The Steel Kiss (Lincoln Rhyme 12)

Archer's face screwed up with an ironic frown. "And that video?"

"The Department of Investigations impounded it."

She cocked her head as her eyes slipped to Cooper. "We're civilians but you're NYPD, right?"

"I'm not here," he said quickly.

"You're--"

"I'm unofficial. On vacation. If I were to get official investigative material now I'll be sent on permanent vacation."

Scanning the photographs. "What else could be the culprit?" Rhyme mused.

"Okay. No one pushed the button intentionally. Maybe a short circuit or other electrical problem activated the switch. It tripped the motor--it's called a servo--and that retracted the pin and popped the door."

"Let's look at the wiring."

Mel expanded the pictures he'd taken inside the escalator. Rhyme noted that a wire ran along the interior wall from the push-button switch on the outside. The switch wire ended in a plug inserted in one of the outlets on the side of the servo unit inside.

"The connections're exposed," Cooper said.

"They are indeed," Rhyme said. He gave a brief smile.

An instant later Archer too grinned. "I get it. A bit of metal or foil or something conductive might've drifted onto the plug and completed the connection. The servo pulled the pin back and the door popped up." She added, "I couldn't find any similar incidents involving this model escalator. Escalators can be dangerous. But usually it's getting clothes or shoes caught in the mechanism. That happens more than you'd think. A hundred and thirty-seven people died last year in escalator accidents around the world. The worst single disaster, some years ago, was an explosion in the London Underground. Dust and particles accumulated and then caught fire and blew up. Like a grain elevator explosion. Have you ever seen those?"

"They don't happen in Manhattan very often," Rhyme said absently, mulling over what she'd told him.

"I have," offered Mel Cooper. "Seen one."

Rhyme grimaced at the irrelevance. "And the defect is--"

"That Midwest Conveyance didn't shield the plugs," Archer said. "Would have been easy. Recess them, put them under a covering. Something like that."

Cooper offered, "Or they shouldn't use plugs at all. Hardwire the switch and the servo motor. Maybe the company wanted to save money."

The first hint there might have been punitive-level behavior on the part of the manufacturer.

"Who makes--?"

Archer answered his question before he finished it. "Just like the locking mechanism. Both the servo motor and the switch were made by Midwest Conveyance. Their component parts unit. And a division. Not a subsidiary. They can't hide behind the corporate veil."

Cooper said, "I thought you were an epidemiologist."

"Boston Legal. Believe me. It's really very good. I also like Better Call Saul."

Cooper said, "L.A. Law too."

"Oh, it's good."

Please...

Rhyme was puzzling out how foreign substances could have tricked the servo motor into opening the door.

"I have an idea," Archer said.

"What's that?"

"You're a scientist. You like empirical evidence."