“Not much. Autopsy pending. My guess is that she was raped.”

“Is that confirmed?”

“Not yet, but why the hell would a guy drag her into the bushes and tear her clothes off if he wasn’t going to rape her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you know her? She was a real babe. We got a picture of her from her parents.”

“I knew her slightly.” Tony wasn’t going to tell Josh that she had been here at the townhouse, swimming in the pool. Josh would complain that Tony had excluded him. That’s exactly what Tony had done, of course, making sure that Josh was out of town on the weekend he had volunteered to hold the class here.

“Do you know what she was wearing?” Josh asked, as if he were revealing a scandal. “Short shorts, skimpy top. No underwear. If a girl’s dressed like that, she’s asking for it.”

“It was a warm night. And maybe the killer took her underwear with him. Maybe he has an underwear fetish.” Tony was heating up. “Where do you get off, anyway, saying that she was asking for it? That’s antediluvian thinking, Josh.”

Josh backed away in mock surprise. “Sorry, Noodles. I forgot that you’re a born-again feminist. Working for women. Working with girls. Listening to their problems. You’re pussy-whipped, that’s what you are. You’re not the Tony I used to know who could pick up a girl on the street just by smiling at her and then would dump her with a frown. Now I bet you tell them you feel their pain.”

Usually, Tony would have had a fast comeback for Josh, but he was in no mood tonight. He stood up and said, “You have exactly three seconds to get out of this room before I throw you downstairs.”

It was doubtful that he could throw the larger Josh anywhere, but Josh knew his temper and was smart enough not to aggravate him further. Josh backed out of the room with his arms up in a gesture of surrender and went down the hall to his own room.