Takayama’s report, though, showed no evidence of anything there.
He had looked for bruising that might indicate if the sex was consensual or not. Again, it’s not a great indicator; the couple could simply have engaged in rough sex or playful fighting. In Zoë’s case, though, there was no bruising other than what had occurred when she was assaulted and fell to the ground. There was no evidence in the vaginal area that might have indicated penetration without her consent.
Today’s criminals watch the same TV shows the rest of the public does, and your average rapist often knows that his DNA can be found on the victim. Even so, the last statistic I read said that only fifteen to twenty percent of rapists use condoms to prevent the chance of leaving sperm behind.
In a corpse, sperm can live up to two weeks, but in a living woman, the vagina produces chemicals that destroy it. Since we’d found her body within hours after her death, the presence of viable sperm indicated that Zoë Greenfield had had consensual sex with a man within the past 72 hours. But it was tough to narrow the window any smaller. So she could have had sex Saturday night, and that might have had no connection with her Sunday dinner or the assault.
Investigating a homicide is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with extra pieces. You find something that doesn’t seem to fit—and sometimes it never does. But then again, sometimes that one awkward piece is the key to solving the whole puzzle.
“Did Anna Yang say anything about Zoë being bisexual?” Ray asked.
Because I’m openly gay, both in the department and in the larger community, I hear things, and people tell me things, that a straight cop might not find out. But if Anna recognized me, she hadn’t mentioned it, and she hadn’t told me anything that she hadn’t said in front of Ray.
“Nope. But at least in my experience, women’s sexuality is more fluid than men. Women tend to fall in love with the person, rather than the parts. Look at Ellen Degeneres and Anne Heche. Or that woman, what’s her name, Melissa Etheridge’s ex, who went back to a man. Once a guy comes out, it’s pretty unusual for him to go back to girls, but women seem to go back and forth more easily.”
We looked through the autopsy report again, but there was nothing more to glean from it. We both sat back to consider.
“There are a lot of different ways this could have played out,” I said.
Ray picked up his pen. “Well, let’s start listing them. The most obvious answer is that she picked up a guy somewhere and things went sour.” He leaned forward. “You used to date women, didn’t you?”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“If you were to decide to start again,” he said, “you might not be on your game, you know? Maybe you wouldn’t read the girl’s signals right, you wouldn’t be able to tell if she was psycho or not.”
“Trust me, I could tell if she was psycho.”
“But maybe Zoë couldn’t. Men and women are different, you know.”
“Really?”
“If you could just listen for a minute, you might learn something.” He sat back. “Say Zoë gets lonely, and she’s thinking maybe she should see what it’s like to be with a guy. You said women are more likely to go back and forth. She goes out to some singles bar, a place where they serve sushi, for example, and she picks a guy up.”
“She brings him home,” I continued. “They have sex. But in the middle of the night, she hears somebody in the living room, and it’s the guy. He’s looking for stuff to steal.”
Ray got into it. “She confronts him, and he stabs her.”
I shook my head. The story didn’t add up. “If he’s a casual trick, why didn’t she make him use a condom? She wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t want to catch anything from him.”
“But what if she wanted another baby?”
“Then why not just get sperm from Greg Oshiro again? He’s the father of the twins. And what about the knife? In
He had looked for bruising that might indicate if the sex was consensual or not. Again, it’s not a great indicator; the couple could simply have engaged in rough sex or playful fighting. In Zoë’s case, though, there was no bruising other than what had occurred when she was assaulted and fell to the ground. There was no evidence in the vaginal area that might have indicated penetration without her consent.
Today’s criminals watch the same TV shows the rest of the public does, and your average rapist often knows that his DNA can be found on the victim. Even so, the last statistic I read said that only fifteen to twenty percent of rapists use condoms to prevent the chance of leaving sperm behind.
In a corpse, sperm can live up to two weeks, but in a living woman, the vagina produces chemicals that destroy it. Since we’d found her body within hours after her death, the presence of viable sperm indicated that Zoë Greenfield had had consensual sex with a man within the past 72 hours. But it was tough to narrow the window any smaller. So she could have had sex Saturday night, and that might have had no connection with her Sunday dinner or the assault.
Investigating a homicide is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with extra pieces. You find something that doesn’t seem to fit—and sometimes it never does. But then again, sometimes that one awkward piece is the key to solving the whole puzzle.
“Did Anna Yang say anything about Zoë being bisexual?” Ray asked.
Because I’m openly gay, both in the department and in the larger community, I hear things, and people tell me things, that a straight cop might not find out. But if Anna recognized me, she hadn’t mentioned it, and she hadn’t told me anything that she hadn’t said in front of Ray.
“Nope. But at least in my experience, women’s sexuality is more fluid than men. Women tend to fall in love with the person, rather than the parts. Look at Ellen Degeneres and Anne Heche. Or that woman, what’s her name, Melissa Etheridge’s ex, who went back to a man. Once a guy comes out, it’s pretty unusual for him to go back to girls, but women seem to go back and forth more easily.”
We looked through the autopsy report again, but there was nothing more to glean from it. We both sat back to consider.
“There are a lot of different ways this could have played out,” I said.
Ray picked up his pen. “Well, let’s start listing them. The most obvious answer is that she picked up a guy somewhere and things went sour.” He leaned forward. “You used to date women, didn’t you?”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“If you were to decide to start again,” he said, “you might not be on your game, you know? Maybe you wouldn’t read the girl’s signals right, you wouldn’t be able to tell if she was psycho or not.”
“Trust me, I could tell if she was psycho.”
“But maybe Zoë couldn’t. Men and women are different, you know.”
“Really?”
“If you could just listen for a minute, you might learn something.” He sat back. “Say Zoë gets lonely, and she’s thinking maybe she should see what it’s like to be with a guy. You said women are more likely to go back and forth. She goes out to some singles bar, a place where they serve sushi, for example, and she picks a guy up.”
“She brings him home,” I continued. “They have sex. But in the middle of the night, she hears somebody in the living room, and it’s the guy. He’s looking for stuff to steal.”
Ray got into it. “She confronts him, and he stabs her.”
I shook my head. The story didn’t add up. “If he’s a casual trick, why didn’t she make him use a condom? She wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t want to catch anything from him.”
“But what if she wanted another baby?”
“Then why not just get sperm from Greg Oshiro again? He’s the father of the twins. And what about the knife? In
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