"Who are her clients?"
More typing. "No names. But her specialty is representing insurance companies."
Rhyme, gazing at the screen. He smiled. "We'll have to wait until we do more research about Valerie, about her clients. But the others--they sure as hell have something in common."
Archer looked over the chart and notes. "Cars."
"Exactly! Benkoff's client was U.S. Auto. Heady was on an assembly line and I'll bet that's whom he worked for. Did U.S. Auto use Patterson fuel injectors?"
With voice commands, Archer did the search. And, yes, Google dutifully reported that Patterson had been a major supplier of U.S. Auto... until about five years ago.
He whispered, "Around the time Frommer quit the company."
Archer asked, "And Valerie Mayer?"
The criminalist turned to the microphone near his head: "Call Evers Whitmore."
The phone responded instantly and after two rings a receptionist answered. "Evers Whitmore, please. Now. It's urgent."
"Mr. Whitmore is--"
"Tell him Lincoln Rhyme is calling."
"He's actually--"
"That's Lincoln, first name. Rhyme, second. And, as I said, it's urgent."
A pause. "One moment."
Then the lawyer's voice was saying, "Mr. Rhyme. How are you? How's--?"
"Don't have time. You were telling me about a case, a personal injury case, involving a car company. Some internal memo said that it would be cheaper to pay wrongful death claims than fix some dangerous defect in a car. Was it U.S. Auto? I can't recall."
"Yes, you're correct. It was."
"Valerie Mayer, a trial lawyer in New York. Did she defend the company?"
"No."
Hell. There went his theory.
Then Whitmore said, "She represented the insurer who covered U.S. Auto against liability suits."
"Was Patterson Systems involved?"
"Patterson? You mean the company Mr. Frommer worked for? I don't know. Hold on a moment."
Silence. Then the lawyer came back on the line. "Yes, the main suit was against U.S. Auto but Patterson was also a defendant. The claim was that both the automaker and the parts supplier knew about the fuel system defect and decided not to change the injectors and the interface with the motors to make them safer."
"Mr. Whitmore, Evers, I need everything you can send me about the case."
A pause. "Well, that is somewhat problematic, Mr. Rhyme. For one thing I didn't work on the suit so I don't have any source material. Besides, you don't have room. Or the time to read everything. There were hundreds of cases revolving around the defect, and they went on for years. There have to be ten million documents, I would estimate. Perhaps more. May I ask why--"
"We think our killer--the one using the DataWise controllers as a murder weapon--was targeting people with connections to U.S. Auto."
"My. Yes, I see. He was injured in one of the accidents because of the fuel system failure?"
"We think it's likely he's at large, and I was hoping there might be something in the case files that'll give us a clue where he's gone."