The Bone Collector

joined them and, without asking, tucked her hair under a helmet and started to vest up.
    Sellitto said, “Sachs, you’re not tactical.”
    Slapping the Velcro strap down, she stared at the detective, eyebrow lifted high, until he relented and said, “Okay. But you’re rear guard. That’s an order.”
    Haumann said, “You’ll be Team Two.”
    “Yessir. I can live with that.”
    One ESU cop offered her an MP-5 machine gun. She thought about Nick—their date on the range at Rodman’s Neck. They’d spent two hours practicing with automatic weapons, firing Z-patterns through doors, flip-reloading with taped banana clips and field-stripping M-16s to clear the sand jams that plagued the Colts. Nick loved the staccato clutter but Sachs didn’t much like the messy firepower of the big weapons. She’d suggested a match between them with Glocks and had whupped him three straight at fifty feet. He laughed and kissed her hard as the last of her empty casings spun, ringing, onto the firing range.
    “I’ll just use my sidearm,” she told the ESU officer.
    The Hardy Boys ran up, crouching as if they were mindful of snipers.
    “Here’s what we’ve got. There’s nobody around. Block is—”
    “Completely empty.”
    “The windows of his building’re all barred. A back entrance—”
    “Leading into the alley. The door’s open.”
    “Open?” Haumann asked, glancing at several of his officers.
    Saul confirmed, “Not just unlocked but open.”
    “Booby traps?”
    “Not that we could see. Which isn’t to say—”
    “There aren’t any.”
    Sellitto asked, “Any vehicles in the alley?”
    “Nope.”
    “Two front entrances. Main front door—”
    “Which looks painted shut. The second’s the carriage-house doors. Double, wide enough for two vehicles. There’s a padlock and chain.”
    “But they’re lying on the ground.”
    Haumann nodded, “So maybe he’s inside.”
    “Maybe,” Saul said, then added, “And tell him what we think we heard.”
    “Very faint. Could have been crying.”
    “Could have been screaming.”
    Sachs asked, “The little girl?”
    “Maybe. But then it just stopped. How’d Rhyme figure this place?”
    “You tell me how his mind works,” Sellitto said.
    Haumann called one of his commanders and issued a series of orders. A moment later two ESU vans pulled into the intersection and blocked the other end of the street.
    “Team One, front door. Blow it with cutting charges. It’s wood and it’s old so keep the plastic down, okay? Team Two, into the alley. On my three, you go. Got it? Neutralize but we’re assuming the girl’s in there so check your backdrops ’fore you squeeze. Officer Sachs, you’re sure you want to do this?”
    A firm nod.
    “Okay, boys and girls. Go get him.”

THIRTY-TWO
    S achs and the five other officers of Team Two ran into the torrid alley, which had been blocked off by ESU trucks. Renegade weeds grew profusely through the cobblestones and cracked foundations and the desolation reminded Sachs of the train-track grave yesterday morning.
    He hoped the victim was dead. For his sake  . . .
    Haumann had ordered troopers onto the roofs of the surrounding buildings, and she saw the muzzles of their black Colts bristling like antennae.
    The team paused at the rear doorway. Her fellow cops glanced at Sachs as she checked the rubber bands over her shoes. Heard one of them whisper to another something about superstition.
    Then she heard through her earphone:
    “ Team One leader at front door, charge mounted and armed. We are clear, K. ”
    “ Roger, Team One leader. Team Two? ”
    “ Team Two, in position, K. ”
    “ Roger, Team Two leader. Both teams, dynamic entry. On my three. ”
    Checked her weapon one last time.
    “ One  . . .”
    Her tongue touched a dot of sweat hanging from the swollen wound on her lip.
    “ Two  . . .”
    Okay, Rhyme, here we go . . .
    “ Three! ”
    The explosion was very sedate, a distant pop, and then the teams were moving. Fast. She sprinted along behind the ESU troopers as they slipped inside and scattered,their muzzle-mounted flashlights crisscrossing the shafts of brilliant sunlight that streamed through the windows. Sachs found herself alone as the rest of the team dispersed, checking out armoires and closets and the shadows behind the grotesque statues the place was filled with.
    She turned the corner. A pale face loomed. A knife . . .
    A thud in her heart. Combat stance, gun up. She laid five