The Burning Wire (Lincoln Rhyme 9)

Rhyme corrected a typo and kept going.

Click, click . . .

Then he looked up and said softly, "The victims."

"What?"

Rhyme explained, "If the perp was just making a statement, like it seemed, he could have rigged a timed device--and not risked being nearby. We know he could have done that; we found the timer spring at one of the crime scenes. But he didn't. He was using a remote control and he was nearby when the victims died. Why?"

Sellitto barked a laugh. "Goddamn, Linc. Andi and her brother were after somebody in particular. She was just making it look, you know, random. That's why the attacks happened before the deadlines."

"Exactly! . . . Rookie, bring the whiteboards over here. Now!"

He did.

"The vics. Look at the vics."

Luis Martin, assistant manager in music store.

Linda Kepler, Oklahoma City, tourist.

Morris Kepler, Oklahoma City, tourist.

Samuel Vetter, Scottsdale, businessman.

Ali Mamoud, New York City, waiter.

Gerhart Schiller, Frankfurt, Germany, advertising executive.

Larry Fishbein, New York City, accountant.

Robert Bodine, New York City, attorney.

Franklin Tucker, Paramus, New Jersey, salesman.

"Do we know anything about the injured?"

Sachs said she didn't.

"Well, one of them might've been the intended victim too. We should find out. But what do we know about them, at least, the deceased?" Rhyme asked, staring at the names. "Is there any reason Andi would want any of them dead?"

"The Keplers were tourists in town on a package tour," Sachs said. "Retired ten years ago. Vetter was the witness. Maybe that's why they killed him."

"No, this was planned a month ago. What was the business?"

Sachs flipped through her notebook. "President of Southwest Concrete."

"Look 'em up, Mel."

In a minute Cooper was saying, "Well, listen to this. Based in Scottsdale. General construction, with a specialty in infrastructure projects. On the website it says that Vetter was attending an alternative energy financing seminar at the Battery Park Hotel." He looked up. "Recently they've been involved in constructing the foundations for photovoltaic arrays."

"Solar power." Rhyme's eyes continued to take in the evidence. He said, "And the victims in the office building? Sachs, call Susan Stringer and see if she knows anything about them."

Sachs pulled out her phone and had a conversation with the woman. When she hung up she said, "Okay, she doesn't know the lawyer or the man who got on at the sixth floor. But Larry Fishbein was an accountant she

knew a little. She overheard him complaining that there was something odd about the books of a company where he'd just done an audit. Some money was disappearing. And wherever it was, the place was really hot. Too hot to golf."

"Maybe Arizona. Call and find out."