“Not as organized with Jennifer Deighton,” I pointed out “It appears the killer attempted to disguise her death as a suicide and failed. Or perhaps he did not intend to kill her at all and got carried away with a choke hold.”

“Her death before she was placed inside her car probably wasn’t the plan,” Wesley agreed. “But the fact is, it appears there was a plan. And the garden hose hooked up to the exhaust pipe was severed with a sharp tool that was never recovered. Either the killer brought his own tool or weapon to the scene, or he deposed of whatever it was he found at her house and used. That’s organized behavior. But before we go too far with this, let me remind you that we don’t have a twenty-two bullet or other piece of evidence that might link Jennifer Deighton’s homicide with the homicides of the Heath boy and Susan.”

“I think we do, Benton. Ronnie Waddell’s print was recovered from a dining room chair inside Jennifer Deighton’s house.”

“We don’t know that it was Ronnie Waddell who pumped slugs into the other two.”

“Eddie Heath’s body was positioned in a manner reminiscent of Robyn Naismith’s case. The boy was attacked &e night Ronnie Waddell was to be executed. Don’t you there’s some weird thread here?”

“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “I don’t want to think it.”

“Neither of us wants to. Benton, what’s your gut feel He motioned for the waitress to bring more cognac, candlelight illuminating the clean lines of his left cheek bone and chin.

“My gut feeling? Okay. I have a very bad gut feeling about all of this,” he said. “I believe Ronnie Waddell is the common denominator, but I don’t know what that means. A latent print recently found at a scene was identified as his, yet we can’t locate his ten print cards or anything else that might effect a positive identification.

He also wasn’t printed at the morgue, and the person who allegedly forgot to do so has since been murdered with the same gun used on Eddie Heath. Waddell’s legal counsel, Nick Grueman, apparently knew Jennifer Deighton, and in fact, it appears she faxed a message to Grueman days before she was murdered. Finally, yes, there is a subtle and peculiar similarity between Eddie Heath’s and Robyn Naismith’s deaths. Frankly, I can’t help but wonder if the attack on Heath wasn’t, for some reason, intended to be symbolic.”

He waited until our drinks had been set before us, then opened a manila envelope that was attached to Robyn Naismith’s case. That small act triggered something I had not thought of before.

“I had to get her photographs from Archives,” I said.

Wesley glanced at me as he slipped on his glasses.