- White, pale, maybe balding or crew cut.
- Used a car service on Astoria Blvd. around day of Williams's murder.
- Awaiting word from owner of gypsy cab company.
- Service has reported on the destination.
CRIME SCENE: 348 RIDGE STREET, MANHATTAN
- Offenses: Arson.
- Victim: None.
- Relevance to case: Unsub 40 is the same person who caused Greg Frommer's death, intentionally opening the access panel of Midwest Conveyance escalator, at Brooklyn Heights Mall. Met Todd Williams and learned how to hack DataWise5000 smart controllers, which caused escalator accident.
- On night of Williams's death unsub got two lists from him:
- Database of all products the controllers are found in.
- Consumers who bought some of those products.
- Additional elements of profile of suspect:
- Under name of the People's Guardian, posted manifesto. Domestic terrorism, attacking excess consumerism.
- Can't trace the post.
- Intentional grammatical mistakes. Probably he's intelligent.
- Evidence:
- Improvised explosive device.
- Wax, low-octane gasoline, cotton, plastic, matches. Candle bomb. Elements not sourceable.
So. This is her home.
Red's.
Amelia Sachs, the Shopper.
The Shopper who was not courteous enough to burn to death in Todd Williams's office building.
I happen to be across the street from her Brooklyn town house, dolled up in some worker's clothing, coveralls, which, well, cover all. So as not to draw attention. Tired, now toward the end of a long, long workday (though I'm largely pretending at the moment, the fatigue is true). Coffee in one hand, mobile phone in another, pretending to read texts, though in reality I've been reading how well my screed against consumerism went over in the press. Why, I've even had some likes!
Studying Red's town house carefully. A Shopper. Yes, she is and she'll suffer for it but I've softened a bit (White Castles from the frozen foods section are not bad) and I've decided, Red isn't the sadistic sort. A Shopper with a heart she is. The sort of girl who if I had asked her out wouldn't laugh in my face and let loose about string beans and sacks of bones. She'd blush and keep a pretty smile on her pretty face. "Sorry, I have plans."
A Shopper with a heart...
So when I destroy Red's life I will probably feel some regret. But I think this in passing and get back to the task at hand.
Nice place she has here. Old-time Brooklyn. Classic. Amelia Sachs. German name, I guess. She doesn't look German, but I really don't know what a German looks like, now I think about it. She doesn't have braided blond hair and blue Aryan eyes.
I've been debating what to do about her. Red owns no products that have DataWise5000 controllers in them. At least not that I can find. She's not on my magic lists that Todd so helpfully got for me before his bones started to crack. Of course once a product gets out into the hands of the public, it can bob like a cork in the ocean until it washes up in someone else's kitchen or garage or living room. But I scanned Red's house for signals, like Todd showed me, and while I found some lonely little devices sending out their wireless beacons, begging to join a network, none of them will help me turn her into a mass of broken bone or blistered flesh.
Sipping coffee, which I'm not really sipping, looking at the cell phone, which I'm not really looking at... pretending. I'm blending in--an impatient workman waiting for a ride home at the end of the day.
Though I'm not impatient at all.