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incapacitated?”
    “The latter,” Welling said. “That strikes me as the more likely scenario, and what I want to know is how fast, under ideal circumstances, the killer could have done everything he needed to do.”
    Rainey nodded. “Then we should go to the end of the alley, and you carry me from there.”
    Minox couldn’t hide his smile. Inspector Rainey could definitely be the most useful partner he had been assigned. “Boy, when you hear the whistle, I want you to start marking time. When I blow it again, then stop. If we’re all clear, let’s begin.”

    Minox went down to the end of the alley, Inspector Rainey right with him. “I’m working on the theory that the killer entered the alley from here, with the victim, carried him out to the mouth of the alley, performed the ritual killing, and exited again from here. Is this reasonable?”
    Inspector Rainey nodded. “Reasonable enough.”
    “So we’re clear, you will be playing the victim while I will be acting out the killer’s part, save causing you actual harm.” On a rough estimate of height and weight, Inspector Rainey was almost the same as the victim. For the purpose of this experiment, she was within acceptable tolerances.
    “And your theory is that the victim was, at this stage, incapacitated somehow?”
    “Yes, exactly.”
    “So I should be dead weight.” Promptly she dropped to the ground in a heap.
    Minox was quite pleased that she had reached this conclusion on her own. None of his previous partners had ever understood what he was doing when he tried to work through the physical reality of committing such a complicated crime.
    “Wait,” Rainey said from her collapsed position. “This isn’t right.”
    “How so?”
    “We need to start inside the sewer. The act of pulling an incapacitated body from there would take a significant amount of time.”
    Minox nodded, impressed. “Excellent point.”
    “Open the grate.” Rainey got back on her feet. Minox had to admit, he was finding this early partnership far more satisfactory than he had imagined would have been possible. Rare was the officer who would willingly go into the sewer system even for the sake of pursuit, let alone for a mere deductive experiment. He pulled open the grate, revealing the dank, fetid tunnel beneath the street.
    Inspector Rainey shucked off her boots, coat, and vest, putting them in a neat pile on an abandoned crate. Without any trace of hesitation she removed her blouse and slacks and placed them on her pile.
    Minox turned to one side. “That is sufficient, Inspector,” Minox said. Her linen underthings were sufficiently modest to maintain some propriety.
    “I want to minimize what I ruin here,” she said. She peered down the hole. “Once more in.” She sat down and lowered herself underground.
    Minox paused only briefly to remove his own coat and vest before dropping in after her.
    “This is interesting,” Rainey said mildly, pointing to the knotted rope that hung from the top of the tunnel. “Fairly sure that isn’t typically installed here.”
    “You spend a lot of time inside the sewers?” Minox asked her.
    “In my youth, Inspector,” she muttered. “Come on.” She went limp, and Minox had to rush to catch her before she fell into the fetid water at their feet.
    “You could have given a little warning, Inspector.”
    “Keeping you on your toes,” she whispered, not moving in any other way. “Give the signal.”
    Minox put the whistle in his mouth and blew. As soon as he did, he hiked Rainey’s limp body over his shoulder. He grabbed the knotted rope and struggled to climb.
    “Not . . . easy . . .” he choked out.
    “I wouldn’t imagine.”
    After a hard slog, he managed to get one hand over the lip of the sewer hole.
    “This may be impossible,” he said.
    “What, exactly?”
    “The aperture is too small for me to get out with you over my shoulder, but there’s no way to get the necessary leverage to push you through ahead