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The video depicted a man in shadows. It was hard to see for sure, and he was blindfolded, but the face could have been Robert Ellis's. His head was cocked to the side--because the noose was tugging his neck upward. Ankles bound with duct tape, arms tied or taped behind his back, he stood on a wooden box, about two by two feet.
As horrific as this was, the soundtrack was just as eerie. A snippet of a human gasp had been recorded and used as the downbeat for music being played on an organ or electric keyboard. The tune was familiar, "The Blue Danube."
You could count out the time--a waltz--as gasp, two, three, gasp, two, three.
"Christ," Sellitto muttered.
How long, Rhyme wondered, could a man stand like that before collapsing or slipping off, before his legs gave way or he fainted--and fell to the noose's grip? The short fall would not, like traditional executions, break his neck, but would slowly and agonizingly strangle him to death.
As the video continued, the music began gradually to slow, as did the gasps, still keeping perfect time to the flagging music.
The image of the man began to fade too, growing darker.
At the end of the three-minute running time, the music and desperate gasps faded to silence, the image to black.
Words in blood-red type materialized on the screen--words that because they were otherwise so ordinary became unspeakably cruel.
(c) The Composer
Chapter 5
Rodney?"
Lincoln Rhyme was talking to their contact at the NYPD Computer Crimes Unit, downtown. One Police Plaza.
Rodney Szarnek was brilliant and quirky (a geek, say no more) but also into the most obnoxious head-banging, heavy-metal rock music from your worst nightmares.
"Rodney, please!" Rhyme shouted into the speakerphone. "Make it vanish."
"Oh, sorry."
The music diminished, though it didn't vanish.
"Rodney, you're on here with a bunch of people. Speaker. Don't have time to make introductions."
"Hi, every--"
"We've got an abduction and the perp's rigged something so the vic only has a little while to live."
The music shut off completely.
"Tell me."
"Amelia's sending you a YouVid link right now. A video of the victim."
"Is it still up?" he asked.
"As far as we know. Why?"
"If there's a violent video--real life, not fake--YouVid'll probably take it down. If there're complaints or if their algorithm catches it and their vid police decide it violates TOS, terms of service, down it comes. Have somebody download and record it."
Dellray said, "Our folks're all over it. Done and done."
"Hi, Fred." A pause, then Szarnek said, "Got it...Man. Already twenty-thousand-plus views. And a ton of likes. Sick world out there. So this's that guy snatched a few hours ago? I read the wire."
"We think," Sachs said.
"Hey, Amelia. Okay. And you need the location where this was sent from. Hoping he's still alive. Okay, okay. There. I've sent the vid and an expedited request to the Warrants Desk. They'll be on the phone with a magistrate, who'll approve it ASAP. Minutes, I'm talking. I've worked with YouVid before. They're in the U.S., New Jersey, thank God, so they'll cooperate. If the server was overseas, we might never hear from the
