A Textbook Case

apartment. We data mined him. Wits, tickets and security cams confirm he was there when she died. GPS, too. He’s clean.”
    That young crime scene guy asked, “Rape, Detective?”
    “Nothing sexual, no. No robbery. She still had her keys, wallet, purse, jewelry.”
    Sachs asked, “Any former boyfriends, stalkers?”
    “According to the boyfriend and her sister, over the last couple years she went out with one guy from work, one guy from her health club, one guy from church. Real casual. The sister said they all ended okay and there were no hard feelings. Anyway the last one she broke up with was about six months ago just before she met the current guy.”
    The detective continued, “No organized crime connection, not surprising, and she wasn’t a whistleblower or witness. I can’t find a motive at all.”
    Rhyme didn’t much care for motive. His theory was that why people killed was largely irrelevant. A paranoid schizophrenic could kill someone because he believed that person was part of the advance guard from a planet in Alpha Centauri bent on capturing the world. What got him convicted was his prints on the knife, not his mad thinking.
    “Well, that tells us
something
, right?” Rhyme asked, grimacing. “If there’s no boyfriend-done-it, rapist-done-it, mugger-done-it scenario, I’m thinking it’s a psycho.” He happened to be looking at the young crime scene officer. “Oh, I know they don’t use that word anymore. But it’s a lot more felicitous than ‘individual displaying antisocial personality disorder traits.’ ”
    Marko nodded, obviously having no idea what to think about that pronouncement.
    It was Sellitto who explained, “What Linc’s saying is that he could be a serial doer. Meaning he’s going to strike again.”
    “You think so, sir?” the young man asked.
    “If that’s the case it also means he’s picking victims at random. And somewhere in that morass—” a nod toward the mountains of evidence “—is the answer to who the next one’s going to be.”

3
    Mel Cooper was wrong.
    It took nearly seven more hours to finish just categorizing the evidence. At 3:15 in the morning they decided to knock off for the night.
    Sachs stayed with Rhyme, as she did three or four nights a week, and Cooper slept in the guest room. Sellitto returned to his house, where his partner, Rachel, whom he described as his “Better Other,” was waiting for him. Marko headed back to his home, wherever that might be.
    By nine the next morning the team, minus the young CS officer, was back.
    As in every case they worked, Rhyme asked for a whiteboard chart listing the evidence. Sachs did the honors. She moved stiffly to the board. Rhyme noted the hitch in her leg; she suffered from arthritis and the extended search in a damp, subterranean garage had taken its toll. Once or twice, reaching to the top to start a new entry, she winced.
    Finally she finished—all three boards in Rhyme’s parlor were required. And that was just to list what the teams had found. There was no analysis at all, much less insightful deductions that could be made about sources or inferences as to prospective victims.
    Everyone in the room fell silent and stared.
UNSUB TWENTY-SIX HOMICIDE
    Location: 832 E. 26th Street
    Victim: Jane Levine, thirty-one
    COD: Internal injuries from weight of vehicle
    TOD: Approximately 4:00 a.m.
    General notes:
    •  Robbery not motive
    •  No sexual assault
    •  Victim was not a known witness, no one appeared to be delivering “messages”
    •  No drug or other illegal or organized crime connection
    •  No known enemies
    •  Present boyfriend has alibi
    •  Dated casually men met through work, health club, church—no bad breakups or stalkers
    •  Appears to be a random crime, likely a serial perpetrator
    Evidence:
    •  Approximately 82 pounds of household trash, covering auto ramp to garage and floor of garage, probably from Dumpster in apartment building
    •  Duct tape
    --used to subdue victim
    --four nearly empty rolls located, probably taken from trash
    --to be determined if one was the source of the tape used on victim
    •  Hair, some naturally detached from follicles, some cut
    --approximately 930 separate samples
    --human, animal? To be determined
    •  Shattered cinderblock
    --one piece used to strike victim from behind
    --all the pieces were spray painted, obscuring evidence (see paint below)
    •  Newspapers, magazines, direct mail pieces,