The Broken Window (Lincoln Rhyme 8)

Whitcomb left, and the two officers said good-bye to Sterling.

Then the CEO touched her arm gently. "There's something I want to say, Detective."

She turned to the man, who stood with his arms at his side, feet spread, looking up at her with his intense green eyes. It was impossible to look away from his focused, mesmerizing gaze.

"I'm not going to deny that I'm in the knowledge service provider field to make money. But I'm also in it to improve our society. Think about what we do. Think about the kids who're going to get decent clothes and nice Christmas presents for the first time because of the money their parents save, thanks to SSD. Or about the young marrieds who can now find a bank that'll give them a mortgage for their first house because SSD can predict that in fact they'll be acceptable credit risks. Or the identity thieves that're caught because our algorithms see a glitch in your credit card spending patterns. Or the RFID tags in a child's bracelet or wristwatch that tell the parents where they are every minute of the day. The intelligent toilets that diagnose diabetes when you don't even know you're at risk.

"And take your line of work, Detective. Say you're investigating a murder. There're traces of cocaine on a knife, the murder weapon. Our PublicSure program can tell you who with a cocaine arrest in his background used a knife in the commission of a felony any time in the past twenty years, in any geographic area you like, and whether they were right-or left-handed and what their shoe sizes are. Before you even ask, their fingerprints pop up on the screen, along with their pictures, and details of their M.O.'s, distinguishing characteristics, disguises they've used in the past, distinctive voice patterns and a dozen more attributes.

"We can also tell you who bought that particular brand of knife--or maybe even that very knife. And possibly we know where the purchaser was at the time of the crime and where he is now. If the system can't find him, it can tell you the percentage likelihood of his being at a known accomplice's house and display their fingerprints and distinguishing characteristics. And this whole bundle of data comes to you in a grand total of about twenty seconds.

"Our society needs help, Detective. Remember the broken windows? Well, SSD is here to help. . . ." He smiled. "That's the wind-up. Here's the pitch. I'm asking that you be discreet in the investigation. I'll do whatever I can--especially if it seems this is somebody from SSD. But if rumors get started about breaches here, careless security, our competitors and critics would jump on that. And jump hard. It could badly interfere with SSD's job to fix as many windows as we can and make this world better. Are we in agreement?"

Amelia Sachs suddenly felt bad about this duplicitous mission, planting the seeds to encourage their perp to go after the trap without telling Sterling. She struggled to maintain eye contact as she said, "I think we're in complete agreement."

"Wonderful. Now, Martin, please show our guests out."

Chapter Twenty-two "Broken windows?"

Sachs was telling Rhyme about the SSD logo.

"I like that."

"You do?"

"Yeah. Think about it. It's a metaphor for what we do here. We find the small bits of evidence and that leads us to the big answer."

Sellitto nodded toward Rodney Szarnek, sitting in the corner, oblivious to everything but his computer and still whistling. "Kid in the T-shirt's got the trap in place. And he's trying to hack in now." He called, "Any luck, Officer?"

"Heh--those folk know what they're doing. But I've got a dozen tricks up my sleeve."

Sachs told them that the head of security didn't believe that anyone could hack into innerCircle.

"Only makes the game sweeter," Szarnek said. He finished another coffee and resumed the faint whistling.

Sachs then told them about Sterling, the company and how the data-mining process worked. Despite what Thom had explained yesterday and despite their preliminary research, Rhyme hadn't realized how extensive the industry was.

"He acting fishy?" Sellitto said. "This Sterling?"

Rhyme grunted at the, to him, pointless question.

"No. He's cooperative. And, good for us, he's a true believer. Data's his god. Anything that jeopardizes his company he wants to root out."

Sachs then described the tight security at SSD, how very few people had access to all three data pens, and how it was impossible to steal data even if you got inside. "They've had one intruder--a reporter--who was just after a story, not even stealing trade secrets. He did time and his career is over with."

"Vindictive, hm?"

Sachs considered this. "No. I'd say protective. . . . Now, as for employees: I interviewed most of them who had access to people's dossiers. There are a few that weren't accounted for yesterday afternoon. Oh, and I asked if they log downloads; they don't. And we'll be getting a list of clients who've bought data about the vics and fall guys."

"But the important thing is you let them know about an investigation and gave them all the name Myra Weinburg."

"Right."

Then Sachs took a document from her briefcase. Arthur's dossier, she explained. "Thought it might be helpful. If nothing else, you might be interested in it. Seeing what your cousin's been up to." Sachs removed the staple and mounted it on the reading frame near Rhyme--a device that turned pages for him.

He glanced at the document. Then back to the charts.

"Don't you want to look through it?" she asked.