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chief shoots me a very clear look: If you fuck up my investigation in any way, I will hound you to a paupers grave . Now, he says, his gentle bass voice filling the conference room like soft light. What about my question? Credit card receipts from EROS, canceled checks, phone bills, and suchlike? Why didnt this link the crimes?
    Chief, says Baxter, despite our best efforts to familiarize city police departments with our VICAP program, we still have a pretty poor compliance rate. Not nearly enough officers take the time to fill out their violent offender profiles and send them in. This EROS connection is exactly the kind of thing that slips through the cracks. I wouldnt be surprised if homicide detectives in one or more of the involved departments have just such a receipt in an evidence drawer somewhere, but have no idea that detectives in any other cities have the same thing.
    All our fault, as usual, grumbles Mayeuxs partner.
    Five of these six cases were sent in to VICAP, says Mayeux, giving his partner covering fire. But they werent linked. No EROS connection showed up. All had computers in their homes, but nothing related to EROS on their drives. Why not?
    Well, I say, finally regaining sufficient composure torejoin the conversation. As long as the killer wasnt rushed, he could erase the EROS software from the victims computers and take away any manuals they had. Although it would take a real wizard to wipe every trace from the hard disks. You might have one of your people look into that.
    Baxter gives me a wry smile. No traces so far.
    Karin Wheat paid EROS with her Visa card, says Mayeux. I checked as soon as you told me she was a member.
    Shell be the only one that did, I tell him.
    How do you know that? asks Dr. Lenz, his heavy-lidded eyes probing mine.
    Because every other womanvictim, I meanhad set up her account on the blind-draft account system.
    Whats that? asks the chief. A direct bank draft?
    Yes, but not the kind you imagine. A lot of EROS subscribersparticularly womenare married, and dont want their spouses to know theyre on-line with us. Some log on only from their workplace. Others from home, but only when their husbands are away. Ms. Krislov makes every effort to ensure that any woman who wants to connect with us has the ability to do so without stigma. To facilitate this, she came up with the blind-draft policy. If a woman doesnt want her husband to know shes on-lineor vice versawe advise the user to set up a checking account at a bank not used by the spousean out-of-town bank, if possibleand use a P.O. box as her address. We then arrange to draft this secret account directly for payment of the monthly fee.
    Son of a bitch, says Mayeuxs partner.
    Every one of the murdered women was on a secret account? Mayeux asks.
    Except Karin Wheat.
    But three of them werent married, Mayeux points out. Who were they hiding from? Boyfriends?
    Or girlfriends, says Dr. Lenz.
    What about phone bills? asks Mayeux. Wouldnt connect-time show up on the phone bills of all the victims?
    Its an eight hundred number, remember?
    Shit. So after they were killed, their secret accounts eventually dropped to zero?
    Eventually is exactly why I got suspicious. EROS isnt like CompuServe or America Online, where you might lose interest but keep paying the nine ninety-five per month, thinking youll get back into it. Were talking three to five hundred bucks a month. EROS users may be wealthy, but when they get bored they close those direct-draft accounts.
    And the murdered women didnt, says Mayeux.
    Right. And two particular womenthe third and fourth victimswere very active on-line. Then poof, one day they were gone. But their bank drafts kept coming in. That didnt fit the pattern. Im not saying it had never happened beforeit had. Thats why I didnt call the police immediately. But the longer the accounts stayed active without the women showing up on-line, the more uncomfortable I got. I started probing the accounting program to see how many