Dave Peters kissed his wife good-bye, patted his son on the head, and left for work. He said that he had a busy day planned - lots of meetings, reviews, discussion. Probably not going to accomplish much, but a lot to keep him occupied. And he might be home late as a result. She smiled and wished him luck.

He pulled out of the driveway and drove off, but he had no intentions of going to work today. Instead, he called his boss and fibbed, claiming that he was having major car trouble and would be stuck at the mechanic's all day. Work had been slow lately and he knew there wouldn't be any issues.

His alibis in place, he drove to the airport. He parked at a far corner of the long-term parking lot. Not so far out as to be suspicious, but not close enough to be noticed. He hopped on the airport bus and rode to the terminal. He checked in through the computer kiosk with the temporary check card that he had been issued. He loved those things - all the convenience of a credit card, but virtually impossible to trace back to its user.

The plane touched down two hours later and he grabbed in a taxi for downtown. The driver asked if he was sure about where he was going, but Dave insisted he needed to. Business matters. The driver shrugged and soon dropped him off in front of one of the complexes. Some people on the corner gave him dirty looks, but he just held up his briefcase, pointed to it and called, "Welfare checks!" They smiled and left him alone.

He entered the building and went door to door, posing as a tax auditor for the city. He was just checking up on the landlord and making sure that proper residences were being reported. He stopped when he reached a small apartment inhabited by a lone woman. He talked his way into her apartment by politely requesting a glass of water. He was rather parched by now.

Once inside, he set his briefcase down on the table, opened it, removed the long butcher knife he was carrying and slit the woman's throat in one deft motion. Sneaking up on her from behind, she was completely unprepared and died quickly. He returned the knife to the case, locked it, and left. Outside, he hailed a cab and went back to the airport with plenty of time for his return flight.

As he pulled up into his driveway that night, he wondered about the woman he had murdered today. Her killing would probably never be solved. Sure, people in the building would probably say that a man was there claiming to be an auditor, and maybe they'd even describe him. But there was no chance that they would link a murder in a city 800 miles away to Dave. Everyone would insist that he's an innocent man.