The Broken Window

Her hand went for her Glock. But before she could draw, the right side door was ripped open and she was staring into the face of the killer, eyes narrowed, lifting a pistol toward her face.

The doorbell rang and a moment later Rhyme heard yet another distinctive footfall. Heavy ones.

“In here, Lon.”

Detective Lon Sellitto nodded a greeting. His stocky figure was encased in blue jeans and a dark purple Izod shirt, and he was wearing running shoes, which surprised Rhyme. The criminalist rarely saw him in casual clothes. He was also struck by the fact that, while Sellitto didn’t seem to own a suit that wasn’t fiercely wrinkled, this outfit looked hot off the ironing board. The only disfigurements were a few stretch marks in the cloth where his belly jutted past his waistband, and the bulge in the back where his off-duty pistol was not efficiently hidden.

“He rabbited, I heard.”

Rhyme spat out, “Gone completely.”

The floor creaked under the big man’s weight as he ambled to the evidence charts and looked them over. “That’s what you’re calling him? Five Twenty-Two?”

“May twenty-second. What happened with the Russian case?”

Sellitto didn’t answer. “Mr. Five Twenty-Two leave anything behind?”

“We’re about to find out. He ditched a bag of evidence he was going to plant. It’s on its way.”

“That was courteous.”

“Iced tea, coffee?”

“Yeah,” the detective muttered to Thom. “Thanks. Coffee. You have skim milk?”

“Two percent.”

“Good. And any of those cookies from last time? The chocolate chip ones?”

“Just oatmeal.”

“Those’re good too.”

“Mel?” Thom asked. “You want something?”

“If I eat or drink near an examining table, I get yelled at.”

Rhyme snapped, “It’s hardly my fault if defense lawyers have this thing about excluding contaminated evidence. I didn’t make the rules.”

Sellitto observed, “See your mood hasn’t improved. What’s going on in London?”

“Now that’s a subject I don’t want to talk about.”

“Well, just to improve your spirits we got another problem.”

“Malloy?”

“Yep. He heard Amelia was running a scene and I okayed an ESU action. He got all happy thinking it was the Dienko case, then all sad when he found out it wasn’t. He asked if it was connected with you. I’ll take a fist on the chin for you, Linc, but not a bullet. I dimed you out… Oh, thanks.” Nodding as Thom brought him the refreshments. The aide set a similar offering on a table not far from Cooper, who pulled on latex gloves and started on a cookie.

“Some scotch, if you please,” Rhyme said quickly.

“No.” Thom was gone.

Scowling, Rhyme said, “I figured Malloy’d bust us as soon as ESU was involved. But we need brass on our side now that it’s a hot case. What do we do?”

“Better think of something fast ’cause he wants us to call. Like a half hour ago.” He sipped more coffee and, with some reluctance, set down the remaining quarter of his cookie with the apparent resolve not to finish it.

“Well, I need the brass on board. We’ve got to have people out there looking for this guy.”

“Then let’s call. You ready?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Sellitto dialed a number. Hit SPEAKER.

“Lower the volume,” Rhyme said. “I suspect this could be loud.”

“Malloy here.” Rhyme could hear the sounds of the wind, voices and the clink of dishes or glassware. Maybe he was at an outdoor café.

“Captain, you’re on speaker with Lincoln Rhyme and me.”

“Okay, what the hell is going on? You could’ve told me that the ESU operation was what Lincoln called me about earlier. Did you know I deferred the decision about any operation till tomorrow?”

“No, he didn’t,” Rhyme said.

The detective blurted, “Yeah, but I knew enough to figure it out.”

“I’m touched you’re both taking the heat for each other but the question is why didn’t you tell me?”

Sellitto said, “’Cause we had a good chance to collar a rapist-murderer. I decided we couldn’t afford any delays.”

“I’m not a child, Lieutenant. You make your case to me and I’ll make the judgment. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”

“Sorry, Captain. It seemed like the right decision at the time.”

Silence. Then: “But he got away.”

“Yes, he did,” Rhyme said.

“How?”

“We got a team together as fast as we could but the cover wasn’t the best. The UNSUB was closer than we thought. He saw an unmarked or one of the team, I guess. He took off. But he ditched some evidence that could be helpful.”

“Which is on its way to the lab in Queens? Or to you?”

Rhyme glanced at Sellitto. People rise in rank in institutions like the NYPD based on experience, drive and quick minds. Malloy was a good half-step ahead of them.

“I’ve asked for it to come here, Joe,” Rhyme said.

No silence this time. The sound from the speaker was a resigned sigh. “Lincoln, you understand the problem, don’t you?”

Conflict of interest, Rhyme thought.

“There’s a clear conflict of interest with you as an advisor to the department and trying to exonerate your cousin. And beyond that, the implication is that there’s been a wrongful arrest.”