Maschen took his eyes off the road for a moment to eye his deputy. “How do you know that?”
“There was no cut-off of the circulation when the hands were tied, and those ropes were awfully tight. Therefore, the heart had stopped pumping blood before they were tied. Also, she was killed before those cuts were made on her body, or else a lot more blood would have spurted out.”
“In other words, this is not the traditional sadist who would tie a girl up, torture her and then kill her. You’re saying that this man killed her first, then tied her up and dismembered her?”
“Yes.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“That’s why I said it’s unusual.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence, each man contemplating in his own way the unusual circumstances of the case.
When they arrived bac
