Cold Blooded by Lisa Jackson

grandmother, mother, boyfriend, if she's married, how many times, where she went to school, all that stuff."
    "You got it." Montoya gave a quick nod.
    "So what did you find out? Any of the neighbors see anything?"
    Montoya snorted. "Not much. No one remembers anything suspicious, or if they did, they're keepin' it to themselves.
    Aside from the guy takin' a leak in the pink house, there"--he gestured to a shotgun house next to the one that had burned--"none of the neighbors so much as looked out their windows until they heard the sirens. Then they smelled smoke and noticed that the neighborhood was glowing like a damned nuclear explosion." He shook his head, disgusted.' ' neighbor who noticed the fire, Elvin Gerard, he saw the flames, woke up his wife, Lois, and called nine- one-one. End of story. Except that he claims the house was a rental duplex, but it had been empty for a month or so.
    Both sides of the unit vacant."
    "But someone was there tonight."
    "Yeah." Montoya flipped open a little notebook.
    "According to Gerard, the house had been owned by an elderly couple, the Jalinskys. First he died, then the wife within the year. Their kids inherited it and rented it out through a local management firm, Benchmark Realty. No one's been there, except someone from Benchmark showing it to potential renters and a janitorial company that cleaned up the mess from the previous tenants."
    The firemen were beginning to retrieve the hoses, the neighbors were disbursing, and even the last television crew was packing it in. A police officer was taking down the barricades on the street and waving cars with rubbernecking drivers through.
    "I'll check with Benchmark, get a list of who's been asking about the place," Bentz said. "Anything else?"
    "Yeah. Maybe. The only break we've got is one of the neighbors pulled out his video camera and caught the fire on film just as the fire department arrived."
    "You get the tape?" Bentz was interested.
    "Yep. The guy was only too happy to oblige." Montoya reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a cassette. "I think we'll have to suffer through the Hendersons' trip to Disney World, but after that we can take a look at the fire."
    "Maybe we'll get lucky and see something on the tape," Bentz said, not believing it for a moment. The killer would have been long gone by the time the groggy neighbor had focused on the inferno, unless the murderer had gotten his rocks off by sticking around to view the havoc wrought by his work. It happened upon occasion and then the police got lucky. But it was a long shot. Right now, the most serious link they had to the crime so far was Olivia Benchet. Bentz's eyes narrowed on the soggy mass that had once been a house and thought about Olivia Benchet's bizarre story--a naked chained victim, a priest with a radio and a sword, and the , anniversary of JFK's assassination.
    "I'll check with missing persons, see if we can figure out who the victim is, then talk to Ms. Benchet again." j
    "You're not buying the ESP-voodoo thing." Montoya swallowed a smirk. \
    ' ' yet." They started walking to their Crown Victoria. I "We've got to figure out what makes her tick. You talk to Brinkman. Pull out anything he's got on her, no matter how ; insignificant. He must have notes or a file or something. And see if she talked to anyone else, here in the city or in the surrounding parishes. She acts like there are other murders, so check around and I'll contact the FBI. They can : put it through their computer."
    "They'll want another task force, if this is linked."
    "Fine."
    "I didn't think you liked working with the Feds." They dodged a few remaining firemen and thick hoses.
    "Nah. That's not it. Long as they don't get in my way." I They reached the cruiser and Bentz slid into the passenger side. He wasn't going to leave any stone unturned when it came to the psychic--just what the hell was her angle?
    ' ', maybe we should check out the local priests," Mon- i toya suggested as he climbed