The Steel Kiss (Lincoln Rhyme 12)

"To a point."

"Mel!" Thom said, stepping into the parlor. "What're you doing here?"

"Abducted."

"Welcome." Then the aide scowled. "Can you believe it. Look at that." A disappointed nod toward the scaffolding and escalator. "The floors. I hope they're not ruined."

"They're my floors," Rhyme said.

"You charge me with keeping them pristine. Then undermine it with two tons of mechanical device." To the forensic tech: "Food, drink?"

"Tea would be lovely."

"I've got your favorite."

Cooper liked Lipton's. He had simple tastes.

"And how's your girlfriend?"

Cooper lived with his mother but had a tall, gorgeous Scandinavian paramour, a professor at Columbia. She and Cooper were champion ballroom dancers.

"She's--"

"We're just getting to work here," Rhyme interrupted.

Thom lifted an eyebrow to the tech, ignoring his boss.

"Fine thanks," Cooper replied. "She's fine. We have the regional tango competition next week."

"And speaking of beverages." Rhyme looked at the bottle of single-malt scotch.

"No," Thom said bluntly. "Coffee." And returned to the kitchen.

Rude.

"So. What's the caper? Love that word."

Rhyme explained about the escalator accident and the suit that would be filed by Evers Whitmore on behalf of the widow and her son.

"Ah, right. In the news. Terrible." Cooper shook his head. "Never felt really comfortable getting on and off those things. I'll take the stairs, or even an elevator, though I'm not so crazy about them either."

He walked to the computer monitor, on which were dozens of photographs of the accident site, taken by Sachs, unofficially, since she hadn't been involved in the mishap investigation. They were of the open access panel to the pit, showing the motor and gears and walls, all covered with blood.

"Died from hemorrhaging?"

"And trauma. Cut mostly in half."

"Hm."

"Is that the actual unit?" Cooper returned to the scaffolding and began examining it closely. "No blood. It's been scrubbed?"

"No." Rhyme explained about the impossibility of getting access to the actual escalator for several months. But he hoped they could determine a likely cause of the failure from this mock-up. Rhyme's idea was to pay to borrow a portion of an identical model from a contractor in the area. Thom had found the tape measure Rhyme had requested and they'd determined there was enough clearance to get the machinery through the front door, disassembled, and put it back together in the hallway. The price for the rental was five thousand, which Whitmore would add to his legal fee and deduct from whatever they recovered from the defendant.

Workers had built a scaffolding and mounted the top plate--the access panel that had opened to swallow up Greg Frommer--along with its supporting pieces, hinges, and portions of the railing and control switches. On the floor were the motor and the gears, identical to those that had killed the victim.

Cooper was walking silently around the device, looking up, touching pieces. "Won't be evidentiary."

"No. We just need to find out what went wrong, why the panel at the top opened when it shouldn't have." Rhyme wheeled closer.