“And that’s what you said on TV.” My irritation flared hotter. “That there’s a psycho in our midst.”

“I don’t remember my exact words. The real reason I stopped by is I’m wondering when I’m going to get a copy of the autopsy report.”

“Still pending.”

“I need it as soon as I can get it.” He looked me in the eye. “The Commonwealth’s Attorney wants to know what’s going on.”

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. He would not be talking to a C.A. unless there was a suspect.

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“I’m looking hard at Keith Pleasants.”

I was incredulous.

“There are a lot of circumstantial things,” he went on, “not the least of which is how he just so happened to be the one operating the Cat when the torso was found. You know, he usually doesn’t operate earth-moving equipment, and then just happens to be in the driver’s seat at that exact moment?”

“I should think that makes him more a victim than a suspect. If he’s the killer,” I continued, “one might expect that he wouldn’t have wanted to be within a hundred miles of the landfill when the body was found.”

“Psychopaths like to be right there,” he said as if he knew. “They fantasize about what it would be like to be there when the victim is discovered. They get off on it, like that ambulance driver who murdered women, then dumped them in the area he covered. When it was time to go on duty, he’d call 911 so he was the one who ended up responding.”

In addition to his degree in psychology, he no doubt had attended a lecture on profiling, too. He knew it all.

“Keith lives with his mother, who I think he really resents,” he went on, smoothing his tie. “She had him late in life, is in her sixties. He takes care of her.”

“Then his mother is still alive and accounted for,” I said.

“Right. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t take out his aggressions on some other poor old woman. Plus—and you won’t believe this—in high school, he worked at the meat counter of a grocery store. He was a butcher’s assistant.”

I did not tell him that I did not think a meat saw had been used in this case, but let him talk.

“He’s never been very social, which again fits the profile.” He continued spinning his fantastic web. “And it’s rumored among the other guys who work at the landfill that he’s homosexual.”

“Based on what?”

“On the fact he doesn’t date women or even seem interested in them when the other guys make remarks, jokes. You know how it is with a bunch of rough guys.”

“Describe the house he lives in.” I thought of the photographs sent to me through e-mail.

“Two-story frame, three bedrooms, kitchen, living room. Middle class on its way to being poor. Like maybe in an earlier day when his old man was around, they had it pretty nice.”