The Burial Hour (Lincoln Rhyme 13)

m. I'll call you back as soon as I can start tracing."

They disconnected. Rhyme said to Sachs, "Get that chart going. What do we have so far?" A nod at the whiteboard. She grabbed a marker and started.

As she wrote, Rhyme turned to the computer to look at the video again. The screen changed. A red block of type came up.

This video has been removed for violation of our Terms of Service.

A moment later, though, the video arrived from Dellray's technical people, via an email. An MP4 file. Rhyme and the others viewed it again, hoping it might yield clues as to where the footage had been shot.

Nothing. A stone wall. A wooden box. Robert Ellis, the victim, struggling atop the improvised gallows.

One slip, one muscle cramp would kill him.

Sachs was finished jotting a moment later. Rhyme looked over the chart, wondering if there was anything in it that might hold clues to let them narrow down where their perp lived or worked or where he'd taken his victim to make the perverse tape.

213 East 86th Street, Manhattan

--Incident: Battery/kidnapping. --MO: Perp threw hood over head (dark, possibly cotton), drugs inside to induce unconsciousness.

--Victim: Robert Ellis. --Single, possibly lives with Sabrina Dillon, awaiting return call from her (on business in Japan).

--Residence in San Jose.

--Owner of small start-up, media buying firm.

--No criminal or national security file.

--Perpetrator: --Calls himself the Composer.

--White male.

--Age: 30 or so.

--Approximately six feet, plus or minus.

--Dark beard and hair, long.

--Weight: stocky.

--Wearing long-billed cap, dark.

--Dark clothing, casual.

--Shoes: --Likely Converse Cons, color unknown, size 101/2.

--Driving dark sedan, no tag, no make, no year.

--Profile: --Motive unknown.

--Evidence: --Victim's phone. --No unusual calls/calling patterns.

--Short hair, dyed blond. No DNA.

--No prints.

--Noose. --Traditional hangman's knot.

--Catgut, cello length. --Too common to source.