The Seduction - Art Bourgeau by Art Bourgeau Read Free Book Online Page A

it.
    "No, you keep it. So you can tell us if it's
her."
    Laura nodded and turned to follow the officer.
    He led her past the ring of cars to where a group of
detectives were talking near the freight cul-de-sac.
    "Here she is, lieutenant."
    Laura immediately recognized the balding man in the
blue blazer from softball games between the department and her paper.
George Sloan. As the leader of Seven Squad, the homicide squad
assigned to the city's trickier cases, his presence meant that
whatever was inside the deserted depot was a considerable hot potato.
As she came closer she noted that he looked sallow and drawn.
    "God, George, you look like hell." And
indeed he did.
    "Thanks a bunch, Laura, I needed that. It's just
a touch of flu," he said, managing a weak smile. "I didn't
know Will had assigned you to the crime desk."
    "He hasn't. I happen to live nearby and heard
the sirens. You ought to take some aspirin and a slug of brandy and
get into bed before that stuff kills you."
    "I'd like to, believe me, but there's no time .
. . I didn't know you lived around here."
    "Yes, in the one hundred block of Emily Street .
. . George, what the hell's going on here?"
    "Looks like a rape-murder but we won't know for
sure about the rape until the M.E. finishes his examination later
today."
    "Who is it?"
    "Can't be sure until she's been identified by
the next of kin."
    "Is it a young girl, a teenager?"
    "Yes . . . how did you know?"
    "Is it this girl?" She showed him the
handbill.
    When he looked away she knew the answer but asked
again, for the record. "Is it, George?"
    "Like I said, we won't know for sure until she's
identified, but it's possible."
    From the way he said it, Laura felt sure the search
was over for the family and friends of young Terri DiFranco. She took
a deep breath and got on with it. "How did she die?" Her
mind was filled with visions of a body with countless stab wounds,
like so many rape victims one read about.
    "Strangulation."
    ". . . Anything else?"
    "From the looks of things, he didn't torture
her, just raped and strangled her."
    Laura was glad crime wasn't her beat. Now, though, by
accident of circumstances, it was.
    "Do you think she knew her attacker?"
    "Difficult to say. There's evidence the attack
was premeditated, but whether it was meant for her personally or she
was an unlucky, random victim we don't know yet. But this may be our
first break . . ."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Up to now we've had to carry these girls on the
books as missing persons because there've been no bodies." He
pointed to the handbill. "This one, Terri DiFranco, she's the
latest. If the body in there proves to be her it could help break
this case."
    "You think there's a serial killer loose in
South Philly?"
    Sloan dodged it. "We don't know that."
    She tried another tack. "You mentioned some
evidence a minute ago. What kind?"
    "The way the room is set up."
    "What do you mean?"
    "The room she was killed in was picked in
advance and decorated like a love nest. Her body's in the center,
there are damned candles all around. Weird."
    "And he lured her there to rape and kill her?"
    "Could be."
    "Then how could you say you don't know if it's a
serial killer? Girls disappear. You find the body of one of them in
some sort of love nest. What else could it be?"
    "Someone she knew, a boyfriend—"
    "George," she said, grabbing his arm,
"while I was waiting to see you I got to talking with the
neighbors. One of them, an elderly lady, said she was a good friend
of this girl . . . of Terri's, and she was telling me about a
boyfriend, an older boyfriend named Peter. She didn't know his last
name, but Terri had told her he was a cop. An undercover cop."
    "We've already heard about this boyfriend from
people who knew her. So far we haven't been able to locate him."
    "What about him being a cop? Have you checked
that out?"
    "Yes, Laura, we're not all asleep here. We
checked, and we feel sure there's no truth to him being an officer.
It's common for a rapist