Switch by William Bayer Read Free Book Online Page A

case they run up against a creep. Running a phone ad's just one notch up from the street, and on the street at least you get a look at the guy. With a phone ad you're working blind. Calls from out-of-town businessmen, kids, crazies too. Anyone. Everyone. There's no protection against weirdoes. Working alone like that, Brenda took a chance every time she opened up her door."
    "I like that better than the pimp-punishment idea," said Sal. "A blind call. He sounds good on the phone. She lets him in figuring she can handle him. Then he turns on her, so fast she doesn't have time to raise her hands. Whores get nailed like that all the time."
    Howell was getting edgy. Janek could see he'd already thought of that and now was thinking that Sal and the rest of them were treating him like he was dumb.
    "A reasonable theory," said Janek , "and so is the pimp. We have to talk to the pimp to eliminate him, anyway. Now let's look at Howell's target-of-opportunity idea, look at it and turn it around. Say Brenda's the target of opportunity. She's easy. All you got to do is call her, act smooth and set up a date. But Amanda's not easy. She's not going to let you in. So say you're after Amanda and you want to do a switch, you need another head, right, so you pick up Screw, pick out a whore, and make an appointment—the whore's sole function is to provide you with that second head. Then you see Brenda's just a randomly chosen victim, and it's Amanda who's really interesting." Janek glanced at Stanger. "We got to know much more about her. And how, for sure, he got in. It makes a big difference if he came in off the fire escape or if she opened up the door. If Amanda let him in it's a whole new ball game, because that means she knew him, she's the focus and Brenda's just auxiliary."
    They all nodded. At least Janek had a theory that Amanda was the prime target, even if there were no grounds to say that yet. Before they broke up he urged them again to look for connections. "If the girls knew each other, or if their paths crossed, then at least we have a place to start. Until then we're working in the dark. So far we got a lot of notions but no clear idea what we're dealing with. Is this a one-time double homicide with a purpose, or a thrill-kill that could turn into a series? That's something we all better think about, too, because if the guy who did this thinks he's getting away with it, he just might try it again."

Chinatown
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    W hen he was finally alone in the office he telephoned Caroline Wallace.
    "Hey, Janek , I was hoping I'd hear from you." She seemed genuinely pleased that he had called.
    "That was fun last night. Now it's my turn." He suggested he drive over, pick her up and take her to dinner in Chinatown.
    She brought her camera with her, the same Leica he'd seen at the burial, slung over her shoulder with half a dozen leather containers for film dangling from the strap. No equipment bag; she said she liked to travel light. She never went out without her camera, she said, since she never knew what she might happen to see.
    In the car he asked if she'd had it with her the day she'd fallen off her bike and been picked up by Al.
    "Always the detective, aren't you?" She was amused. Then she frowned. "No, I didn't take it to the tennis club. There'd been some pilfering in the locker room."
    "So you don't always carry it with you."
    "I guess I don't. You're a very clever man." She smiled, raised her camera, leaned back against her side of the car, took a shot of him driving and smiling back.
    He took her to a restaurant he liked, upstairs on Mott Street where the food was cheap and good and the waiters didn't speak English very well. She took a couple more shots of him while he ordered. He played up to her by clowning with the waiter. Click. Click. He liked the idea of being photographed. She must like me, he thought, or else she wouldn't bother.
    "You Chink out a lot, don't you, Janek ?"
    "Yeah, but two nights running is maybe