chief investigator on this!”

“Sue, give me a minute to talk to Jack alone, will ya?” said Connie.

McCormick looked back and forth at Jack and Connie, then stormed out of the office.

“Okay,” said Connie quietly. “I know you … and you know I know you. So quit fucking around. Please don’t tell me that Amanda Evans is your friend or a relative or something. If we find the perp dead in an alley with a knife shoved up his ass, I’ll be coming down hard on you with both —”

“I’ve never heard of Amanda until today,” said Jack.

“So what’s the deal, then?”

“Do you remember me telling you that I had five bodies for you?”

“Yeah. You weren’t serious about that, were you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Christ,” Connie muttered.

“I don’t have the bodies in hand yet. I’m told five people were murdered over the last eight years on an insurance scam to collect money. The murders were made to look like accidents.”

“So what does this have to do with the rape? Did one of the murderers do it?”

“No. The informant who is giving me the details on the murders gave me the details on the rape to prove credibility.”

“Jesus Christ! I think I’m gonna puke! Are you telling me you’re letting a serial rapist off because of some story about a bunch of murders?”

“To start with, I didn’t say the informant was that person.”

Connie gave Jack a hard look and said, “If it wasn’t, it must be somebody that is in real tight with him. Either way, if we don’t bust him, it is the same thing as letting him go.”

“Even if it was the same person, except for reading a short blurb in the paper, I didn’t know about any of the details about the rape until the informant gave them to me. I only received those details after I gave my word that I would not tell anyone who had divulged that information to me. I made the decision to protect the informant in lieu of solving five murders and preventing three more. What would you have done?”

“Preventing three more?” said Connie in surprise.

“Yeah, I guess I didn’t mention that. I’m feeling a little groggy. Apparently they are going to kill three more victims between now and Christmas.”

“Ah, God, Jack. Are you sure you’re getting the straight goods on these murders? I presume your informant didn’t come forward to be a good citizen. If you’re holding something over your so-called informant’s head … like going to jail … all this talk of murders could be bullshit.”

“It’s obvious the details about the rape aren’t bullshit. I don’t think the information about the murders is, either. I’ll do some digging. If my informant is lying to me, I’ll gift-wrap the sick bastard who did the rape and deliver him to you, or better yet, stuff him in a crab trap someplace.”

Connie vented her frustration by giving the desk a kick, which raised a few heads in the office. “At least I understand your dilemma,” said Connie bitterly, “but it still makes me want to puke.”

“Can’t say as I like it, either,” said Jack. “Knowingly letting a rapist walk around … well, it makes it feel really personal to me.”

Connie reflected on past investigations that Jack had taken personally. “Uh, Jack, between you and me, I wish to make it clear that I prefer your gift-wrapping strategy over using a crab trap.”

“I was only joking about the crab trap.”

“Were you?” frowned Connie. “Don’t even go there with me. You’ve got far too much history of being around bad guys who keep turning up dead.”