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The man who was, to use the overly romantic and inartful term, Rhyme reflected, his nemesis.
Now it was Sellitto who was peering out the window. “He’s here. But where?”
Rhyme reflected for a moment. “That’s what I’ve been thinking about, and I have an idea.”
23.
IT WAS Atwenty mph zone.
Amelia Sachs was doing sixty, and irritated that she had to slow for intersections.
She had dash flashers on the grille, but no siren. She’d have to look into that.
Hell. Speed bump. Down to forty.
Thud, bang.
Ouch …
Then faster.
Sachs was piloting her Torino, engine raging, down a trim residential street in Queens, a block of small, detached single-families. Red brick, beige stone, a few framed, painted in subdued colors. Not unlike the Brooklyn neighborhood she’d grown up in.
One reason for the speed: an earlier delay. A coughing fit had forced her to pull over, lower her head and breathe the sweetoxygen through the mask until the spasms ended. She actually pulled into the parking lot in front of a hospital’s emergency room.
Debating.
But then she’d controlled it and continued on to meet with the witness.
A brief coughing fit now, filling her with anger at the man who would use this shit as a weapon.
Anger at her own lungs for not resisting better.
Forget it.
Drive.
Once through an intersection, her right foot dropped hard and the car jerked ahead, speeding faster yet.
She was hands-free on her cell phone. Com had arranged a patch from the police radio frequency. The line was open to responding officers answering to the address in Queens, where the witness lived.
“Detective Five Eight Eight Five, come in. K.”
“Go ahead.”
“We’re on-site. Looks like a fire.”
“Negative. It’s acid fumes. Keep back. One whiff’ll kill you. I’ve called FD. They’re bringing the hazmat team.”
“Roger, Detective. It’s all over the place now, the smoke or fumes or whatever.”
“Just keep it secure. And stay back. I’d tell you to look for the perp, but we don’t have ID. He could be around there, waiting to see what happens.”
She coughed once again and glanced at the oxygen tank on the passenger’s seat.
No.
No time to stop.
