The Skin Collector (Lincoln Rhyme 11)

On the pretext of getting a new pair of gloves from the far side of the bus, Sachs eased up to a detective she knew, a sharp, streetwise officer who'd recently been assigned to Midtown North. Nancy Simpson was handling crowd control detail and directing diners out of the immediate scene as they exited the restaurant.

'Hey,' she said, 'Nancy.'

'This guy again?' the woman muttered. She was in an NYPD windbreaker, collar pulled high against the weather. Sachs liked the stylish beret, in dark green.

'Looks like it.'

'Got people scared all over town,' Simpson told her. 'Reports of intruders in basements're up a hundred percent. None of 'em pan out, but we send Patrol anyway. Tying up everything.' She added with a wink. 'And nobody's washing their clothes. Afraid of the laundry room.'

'We may have a situation, Nancy.'

'Go ahead.'

'Don't look behind you.'

'I won't. Why?'

'We've got a fish I'm interested in. A guy on the corner. This block. He's in a jacket, baseball cap. I want you to get close but don't see him. You know what I mean?'

'Sure. I saw somebody. Peripheral. Wondered.'

'Get close. And then stop him. Keep your weapon ready. There's an off-chance it might be the perp.'

'Who did this?'

'Who did this. Not likely, I'm saying. But maybe.'

'How should I get close?'

'You're checking traffic, you're on your phone, pretending you're on your phone, I mean.'

'Arrest?'

'Just ID at this point. I'll come up behind. I'll have my weapon drawn.'

'Fish. I'm bait.'

Sachs glanced to the side. 'Oh, hell. He's gone.'

The unsub, or whoever he was, had disappeared around the corner of a glass-and-chrome building, about ten stories high, next to the restaurant where Samantha Levine had been dining - before the fateful trip to the restroom.

'I'm on it,' Simpson said. She sprinted in the direction the man had gone.

Sachs ran to the command post and told Bo Haumann there was a possible suspect. Instantly he marshaled a half-dozen ESU and other officers. She glanced toward Simpson. From the way she paused and looked around, Sachs deduced the suspect had vanished.

The detective turned and trotted back to Sachs and Haumann.

'Sorry, Amelia. He's gone. Maybe ducked into that building - the fancy one on the corner - or took off in a car.'

Haumann said, 'We'll follow up. We have a picture of your unsub from the homicide yesterday, the Identi-Kit image.'

She pictured the surly, Slavic-looking face, the weirdly light eyes.

The ESU leader said to the men he'd called around him, 'Deploy. Go find him. And somebody call it in to Midtown South. I want a team moving west down Fifty-two Street. We'll hem him in, if we can.'

'Yessir.'

They trotted off.