The Coffin Dancer

next attempt. Anticipate it and be ready to move in. The last time—”
    “The last time, an agent got killed.”
    Rhyme snapped back to the SAC, “If Innelman had had a backup, it would’ve gone different.”
    Perkins of the perfect suit was a self-protecting bureaucrat but he was reasonable. He nodded his concession.
    But am I right? Rhyme wondered.
    What is the Dancer thinking? Do I really know?
    Oh, I can look over a silent bedroom or filthy alleyway and read perfectly the story that turned it into a crime scene. I can see, in the Rorschach of blood pasted to carpet and tile, how close the victim came to escaping or how little chance he had and what kind of death he died. I can look at the dust the killer leaves behind and know immediately where he comes from.
    I can answer who, I can answer why.
    But what’s the Dancer going to do?
    That I can guess at but I can’t say for certain.
    A figure appeared in the doorway, one of the officers from the front door. He handed Thom an envelope and stepped back to his guard post.
    “What’s that?” Rhyme eyed it carefully. He wasn’t expecting any lab reports and he was all too conscious of the Dancer’s predilection for bombs. The package was no more than a sheet of paper thick, however, and was from the FBI.
    Thom opened it and read.
    “It’s from PERT. They tracked down a sand expert.”
    Rhyme explained to Perkins, “It’s not for this case. It’s about that agent who disappeared the other night.”
    “Tony?” the SAC asked. “We haven’t had a single lead so far.”
    Rhyme glanced at the report.
    Substance submitted for analysis is not technically sand. It is coral rubble from reef formations and contains spicules, cross sections of marine worm tubes, gastropod shells and foraminifers. Most likely source is the northern Caribbean: Cuba, the Bahamas.
    Caribbean . . . Interesting. Well, he’d have to put the evidence on hold for the time being. After the Dancer was bagged and tagged he and Sachs would get back—
    His headset crinkled.
    “Rhyme, you there?” Sachs’s voice snapped.
    “Yes! Where are you, Sachs? What do you have?”
    “We’re outside an old subway station near City Hall. All boarded up. S&S says there’s somebody inside. At least one, maybe two.”
    “Okay, Sachs,” he said, heart racing at the thought they might be close to the Dancer. “Report back.” Then he looked up at Sellitto and Perkins. “Looks like we may not have to decide about moving them from the safe house after all.”
    “They found him?” the detective asked.
    But the criminalist—a scientist foremost—refused to give voice to his hopes. Afraid he might jinx the operation—well, jinx Sachs , he was thinking. He muttered, “Let’s keep our fingers crossed.”

    Silently the ESU troops surrounded the subway station.
    This was probably the place where the Dancer’snew partner lived, Amelia Sachs concluded. S&S had found several locals who’d reported a druggie selling pills out of the place. He was a slightly built man—in line with a size-eight shoe.
    The station was, almost literally, a hole in the wall, supplanted years ago by the fancier City Hall stop a few blocks away.
    The 32-E team went into position, while S&S began to set up their microphones and infrareds, and other officers cleared the street of traffic and the homeless men sitting on curbs or in doorways.
    The commander moved Sachs away from the main entrance, out of the line of fire. They gave her the demeaning job of guarding a subway exit that had been barred and padlocked for years. She actually wondered if Rhyme had cut a deal with Haumann to keep her safe. Her anger from last night, in abeyance in their search for the Dancer, now bubbled up again.
    Sachs nodded toward the rusty lock. “Hmm. He probably won’t be getting out this way,” she offered brightly.
    “Gotta guard all entrances,” the masked ESU officer muttered, missing or ignoring her sarcasm, and returned to his comrades.
    Rain fell around her, a chill rain, dropping straight down from a dirty gray sky, tapping loudly on the refuse banked in front of the bars.
    Was the Dancer inside? If so, there’d be a firefight. Absolutely. She couldn’t imagine he’d give it up without a violent struggle.
    And it infuriated her that she wouldn’t be part of it.
    You’re a slick dick when you’ve got a rifle and aquarter mile of protection, she thought to the killer. But tell me, asshole, how’re you with a handgun at