"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

correct that, no normal killer would chop a body up like that."

"That's not what I meant. The murder was done backwards."

"How do you mean?"

"The killer killed the woman first, then tied her up."

Maschen took his eyes off the road for a moment to eye his
deputy. "How do you know that?"

"There was no cut-off of the circulation when the hands were
tied, and those ropes were awfully tight. Therefore, the heart had
stopped pumping blood before they were tied. Also, she was
killed before those cuts were made on her body, or else a lot more
blood would have spurted out."

"In other words, this is not the traditional sadist who would
tie a girl up, torture her and then kill her. You're saying that this
man killed her first, then tied her up and dismembered her?"

"Yes."

"But that doesn't make any sense at all."

"That's why I said it's unusual."

They drove the rest of the way in silence, each man
contemplating in his own way the unusual circumstances of the
case.

When they arrived back at the station, Simpson proceeded
straight to the small laboratory to analyze his findings. Maschen
had started up the stairs to his own office when Carroll, his
secretary, came down to meet him halfway. "Careful," she
whispered. "There's a whole gang of reporters waiting to ambush
you up there."

How quickly the vultures gather, Maschen mused. I wonder
whether anyone tipped them off, or whether they can just smell
the death and sensationalism and come running to it. He hadn't
really expected them this soon, and he had nothing prepared to
say. His stomach was making him all too acutely aware that he
hadn't eaten anything solid in about fourteen hours. He
wondered if • there was still time to duck out the back way for a
quick breakfast before they spotted him.

There wasn't. Some unknown face appeared at the head of the
stairs. "Here's the sheriff now," the man said. Maschen sighed
and continued up the steps behind Carroll. He'd known it wasn't