“Course even if we find where they were,” Cleveland said, “that don’t mean shit as to where they are now…or where they’re gonna be.”

Decker said, “Well, if they stick around the city, I’ll hunt them down. No doubt in my mind, I’ll find those fuckers. I’m just wondering if they might be thinking about leaving town. I’m going to ask my partner to go down to Greyhound Bus Terminal. Just to make sure. She can pass out fliers while she’s there anyway.”

“Might try the train station, too,” Cleveland said. “And the airport.”

“Yup.” Decker thought: Marge could probably manage the bus terminal and the train station—they were both downtown. The airport was another story. He couldn’t poke around the Hollywood motels and check out the airport at the same time. He’d call Hollander. Tell Mike to run by the house and pick up the fliers of Hersh and Noam.

Decker said, “I’ll send someone over to LAX.”

Cleveland said, “You got a feel for these psychos?”

“Somewhat.”

“If Butch and Sundance split, where would they go?”

Decker shrugged. “Maybe San Francisco. It’s close, lots of gays.”

“Yeah, this has all the earmarks of a gay killing,” Cleveland said. “The blood, the violence, the anger. Psycho’s definitely a latent.”

“Hersh?” Decker shrugged. “He might be, but he might be heterosexual. I don’t have any indications as to which way he swings.”

“Both his victims were gay,” Cleveland said.

Decker conceded the point but still felt that wasn’t it at all. The age of the victims, the size. Every time Hersh rolled a big man, he took a chance. But Hersh wanted large, older men. What he wanted was to kill his father. He only went after gays because they were a hell of a lot easier to pick up. How else was he going to get a big man to follow him into the night?

Using the unmarked’s radio, Decker was patched through to Marge. He updated her, explained what he needed. She was ready for action even before he finished. He asked her to call Hollander for him and Marge reminded him that Mike was on vacation as of yesterday.

“Damn, that’s right,” Decker said. “What about Fordebrand? He’s good about favors.”

“I think he’s still in the field,” Marge said. “A nasty bar killing just went down in our parts around an hour ago. I was called down because it was over a woman and someone mentioned rape. But the woman wasn’t raped.”

There was a long pause over the line.

Marge said, “I could ask MacPherson.”

“You mind calling him?”

“No,” Marge said.

“Thanks. Tell him to drop by my place, pick up the fliers from Rina. I’ll call her so she’ll have them all ready for him.”

“You trust Paul alone with your wife?”

Decker laughed and said, “She has a gun.”