The Broken Window (Lincoln Rhyme 8)

"The fuck that happen?"

"I wish I knew. I've been thinking about it since I got arrested. It's all I think about. How he could've done it."

"Who's 'he'?"

"The real killer."

"Yo, like in The Fugitive. Or O.J."

"The police found all kinds of evidence linking me to the crime. Somehow the real killer knew everything about me. My car, where I lived, my schedule. He even knew things I bought--and he planted them as evidence. I'm sure that's what happened."

Antwon Johnson considered this and then laughed. "Man. That yo' fucking problem."

"What's that?"

"You went out an' you bought ever'thing. Shoulda just boosted it, man. Then nobody know shit what you about."

Chapter Twenty-three

Another lobby.

But a lot different from SSD's.

Amelia Sachs had never seen anything quite so messy. Maybe when she was a beat officer, responding to domestics among druggies in Hell's Kitchen. But even then a lot of those people had had dignity; they made the effort. This place made her cringe. The not-for-profit organization Privacy Now, located in an old piano factory in the city's Chelsea district, won the prize for slovenly.

Stacks of computer printouts, books--many of them law books and yellowing government regulations--newspapers and magazines. Then cardboard boxes, which contained more of the same. Phonebooks too. Federal Registers.

And dust. A ton of dust.

&n

bsp; A receptionist in blue jeans and a shabby sweater pounded furiously on an old computer keyboard and spoke, sotto voce, into a hands-free telephone. Harried people in jeans and T-shirts, or corduroys and wrinkled work shirts, walked into the office from up the hall, swapped files or picked up phone-message slips and disappeared.

Cheap printed signs and posters filled the walls.

BOOKSTORES: BURN YOUR CUSTOMERS' RECEIPTS, BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT BURNS THEIR BOOKS!!!

On one wrinkled rectangle of art board was the famous line from George Orwell's novel, 1984, about a totalitarian society:

Big Brother Is Watching You.

And sitting prominently on the scabby wall across from Sachs:

GUERRILLA'S GUIDE TO THE PRIVACY WAR

* Never give out your Social Security Number.

* Never give out your phone number.

* Hold loyalty card swap parties before you go shopping.

* Never volunteer for surveys.

* "Opt out" every chance you can.

* Don't fill out product registration cards.

* Don't fill out "warranty" cards. You don't need one for the warranty. They're information gathering devices!