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The criminalist caught Sachs's eye and nodded toward the doorway. She edged closer to the door and looked out, watching the detective draw his weapon several more times then shake his head, grimacing. Sachs shrugged. After three or four minutes of the exercise, the detective put his gun away, stepped into the bathroom and without closing the door flushed the toilet and stepped out again a second later.
He returned to the lab. "Jesus, Linc, when're you going to put in a classy john in this place? Didn't yellow and black go out in the seventies?"
"You know, I just don't hold a lot of meetings in the toilet."
The big man laughed, but too loudly. The sound, like the banter that inspired it, rang false.
But whatever was troubling the man instantly ceased to occupy Rhyme's mind when the results of the GC/MS analysis flashed onto the computer screen--the scrapings from the unsub's desktop at the safe house. Rhyme frowned. The analysis had reported that the substance that had stained the wood was pure sulfuric acid, news that Rhyme found particularly discouraging. For one thing, from an evidentiary point of view, it was readily available and therefore virtually impossible to trace to a single source.
But more upsetting was the fact that it was perhaps the most powerful--and dangerous--acid you could buy; as a weapon, even a tiny quantity could, within seconds, kill or permanently disfigure.
ELIZABETH STREET SAFE HOUSE SCENE
* Used electrical booby trap.
* Fingerprints: None. Glove prints only.
* Security camera and monitor; no leads.
* Tarot deck, missing the twelfth card; no leads.
* Map with diagram of museum where G. Settle was attacked and buildings across the street.
* Trace:
* Falafel and yogurt.
* Wood scrapings from desk with traces of pure sulfuric acid.
* Clear liquid, not explosive. Sent to FBI lab.
* More fibers from rope. Garrotte?
* Pure carbon found in map.
* Safe house was rented, for cash, to Billy Todd Hammil. Fits Unsub 109's description, but no leads to an actual Hammil.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM SCENE
* Rape pack:
* Tarot card, twelfth card in deck, the Hanged Man, meaning spiritual searching.
* Smiley-face bag.
* Too generic to trace.
* Box cutter.
* Trojan condoms.
* Duct tape.
* Jasmine scent.
* Unknown item bought for $5.95. Probably a stocking cap.
