The Skin Collector (Lincoln Rhyme 11)

'Sadistic,' Ron Pulaski said.

'Who's that?' Dobyns asked.

'It's Ron Pulaski, Patrol. I work with Lincoln and Amelia.'

'Hello, Officer. Well, no, actually I don't see sadism. That occurs only in a sexual context. If he enjoys inflicting pain for its own sake his condition would probably be diagnosed as anti-social personality disorder.'

'Yessir.' Pulaski was blushing, not from the correction but, it seemed, because of Rhyme's glare at the interruption.

Dobyns said, 'Off the top of my head, he's an organized offender and he'll be planning out the attacks carefully. I'd also say there're two possible reasons for your unsub's interest in the Bone Collector and in you, Lincoln. Amelia too, don't forget. One, he might have been affected by the Bone Collector's crimes a decade ago. Emotionally moved by them, I mean.'

'Even if he had no direct connection?' Rhyme asked, forgetting he was trying to ignore the doctor's input.

'Yes. You don't know his age exactly but it's possible he was in early adolescence then - just the time when a news story about a serial doer might've spoken to him. As for that message? Well, the Bone Collector was, if I remember, all about revenge.'

'That's right.'

Sellitto asked, 'What kind of revenge would our unsub be after, Doc? Family members who'd died? Some other personal loss?'

'Really, it could be anything. Maybe he suffered a loss, a tragedy that he blames someone for - or some thing, a company, organization, institution. The loss might've happened when the Bone Collector story hit the press and he embraced the idea of getting retribution the same way the Bone Collector did. He's been carrying that thought around with him. That's one explanation for why this murder echoes the attacks from a decade ago - some of those crimes were underground too, weren't they?'

'That's right,' Rhyme confirmed.

'And your unsub has a morbid interest in the morphology of the human body. Skin, in his case.'

Sachs added, 'Yes, I found evidence that he touched the victim in a number of places - not sexually. There was no reason related to the tattooing for that that I could see. It gave him some satisfaction, I was thinking. My impression.'

The doctor continued, 'So, the first reason he might be interested in the Bone Collector: a psychological bonding with him.' He chuckled. 'An insight that, I suspect, is rather low in your estimation, Lincoln.' He knew of Rhyme's distrust of what the criminalist called 'woo-woo' policing. 'But that might hint he too is out for revenge,' Dobyns added.

Rhyme said, 'Noted, Doctor. We'll put it on our evidence chart.'

'I think you'll be more interested in the second reason he was interested in the chapter of this book. Whatever his motive - revenge or joy killing or distracting you so he could rob the Federal Reserve - he knows you'll be after him and he'll want to learn as much as he can about you, your tactics, how you think. How specifically you tracked down a serial criminal. So he doesn't make the same mistakes. He wants to know where your weaknesses are. You and Amelia.'

This made more sense to Rhyme. He nodded at Sachs, who told the doctor, 'The book is practically a how-to guide on using forensics to stop a serial criminal. And it's clear from running the scenes that he's been paying attention to scrubbing the evidence.'

Pulaski asked, 'Doctor, any idea why this victim? There was no, you know, prior contact between them that we could find.' He gave a brief bio of Chloe Moore.

Sachs said, 'Seems to be random.'

'With the Bone Collector, remember, his true victims were somebody else: the city of New York, the police, you, Lincoln. I'd guess that the choice of victim by your unsub is mostly accessibility and convenience - to have a place and the time to do the tattoo undisturbed ... Then I think there's the fear factor.'

'What'sat?' Sellitto asked.

'He's got another agenda beyond murdering individuals - clearly it's not to rob them, it's not sexual. It may serve his purposes to put the whole city on edge. Everybody in New York's going to be thinking twice about heading into basements and garages and laundry rooms and using back doors to their offices and apartments. Now, a few other points. First, if he's truly been influenced by the Bone Collector, then he may think about targeting you personally, Lincoln. And Amelia. In fact, you all might be in danger. Second, he's clearly an organized offender, as I said. And that means he's been checking out his victims, or at least the kill sites, ahead of time.'

Rhyme said, 'We're going on that assumption.'

'Good. And finally - if he were really a copycat he would have

concentrated on the victim's bones. But he's obsessed with skin. It's central to his goal. He could just as easily be injecting them with poison or making them drink it. Or for that matter stabbing people or shooting them. But he's not. He's obviously a professional artist - so every time he puts one of his designs on a body, he claims somebody else's skin as his own.'

'A skin collector,' Pulaski said.

'Exactly. If you can find out why he's so fascinated with skin, that's key to understanding the case.' Rhyme heard another voice, indistinct, from the doctor's office. 'Ah, you'll have to excuse me now. I'm afraid I have a session to get to.'

'Thanks, Doctor,' Sachs said.

After he disconnected, Rhyme told Pulaski to put Dobyns's observations up on the chart.