Medina shook his head. “Again, the clothes and the weapon mean an unplanned attack by someone she knew doesn’t stack up either.”

Pryce nodded. “Any ideas?”

Medina said, “How about a regular john, like you said, but someone with a serious grudge against Amy Ong? Maybe the baby daddy? Someone who planned the attack in advance. We know the roommate only told us about Amy Ong meeting with someone named ‘Frank.’ No mention of a second john. But she also made it clear she didn’t want to know the sordid details about what her friend was getting up to, so it’s possible Kasey Taylor didn’t know anything about the double shift.”

“I like it,” Pryce said.

They both fell silent, lost in thought.

Pryce said, “What if it was nothing to do with her work as a prostitute?”

“I’m listening.”

“Our guy could be a stalker who’d been watching Amy Ong for a while. He saw her meet with Sherman, followed them to the motel, waited for Sherman to leave, and then made his move.”

“It’s possible,” Medina said. “But why would she open the door to a strange guy? The motel rooms were equipped with peepholes. The poor gal might have been desperate enough to turn tricks for cash, but she wasn’t dumb, as far as we could tell. The roommate said she was real smart.”

Pryce said, “Seems to me a regular john with a grudge against Amy Ong is the most plausible scenario. Some guy she knew, who she felt safe with and assumed posed her no threat, who took advantage of her trust.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“But not Frank Sherman.”

Medina shrugged. “I guess.”

“Kick him loose, Vic. Caution him for using prostitutes, and give him a rocket up his ass for drunk driving again. He’s lucky he didn’t wind up with another DUI or in the hospital, the mess he was in. But we’ve got nothing else on him.”

Pryce watched Medina trudge down the corridor toward the holding cells, then got up and wandered over to the break room. He poured some coffee into a foam cup and drank it while thinking about their next move.

The call girl website Frank Sherman used was a waste of time. Even if they were able to track down premises or an owner for Hot Asian Angels and then subpoenaed a list of their clients, most of the profiles would be attached to burner phones and untraceable email accounts.