She put a hand over her mouth and smiled, or maybe frowned. Then she mustered a stern look and said, "I hope that's out of your system."

"Not a chance."

"Well… now, here's the good news. I think we can rule out erectile dysfunction or penile insecurities as motives for suicide."

We laughed.

I mean, we both were affected by this man's death, sympathetic about the miseries that led to such a tragic act, and professionally dedicated to getting to the bottom of this.

Eros and Thanatos-sex and death. When the ancient Greeks wrote about sex, it was comedy, and of death, tragedy. So the scene before us was a combination of sad, nauseating, and ridiculous. As every cop knows, satire is a coping mechanism, a path to detachment, without which you haven't a prayer of catching the bad guys.

Anyway, that was her excuse. My dog ate mine.

I cleared my throat, and tried to clear my mind, and asked, "So, was it murder or was it suicide?"

"Well… the lead detective mentioned a few other things you should be aware of."

"Go on."

"When the maid entered the bedroom, the TV was on… as was the DVD player, albeit in passive mode."

"So he watched a little tube before he pulled the plug. Maybe he didn't like the show. Rather than get up and turn the channel, maybe he pushed his own stop button." I recalled a lady friend who once made me watch a full episode of General Hospital; I thought seriously about killing myself.

She said, "A porn video was in the DVD player."

We exchanged eye contact.

She added, "I've never seen or heard of this with a suicide. Have you?"

"I've read of cases where certain sexual fetishes resulted in death. For example, asphyxiation, or near asphyxiation, apparently heightens the sexual sensation."

"I've heard of it. In those cases, though, death is accidental, an unwanted by-product. That doesn't apply here."