Crimes Against Persons—CAPS—was situated against the back wall next to the lockers. A dark-complexioned man—the only person in the squad room—was seated at one of the desks, poring over some forms. He looked up when Decker entered. He was in his mid-thirties and had a long face capped by thick black hair. His nose was flat, his cheeks stretched over pronounced cheekbones. His eyebrows were bushy and topped startling bright blue eyes. He told Decker he was Benderhoff and motioned him over.

“Take a load off, Sergeant.”

Decker swung the seat around and sat with his chest leaning against the back of the chair. On top of the detective’s desk was a placard that read LIFE’S A BITCH, THEN YOU MARRY ONE.

“I’m just finishing up the paperwork,” Benderhoff said. “Like I told you, victim was hit on Third and Temple, multiple stab wounds to the chest. He placed his own nine-one-one call at a pay phone. Held on long enough to do what he had to do. Cruiser was there forty-five seconds later. He was just about out.”

“Was he assaulted in the phone booth?”

“Nope,” Benderhoff said. “We followed the blood. It led to a back alley about a block away. The victim must have crawled to the booth.”

“They do emergency surgery on him?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t a long one. Forty minutes or so, mostly muscle damage but he lost blood. He’s in recovery, in stable condition. He managed to tell the patrol officers his name and phone number before he went under the knife. His wife’s with him now. Needless to say, she’s upset.”

“He came out okay considering.”

“Some people are lucky,” Benderhoff said. “He can talk, but for the most part, he’s out of it. Best as I could make out, he works downtown. He was walking to his car when a couple of guys jumped him. Now there was no cars around where all the blood was. But they could have dragged him out of the public lot into the back alley.”

“Awful lot of work for the perps,” Decker said. “Stoner’s a big guy.”

“Yeah, something’s not right,” Benderhoff said. “His wife said he was supposed to be having a dinner meeting. But there are no real restaurants around where his car was parked. Now, maybe he was dropped off. But it would have made more sense for him to take his car to where he was going. Wanna know what I think? Guy was having a little nookie, his girl dropped him off a couple blocks from the office so no one he’d know would see him. He got jumped on the way home. The uniforms told me he was reeking of booze.”

“He wasn’t with anyone when he was attacked?”

“Nope. That fits in nicely with my dropoff theory.”

Decker said, “Do you know if Stoner is gay?”