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Tried . . . He offered a lifted eyebrow, a gesture that meant absolutely nothing.
The phone buzzed and "Sellitto" popped up on caller ID.
"Command, answer. . . . Lon, any--"
"Linc."
Something was wrong. The tone, through the speakerphone, was hollow, the voice shaky.
"Another vic?"
Sellitto cleared his throat. "He got one of us."
Alarmed, glancing at Sachs, who was involuntarily leaning forward toward the phone, her arms unfolding. "Who? Tell us."
"Joe Malloy."
"No," whispered Sachs.
Rhyme's eyes closed and his head eased into the wheelchair's headrest. "Sure, of course. That was the setup, Lon. He had it all planned." His voice lowered. "How bad was it?"
"What do you mean?" asked Sachs.
In a soft voice, Rhyme said, "He didn't just kill Malloy, did he?"
Sellitto's quivering voice was wrenching. "No, Linc, he didn't."
"Tell me!" Sachs said bluntly. "What are you talking about?"
Rhyme looked at her eyes, wide with the horror that they both felt. "He set up the whole thing because he wanted information. He tortured Joe to get it."
"Oh, God."
"Right, Lon?"
The big detective sighed. He coughed. "Yeah, got to say it was pretty bad. He used some tools. And from the amount of blood Joe held out for a long time. The prick finished him off with a gunshot."
Sachs's face was red with anger. She kneaded the grip of her Glock. Through clenched jaws she asked, "Did Joe have kids?"
Rhyme recalled that the captain's wife had been killed a few years ago.
Sellitto answered, "A daughter in California. I made the call already."
"You okay about it?" Sachs asked.
"Naw, I'm not." His voice cracked again. Rhyme didn't think he'd ever heard the detective sound so upset.
In his mind he could hear Joe Malloy's voice when he was responding to Rhyme's "forgetting" to share about the 522 case. The captain had looked beyond pettiness and backed them up, even after the criminalist and Sellitto hadn't been honest with him.
Policing came before ego.
And 522 had tortured and killed him simply because he needed information. Goddamn information . . .
But then, from somewhere, Rhyme summoned the stone that resided within him. The detachment that, as some people had said, meant he had a damaged soul, but that he believed allowed him to better do his job. He said firmly, "Okay, you know what this means, don't you?"
"What?" Sachs asked.
"He's declaring war."
