The Broken Window (Lincoln Rhyme 8)

And since the last thing the police want is an extensive investigation into their prime data contractor, SSD, that will be the end of the matter. He'll die. Case closed. And I'll go back to my Closet, survey the mistakes I made and work on how to be more clever in the future.

But isn't that just a life lesson for us all?

As for the suicide itself, I looked at Google Earth and ran a basic prediction program, which suggested how he would get home from the subway station after leaving SSD. Miguel 5465 will most likely take a path through a small urban park here in Queens, right next to the expressway. The irritating rush of traffic and the gassy atmosphere from diesel exhaust mean the park is usually deserted. I'll come up fast behind him--don't want him to recognize me and grow cautious--and deliver a half dozen blows to the head with the BB-filled iron pipe. Then I'll slip the suicide note and box containing the fingernail into his pocket, drag him to the railing and over he goes onto the highway, fifty feet below.

Miguel 5465 is walking slowly, glancing into storefronts. And I'm thirty, forty feet behind, head down, inconspicuously lost in after-work music, like dozens of other commuters returning home, though my iPod is off (music is one thing I don't collect).

Now, the park is one block away. I--

But wait, something's wrong. He's not turning toward the park. He pauses at a Korean deli, buys some flowers and turns away from the commercial strip, heading toward a deserted neighborhood.

I'm processing this, running the behavior through my knowledge base. The prediction's not working.

A girlfriend? A relative?

How the hell can there be something about his life I don't know?

Noise in the data. I hate it!

No, no, this isn't good. Flowers for a girlfriend don't fit the profile of a suicidal killer.

Miguel 5465 continues down the sidewalk, the air fragrant with the spring smell of cut grass and lilac and dog urine.

Ah, got it now. I relax.

The janitor walks through the gate of a cemetery.

Of course, the dead wife and kid. We're doing fine. The prediction holds. We'll just have a brief delay. His path home will still take him through the park. This might be even better, a last visit to the wife. Forgive me for raping and murdering in your absence, dear.

I follow, keeping a safe distance, in my comfortable shoes, rubber-soled, making no sound whatsoever.

Miguel 5465 makes a direct line to a double grave. There he blesses himself, kneels in prayer. Then he leaves the flowers beside four other bouquets, in varying degrees of wilt. Why haven't the cemetery trips shown up on the grid?

Of course--he pays cash for the flowers.

He stands up and starts to walk away.

I begin to follow, breathing deeply.

When: "Excuse me, sir."

I freeze. Then turn slowly to the groundskeeper, who is talking to me. He's come up silently, treading over the carpet of short, dewy grass. And he looks from my face toward my right hand, which I slip into my pocket. He might or might not have seen the beige cloth glove I'm wearing.

"Hi," I say.

"I saw you in the bushes there."

How do I respond to that?

"The bushes?"

His eyes reveal to me that he's protective of his dead folks.

"Can I ask who you're visiting?"

His name is on the front of his overalls but I can't see it clearly. Stony? What kind of name is that? I'm riddled wi

th anger. This is Their fault . . . Them, the people after me! They've made me careless. I'm addled by all the noise, all the contamination! I hate Them hate Them hate . . .