Chapter 2

When Chip came into the squad room the next morning Moses was already at his desk reading through files.

"Morning Moses. Are those the reports on our boy?"

"Yea. Where did you get the coffee? This swill up here is awful."

"I stopped by records before I came up and Big Red gave me a cup from their pot."

"Better watch that coffee from records. I'm told that there are red pubic hairs floating around in it."

"I certainly hope so. What about the vic?"

"Well his name was Kenneth Kane and his DNA was on file. Seems that he did a year on the farm for rape about five years ago. Woman's name is Helen Hopkins. She was a college student at the time. The time of death is estimated at between 8:00 and 9:00 last night.

"The cause of death was bleeding out directly attributable to his having his cock and balls lopped off. There were no defensive wounds. Robbery doesn't seem to been the motive as Kane still had his wallet with $200.00 and credit cards. No wedding ring and no indentation showing he had been wearing one. Jap is running him through the system to get his address and employment information."

Jap was detective Alan Yamada, a third generation nisei. He had been in the squad for eight years. He was some kind of computer genius. Everyone relied on him to get information that they had no idea how to get short of lots of wasted leg work tracking it down.

"There was something strange in his tox screen. He had alcohol, no surprise there, and rohypnol in his system?"

"Rohypnol? That's a date rape drug. You don't have to use that on men to get them to screw. All you have to do is say "let's fuck." That will do it every time."

"Unless you're going to sodomize a straight guy. But there were no signs of that here according to the M.E.'s report. But in Kane's file it says that he used rohypnol on Helen Hopkins when he raped her."

"You think maybe turn around was fair play in her mind and rather than raping Kane she just removed his equipment?"

"Do you think someone would wait five years to get revenge? Seems a stretch to me."

"That's why you wait five years. Or maybe she saw him on the street or some place and it triggered her hatred of him."

"Maybe."

"If not we got nothing. It's not like we have the usual suspects to check out and find where they were last night. Even if someone wanted to geld him why hang him up on a pole?"

"Hey Moses. Call for you on line three."

"Thanks Guinea."

Guinea was Geno Bianchi, the Italian stallion. He had been in the squad for three years. He and Yamada were partners. A strange pairing but it seemed to work. They cleared a lot of cases.

"That was a uniform. Guess what? No don't guess. This morning Helen Hopkins' mother went out to get her morning paper and found a zip lock baggy containing freshly severed testicles and a penis to match, a complete set. The baggy has been transported to the morgue to see if they match our boy."

"How did they know to call you?"

"Are you kidding. Every cop in the city knows about the guy hanging from the pole with nothing hanging from him. The uniform had heard we caught the case and thought we would like to know about the find."

"Unless the Hopkins are awfully smart I can't see them planting the evidence on their front porch and it's not the kind of thing you would drop and forget about. By the way what about prints?"

"None on the pulley and too many to count on the lower pole. None at the top. They are checking the ones from the lower pole but there's no priority so don't hold your breath. Let's go see Mrs. Hopkins."