Summary

In Chapter 15, Ballard drives through the neighborhoods of the two previous rapes. None of the streetlights are out, but weeks have passed since those attacks. Ballard is summoned to an area under an overpass where homeless people have set up camp. She examines the scene where a man is dead. Her job is to decide whether to summon forensics and homicide investigators. She decides the man is a victim of “Purple Haze.” She explains to the young officers that Jimi Hendrix, the singer who recorded Purple Haze, choked to death on vomit after an overdose. She regrets the reference when the officers laugh about the reference, knowing “It would get passed on and add another layer of callousness to the department” (133). She remains on the scene as they unsuccessfully try to identify the man. She writes up the report, discovering that he is...