a poker player who had just been dealt two pairs of aces. Kaufman was a drug user and convicted thief who had done several prison stints over recent years. His dates of incarceration (September 1982 to August 1984, and January 1985 to early July 1986) coincided exactly with the periods when the rapist had been out of action. The first rape in the most recent series had happened on July 5. Kaufman had been released from prison the day before.

The scant descriptive details available (“between 25 and 35 years old”; “between 175 and 183 cm tall”; “of slim build”; “probably with brown hair;” and “Australian”) matched. Kaufman was 5 feet 10 inches tall (178 cm) of medium build, with brown hair and blue eyes. A report after oneattack also quoted a victim as saying he was “well-spoken.” At the time, he was living within less than a mile from the Armadale break-in.

The day after his visit to the car yard, Fontana approached Kaufman for an interview, carefully restricting his questions to the break-ins on the previous Saturday night. He didn’t want his quarry to know he was a rape suspect. Politely and calmly, Kaufman denied all knowledge of the incident. Without a scintilla of evidence to back his instincts, the detective had to let the suspect go. He assuaged his disappointment with a review of recent break-ins in the area, and discovered a clutch of “unsolved” around Narong Road. They were Kaufman’s too, he believed. Fontana arranged for Kaufman to be placed under surveillance, briefly,