Police are interviewing relatives, tracking histories, holding press conferences and starving for solid tips. Vancouver police also are talking to officers in Spokane, where a serial killer is suspected in the deaths of 10 women, and in King County, where the Green River killer suspected in 49 deaths still hasn't been caught. A Vancouver man now serving time for rape is being investigated in connection with the disappearances of three of the missing women, as well as four prostitutes whose bodies were found in 1995. But there's nothing solid. In the Downtown Eastside, sirens provide the soundtrack, and any place works for a bathroom.
Hotels have weekly and monthly rates.
Women parade and pose in Band-Aid outfits and stacked heels. Men drink rice wine, which, like drugs, costs more on Welfare Wednesday, the day government checks arrive. The drug of choice is injectable cocaine, although heroin is a standby and crack is making inroads. This neighborhood, just east of trendy Gastown along Hastings Street, is known worldwide for its high HIV rate - at one point, one in four drug users tested positive. The local drop-in center for prostitutes estimates 80 percent of its clients are HIV positive.