"Put everything up on the boards."
CRIME SCENE: 4218 MARTIN STREET, BROOKLYN
- Offense: Attempted Assault.
- Suspect: Unsub 40.
- Victim: Rose Sachs, unharmed.
- Means of attack: Rigged circuit breaker box to electrocute.
- Evidence:
- No friction ridge, DNA.
- Insulation from Hendrix Cable.
- Additional adhesive, as from earlier scene.
- Walnut sawdust.
- Glass shards associated with earlier scene (this location).
- Unsub wore flesh-colored cotton gloves.
- Electricians tape from one of: - Ludlum Tape and Adhesive.
- Conoco Industrial Products.
- Hammersmith Adhesives.
- Home-Safe Atlas garage door opener.
"Everything common, Mel?" Rhyme asked.
"Yep. Sold in a hundred stores in the area. Not very helpful."
Two voices: "But he was improvising the attack at your mother's town house, Sachs." At the same time Archer said, "But he didn't plan your mother's attack ahead of time, Amelia."
Rhyme laughed at their tripping over each other's words yet again. He explained to Sachs, "The unsub's planned out all the other attacks against his victims ahead of time. But he made a last-minute decision to attack your mom. He hadn't figured you'd be so persistent, so much of a risk to him. Which means he bought the tape, the electric wire, the glass and glazing compound and the garage door opener around the same time. Likely some or all at the same place. It would have been smart to buy them separately over a period of days or weeks but he didn't have a choice. He had to stop you."
Archer looked over the chart. "Maybe the parts for the gas bomb that he used downtown too--to destroy Todd Williams's office."
"Very possibly," Rhyme said. "Let's start with the garage door opener, don't you think? Sachs?" He'd been speaking to her.
"What's that?" She'd been distracted, reading a text.
"The garage door opener. Get a list of retail locations, then canvass to see if anybody bought the other items there." Rhyme added, "Start with Queens. Expand from there."
Sachs called Major Cases and put together a canvass team to start searching for the purchases. She then disconnected and emailed them a list of the items Unsub 40 would have bought. Rhyme noted she looked out the window for a moment. Then turned and walked close to him.
"Rhyme. You have a minute?"
One of those useless expressions. Why not just say: I want to talk to you. Let's lose the bystanders. But of course he nodded. "Sure."
He wheeled toward her and together they headed into the parlor across the hallway. She remained silent for a moment. He knew her well. When someone is your lover and your professional partner little of her psyche remains hidden. She was not being dramatic. She was weighing what she wished to say the way one would carefully measure a drug found in a bust to most accurately determine the charges against the suspect. Sachs was certainly given to impulse in some things. But matters close to her heart were swathed in thick deliberation.
She sighed and turned. Then sat. "There's something I have to talk to you about."