'You catch anything helpful in the tunnel?'
'Got a few things, not much. It was pretty much toast. Well, more oatmeal than toast, what with the steam and water.'
She explained about the letter, intended to start a race riot.
The agent sighed. 'Just when you think the world's a-changin' ...'
'We'll work up the evidence, Fred, and be in touch.'
'Thanks mightily.'
They disconnected and Sachs returned to helping Mel Cooper analyze the trace and isolate and run the friction ridges from the Stantons' hotel suite. Regarding the prints, though, only one set was on file, though they knew the perpetrator's identity already: Joshua Stanton had a prior in Clayton County for assaulting a gay man. Hate crime.
Rhyme glanced up at the crime scene pictures, immune to the gruesome images. He looked once more at the stark tattoo, the centipede in red on the left arm. The eyes eerily human. It was, as Sachs had told him, very well done. Had he inked it himself? Rhyme wondered. Or was it painted by a friend? The unsub probably. Point of pride.
Sachs took a phone call.
'No, no,' she whispered, drawing the attention of everybody in the room. Her face revealed dismay.
What now? Rhyme wondered, frowning.
She disconnected. Looked at them all.
'Lon's taken a turn for the worse. He went into cardiac arrest. They've revived him but it's not looking good. I should be with Rachel.'
'You go on, Sachs. We'll take care of this.' Rhyme hesitated. Then asked: 'You want to give Pam a call and see if she wants to go with you? She always liked Lon.'
Pulling her coat off the hook, Sachs debated. Finally she said, 'Naw. Frankly, I don't think I could handle any more rejection.'
CHAPTER 71
Apparently, though, Billy wasn't going to kill her.
Not yet, at any rate.
It was ink, not poison, he'd loaded into the tattoo gun.
'Stop fidgeting,' he instructed. He was on his knees in front of the couch she lay on.
Pam said, 'My hands hurt behind me. Please. Undo the tape. Please.'
'No.'
'Just tape them in front of me.'
'No. Stay still.' He glared and she stopped squirming.
'What the fuck are--'
Another fierce slap. 'We have an image to maintain. Do you understand me? You will never use the F word and you will never take that tone!' He gripped her hair and shook her head like prey in a fox's mouth. 'From now on your role is to be my woman. Our people will see you by my side. The loyal wife.'
He returned to the inking.
Pam thought of screaming but she was sure he'd beat the crap out of her if she tried. Besides, there was no one else in the building. One unit was empty and the other tenants were on a cruise.
He was speaking to her absently. 'We'll have to go deep underground for a while. My aunt and uncle won't give me up. But my cousin, Joshua? It's just a matter of time until he gets tricked into telling them everything he knows. Me included. We can't go back to Southern Illinois. Your friend Lincoln will have the FBI picking up all the senior people at the AFFC now. And he'll suspect the Larchwood crowd again, so Missouri's out. We'll have to go someplace else. Maybe the Patriot Assembly in upstate New York. They're pretty much off the grid.' He turned to her. 'Or Texas. There're people there who remember my parents as martyred freedom fighters. We could live with them.'
'But, Seth--'