'You analyze away,' Sellitto shot back. 'Amelia and I'll give Terry a call. You don't even have to listen. Look, our unsub went to a lot of trouble to get his hands on a book that's about the Bone Collector. I want to know why.'
'All right,' Rhyme said, surrendering.
Sellitto placed a call and when Dobyns answered, the detective hit a button on his mobile.
'You're on speaker, Terry. 'S Lon Sellitto. I'm here with Lincoln and a couple of others. We've got a case we'd like to ask you about.'
'Been awhile,' the doctor said in his smooth baritone. 'How are you doing, Lon?'
'Okay, okay.'
'And Lincoln?'
'Fine,' Rhyme muttered and began looking over the evidence chart once more. Inwood marble. Being blown up. That, he was far more interested in than spongy psychological guesswork.
Alchemy ...
'It's Amelia too,' she said. 'And Ron Pulaski and Mel Cooper.'
'I'm deducing this's about the tattoo case. I saw it on the wire.'
Though the press hadn't been informed about the nuances of the Unsub 11-5 case, all law enforcement agencies in the area had been contacted, with a request for matching MOs (none had answered in the affirmative).
'That's right. There's a development and we'd like your thoughts.'
'I'm all ears.'
Rhyme had to admit that he found the man's intonation calming. He could picture the sinewy, gray-haired doctor, whose smile was as easy as his voice. When he was listening to you, he truly listened. You were the center of the universe.
Sachs explained about the perp's theft of the chapter about the Bone Collector - and the fact that he'd been carrying it around with him during the crime. She added too that there was no direct connection with the Bone Collector case but that he'd probably gone to some trouble to obtain a copy of the book.
Lon Sellitto added, 'And he left a message.' He explained about the tattooed phrase 'the second' in Old English type.
The doctor was silent for a moment. Then: 'Well, the first thing that I thought of, which you obviously have too, is that he's a serial doer. A partial message means there're more to come. And then his interest in the Bone Collector, who was a serial kidnapper.'
'We assume he's going to keep hunting,' Sellitto said.
'Do you have any leads at all?'
Sachs said, 'Description - white male, slim. Some details on the poisons he used and one that he probably intends to.'
'And the victim's white female?'
'Yes.'
'Fits the serial killer model.' Most such killers hunted in the same racial pool as their own.
Sachs continued, 'He subdued her with propofol. So maybe he's got a medical background.'
'Like the Bone Collector,' Dobyns said.
'Right,' Rhyme said, eyes shifting from the evidence to the speaker phone. 'I hadn't thought about that.' His attention to the psychiatrist now edged over the 50 percent mark.
'Sexual component?'
'No,' Sellitto said.
Sachs added, 'It took her some time to die. Presumably he was there, watching. And possibly enjoying it.'