The Skin Collector (Lincoln Rhyme 11)

'Yep. Drew that detail today. Security in the hospital called me.' He looked behind her and snickered. 'None of the brothers I work with decided to come take a look-see. Ha.'

'So he couldn't've gotten out that way.'

'Nope. Not past me.' Leron scanned again, behind them, to the left, then to the right.

So 11-5 was here somewhere near, then. But there weren't many places to hide. There were only a few doors and most of them, storage or electrical and infrastructure, were padlocked.

Leron whispered, 'Backpack.'

'Right.'

'Bomb?'

'Not his MO. Serial doer, we're thinking.'

'Weapon?'

'Said so but I didn't see it.'

'If they say and don't show they usually don't have.'

This was true.

'But, Leron, time for you to get upstairs.' Nodding toward the stairwell. 'I'll take over.' She was supposed to keep civilians - which Leron was, even in his storm trooper uniform and with an American-made Italian gun - out of tactical situations.

'Sorry, Detective,' the man said firmly. 'The hospital, 's my 'hood here. Nobody fucks with it. You tell me to stay put, I'll follow you anyway. An' I don't suppose you want to hear footsteps behind you in a spooky place like this.'

Backup, she guessed, was still ten, fifteen minutes away.

She debated. But not very long. 'Deal. Just don't fire that sissy gun of yours unless the perp's about to park one in me. Or you. And you get yourself shot, I'll be writing up reports till kingdom come. That'll piss me off.'

'Got it.'

'We'll go together, Leron. Now let's move.'

CHAPTER 21

As they eased along the wall, she asked the guard, 'Where would you hide?'

'He can't've gone that way.' Leron nodded toward a corridor to the right. 'Dead end and no doorways to get through. Gotta be somewhere off this hallway.' He gestured forward. She took the lead and they moved about twenty feet farther down the tunnel connecting the hospital proper to the office building.

He whispered, 'There?' The men's and women's restrooms were across from each other.

A nod from Sachs.

Leron continued, 'You ladies got all those stalls for cover. I'll take that one first. And--'

'I take it and you wait here.'

'I can back you up.'

'No, if he sees we're both inside and he's someplace else, he'll rabbit.' She was speaking near his ear. He wore a pleasant aftershave. 'If you fire, remember the tile.'

'Got it. Amplifies the sound. One shot, we're both deaf for five minutes. I've been there. That happens, we have to scan visually. We can't hear him coming ... That is, if I don't hit him. I am not, by any stretch, Amelia, a bad shot.'

She liked him. 'You've done this before.'

'Way, way too many times.'