The Bone Collector

harm?”
    “I can’t help you.”
    Sellitto said, “There was a note. Carole wrote it and sent it to the secretary-general by interoffice envelope. Harping on world government, taking away American liberties. Some shit like that. Claimed credit for the UNESCO bombing in London too and said there’d be more. We’ve gotta get ’em, Linc.”
    Feeling his oats, scarface Banks said, “The secretary-general and the mayor both’ve asked for you. SAC Perkins too. And there’ll be a call from the White House, you need any more persuading. We sure hope you don’t, detective.”
    Rhyme didn’t comment on the error regarding his rank.
    “They’ve got the Bureau’s PERT team ready to go. Fred Dellray’s running the case and he asked— respectfully, yeah, he used that very word—he asked respectfully if you’d do the forensic work. And it’s a virgin scene, except for getting the bodies and the wounded out.”
    “Then it’s not virgin,” Rhyme snapped. “It’s extremely contaminated.”
    “All the more reason we need you,” Banks ventured, adding “sir” to defuse Rhyme’s glare.
    Rhyme sighed, looked at the glass and the straw. Peace was so close to him just now. And pain too. Infinite sums of both.
    He closed his eyes. Not a sound in the room.
    Sellitto added, “It was just the woman herself, hey, wouldn’t be that big a deal. But she’s got her daughter with her, Lincoln. Underground, with a little girl? You know what that kid’s life’s going to be like?”
    I’ll get you for that too, Lon.
    Rhyme nestled his head into the opulent pillow. Finally his eyes sprang open. He said, “There’d be some conditions.”
    “Name it, Linc.”
    “First of all,” he said. “I don’t work alone.”
    Rhyme looked toward Amelia Sachs.
    She hesitated for a moment then smiled and stood, lifted the glass of tainted brandy out from under the straw. She opened the window wide and flung the tawny liquid into the ripe, hot air above the alley next to the townhouse, while, just feet away, the falcon looked up, glaring angrily at the motion of her arm, cocked his gray head, then turned back to feed his hungry youngster.

APPENDIX
    Excerpts from: Glossary of Terms, Lincoln Rhyme, Physical Evidence, 4th ed. (New York: Forensic Press, 1994). Reprinted with permission.
     
    Alternative light source (ALS): Any of several types of high-intensity lamps of varying wavelength and light color, used to visualize latent friction-ridge prints, and certain types of trace and biological evidence.
    Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS): One of several computerized systems for the scanning and storage of friction-ridge prints.
    Birefringence: The difference between two measures of refraction displayed by certain crystalline substances. Useful in identifying sand, fibers, and dirt.
    Chain of custody (COC): A record of every person who has had possession of a piece of evidence from the moment of its collection at a crime scene to its introduction at trial.
    COD: Cause of death.
    Control samples: Physical evidence collected at a crime scene from known sources, used for comparison with evidence from an unknown source. For example, the victim’s own blood and hair constitutes a control sample.
    DCDS: Deceased, confirmed dead at scene.
    Density-gradient testing (D-G): A technique for comparing soil samples to determine if they come from the same location. The test involves suspending dirt samples in tubes filled with liquids that have different density values.
    DNA typing: Analyzing and charting the genetic structure within the cells of certain types of biological evidence (for example, blood, semen, hair) for the purpose of comparison with control samples from a known suspect. The process involves the isolation and comparison of fragmentsof DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid—the basic building block of the chromosome. Some types of DNA typing produce a mere likelihood that the evidence came from a suspect; other types are virtually conclusive, with the odds in the hundreds of millions that the evidence was from a particular individual. Also called “genetic typing,” or—erroneously—“DNA fingerprinting” or “genetic fingerprinting.”
    Forensic anthropologist: A skeletal-remains expert who aids crime scene investigators in evaluating and identifying remains and excavating grave sites.
    Forensic odontologist: A dental expert who aids crime scene investigators in identifying victims through examination of dental