The Steel Kiss (Lincoln Rhyme 12)

"Dark jacket, you said? Sport coat?"

"We canvassed the shops. But nobody saw anybody with his build buy anything. Don't have his face."

"Think we can get prints from the ladder? At the dock?"

"Oh, the vid shows he put gloves on before he climbed down."

Smart. This boy is smart.

"One thing. He was carrying his cup and what seemed like some food wrappers. We looked but he didn't drop 'em that we could find."

"I'll get an ECT on it."

"Hey, how'd it go with Captain White Tie? Oh, did I say that?"

She smiled. "If you said it I didn't hear it."

"He's already planning how to redecorate his office in the governor's mansion."

Explained the posh outfit. Brass with aspirations. Good to have on your side.

God bless you...

"Fine. Looks like he's backing me up on the weapons issue."

"He's a decent guy. Just promise you'll vote for him."

"Keep up the canvass," Sachs told him.

"Will do."

Sachs was approached by an inspector with the fire department and ga

ve a statement on the escalator accident. Twenty minutes later the Evidence Collection Team assigned to the Unsub 40 case arrived from the NYPD's massive Crime Scene complex in Queens. She greeted them, two thirty-ish African American techs, man and woman, she worked with from time to time. They wheeled heavy suitcases toward the escalator.

"Uh-uh," Sachs told them. "That was an accident. The Department of Investigations'll be coordinating with the Eight-Four. I need you to walk the grid at Starbucks."

"What happened there?" the woman officer asked, looking over the coffee shop.

"A serious crime," her partner offered. "Price of a frappuccino."

"Our unsub sat down for a late lunch. Some table in the back, you'll have to ask where. Tall, thin. Green checkered jacket and Atlanta baseball cap. But there won't be much. He took his cup and wrappers with him."

"Hate it when they don't leave their DNA lying around."

"True, that."

Sachs said, "But I'm hoping he ditched the litter somewhere close."

"You have any idea where?" the woman asked.

Looking over the staff in Starbucks, Sachs had, in fact, had an inspiration. "Maybe. But it's not in the mall. I'll check that out myself. You handle Starbucks."

"Always loved you, Amelia. You give us the warm and fuzzy and you take the dark 'n' cold."

She crouched and pulled a blue Tyvek jumpsuit out of the case one of the ECTs had just opened.

"Standard operating procedure, right, Amelia? Bundle up everything and get it to Lincoln's town house?"