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--Cocaine.
--Heroin.
--Pseudoephedrine (methamphetamine).
--Two additional short, blond hairs, similar to those at scene of kidnapping on 86th Street. --Robert Ellis reports--his girlfriend's most likely.
--Four pieces of paper. --Passport photo picture.
--Hat and T-shirt, largely burned. --DNA collected, not in database.
--Unable to source.
--Hood, largely burned. --Unable to source.
--Traces of olanzapine (antipsychotic drug).
--Traces of chloroform.
--Musical-instrument keyboard, destroyed. Serial number recovered. Bought with cash from Anderson Music, West 46th Street. No CCTV.
--NetPro Wi-Fi router. --Purchased with cash from Avery Electronics, Manhattan. No video transaction of sale.
--Technology Illumination Industries halogen battery-powered lamp. --Unable to source.
--Broom handle used as gallows. --No friction ridges.
--Unable to source.
--EyeSpy webcam. --Unable to source.
--Upright bass strings (E note), tied together (carrick bend knot), and one in hangman's noose. --Unable to source.
--Currency exchange receipt.
After reading the charts twice Rhyme sighed, shaking his head.
Ercole asked, "What, Captain Rhyme?"
"It was right there in front of us. The whole time."
"But what?"
"It's obvious, isn't it? Now I've got to make a call to America. But in the meantime, Massimo, put together a tactical team. We'll have to move fast if the answer is what I think it is."
Forty minutes later, the team was assembled on a quiet street in a residential neighborhood of Naples.
A dozen SCO officers were divided into two groups, each on either side of a door to a modest single-family home, painted mustard yellow. Rhyme could see the glint of the low sun off the equipment of a third team, heading through an alley to cover the back door.
He himself was on the street, his wheelchair parked beside the Sprinter van. Dante Spiro stood beside him, his cheroot, unlit, clamped between his teeth.
Amelia Sachs, he could see, was behind the front entry team, the one on the right, though she'd been told, to her irritation, that she wouldn't be allowed to join in, if a dynamic entry--that is, six-guns blazin'--was necessary. The leader of the unit, the massive officer named Michelangelo, let her remain in a forward position, though. And he'd given her a bulletproof vest, Polizia printed on the front and back. She wanted to keep it as a souvenir, after the case was over.
When they'd arrived on the scene, Michelangelo had looked Sachs over and, with a sparkle in his eyes, said, "Allora! Dirty Harriet."
She'd laughed. "Make my day!"
Now Massimo Rossi climbed from the front seat of a Flying Squad car. He pressed an earbud deeper into his ear as he listened to a transmission. He straightened. Apparently the team in the rear was ready. He walked to the house and nodded to Michelangelo. The big officer knocked with a fist--Rhyme could hear the blows from this distance--and called, "Polizia. Aprite! Open this door!" And stepped back.
