The Burning Wire (Lincoln Rhyme 9)

Parker Kincaid was on the line from his document examination office in his house in Fairfax, Virginia.

"Lincoln."

"Parker, what've we got?"

Kincaid said, "First, the handwriting comparison. The control samples from Algonquin itself were pretty sparse, so I couldn't do the complete analysis I would have liked."

"I understand that."

"But I've narrowed it down to twelve employees."

"Twelve. Excellent."

"Here are the names. Ready?"

Rhyme glanced at Cooper, who nodded. The tech jotted them down as Kincaid dictated.

"Now, I can give you a few other things about him. First, he's right-handed. Then I picked some characteristics from the language and word choice."

"Go ahead."

At Rhyme's nod, Cooper walked to the profile board.

"He's a product of high school and probably some college. And it was an American education. There are a few spelling, grammatical and punctuation mistakes but mostly with more difficult words or constructions. I put those down to the stress of what he's doing. He was probably born here. I can't say for sure that he isn't of foreign extraction, but English is his first and, I'm almost positive, only language."

Cooper wrote this down.

Kincaid continued, "He's also pretty clever. He doesn't write in the first person and avoids the active voice."

Rhyme understood. "He never says anything about himself."

"Exactly."

"Suggesting there could be others working with him."

"It's a possibility. Also, there's some variation on ascenders and descenders. You get that when a subject is upset, emotional. They're writing in anger or distress, and broader strokes tend to be emphasized."

"Good." Rhyme nodded at Cooper, who jotted this too onto the profile board.

"Thanks, Parker. We'll get to work."

They disconnected. "Twelve . . ." Rhyme sighed. He looked over the evidence and profile chart, then the names of the suspects. "Don't we have any way to narrow it down faster?" he asked bitterly, watching his clock advance one more minute toward the approaching deadline.

CRIME SCENE: ALGONQUIN

SUBSTATION MANHATTAN-10,

WEST 57TH STREET

* * *

--Victim (deceased): Luis Martin, assistant manager in music store.

--No friction ridge prints on any surface.

--Shrapnel from molten metal, as a result of the arc flash.

--0-gauge insulated aluminum strand cable.