She almost hung up on him. Interesting that he’d intimidated her for a moment. “This is Detective Patsy Hampton. I’ve been doing some work on the Jane Does. I’ve been following a man who is a suspect. I think we should talk.”

“Where are you, Patsy?” Cross said, without hesitation. “I’ll come to you. Just tell me where.”

“I’m at the City Limits diner on Connecticut Avenue.”

“I’m on my way,” said Cross.

Chapter 67

I WASN’T TOTALLY SURPRISED that Pittman had assigned someone to the Jane Does. Especially after Zach Taylor’s article in the Washington Post. I was interested in any leads Detective Hampton might have turned up.

I had seen Patsy Hampton around, and she obviously knew who I was. She was supposed to be on a fast track; she was a smart and effective senior homicide detective, though from what I’d heard, she was also a lone wolf. She didn’t have any friends in the department, as far as I knew.

She was much prettier than I remembered. She was in very trim, athletic shape, probably early thirties, short blond hair, piercing blue eyes that cut through the diner haze.

She’d put on bright-red lipstick for our meeting, or maybe she wore it all the time. I wondered what was on her mind and what her motives were. I didn’t think I could trust her.

“You or me first?” Detective Hampton asked, after we’d ordered coffee. We were seated at a table in the City Limits diner, near a window looking out on Connecticut Avenue.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what this is about,” I told her.

She sipped her coffee and gave me a look over the cup’s rim. She was a strong-willed, confident person. Her eyes told me that much.

“You really didn’t know someone else was working the Jane Does?”

I shook my head. “Pittman said that the cases were closed. I took him at his word. He suspended some good detectives for working the cases after hours.”

“There’s a lot of seriously nasty crap going on in the department. So what’s new, though?” she said as she set down her cup. She gave a deep sigh. “I thought I could deal with it by myself. Now I’m not so sure.”

“Pittman assigned you to the Jane Does? Personally?”

She nodded, then her blue eyes narrowed. “He assigned me to the Glover and Cardinal murders, and any others I wanted to look into. Gave me free rein.”

“And you say you have something?”

“Maybe. I’ve got a possible suspect. He’s involved in a role-playing game that features victims’ being murdered, mostly in Southeast. It’s all after-the-fact stuff, so he could have read the news stories and then fantasized about them. He works at the British Embassy.”