The Burial Hour (Lincoln Rhyme 13)

A moment later they appeared, a half-dozen images depicting a stout, intelligent-looking young man with perceptive eyes.

Spiro thanked her.

The woman added, "Please, obviously, he's suffered a break, a bad one. But until now, he's always been eminently reasonable. With these kidnappings, he's become dangerous. That's clear. But if you find him please, before you hurt him, just try to talk."

"We'll do our best," Sachs said.

Disconnecting the call, Rossi muttered, "Try to talk? To a man who didn't think twice about sniping at two officers?"

Spiro gazed at the pictures of the kidnapper. In a soft voice he said, "What are you up to, amico mio? How does your assault on these poor souls in New York and in Naples help you find comfort?"

Rhyme, with no interest in that question, was wheeling forward, examining the evidence chart.

Rossi spoke to Daniela Canton in Italian and she pounded the keys. He announced to the room, "I'm sending the pictures to our public information office. They will get them on our website and to the press. The images will go to the other law enforcement agencies too. Soon there will be a thousand officers looking for him."

Rhyme wheeled closer yet to the evidence charts, scanning them. Again and again. The process was like reading a classic novel--every time you pick up the book again, you find something new.

Hoping for some insight, the slightest nudge toward understanding.

But he was hardly prepared for the particular revelation that burst into his thoughts.

At first, he scowled. No, it couldn't be. There had to be a mistake. But then his eyes came to one entry and stopped abruptly. Eyes still on the easel, Rhyme asked in an edgy voice, "Does something up there strike anyone as odd?"

When those in the room looked toward him blankly, he added, "The tread marks and shoe prints."

Sachs barked a surprised laugh. "It doesn't make sense."

> "No, it doesn't. But there you have it."

Spiro understood next: "One of the shoe prints at the farmhouse is the same size as the shoe print at Garry Soames' apartment."

Ercole Benelli added, "And one of the auto treads, the Continental tire that I found at Garry's, is the same as one of those at the farmhouse. How can this be?"

Rhyme said, "Suggesting that the same person who broke into Garry's apartment was at the Composer's farmhouse."

"But Natalia Garelli broke into Garry's," Ercole said.

Rhyme turned to Spiro. "We assumed that. But we never asked her about it."

"You are right. We did not."

Sachs added, "And Natalia didn't blame Garry when we talked to her. She said he was innocent. She wanted the Serbs next door to take the fall."

Rossi touched his mustache and said, "It looks like you didn't cross-contaminate anything, Ercole, with the date-rape drug trace. The two scenes--Garry's apartment and the Composer's lair--are legitimately linked."

Spiro: "But how?"

Lincoln Rhyme said nothing. His attention was wholly on two evidence charts--not ones from Italy, but the first two, describing the scenes in New York.

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.