The Empty Chair

No argument.”
    “All right, Thom, all right. Only we have to make one phone call first.”
    “Look at what time it is. . . . Who’s awake now?”
    “It’s not a matter of who’s awake now,” Rhyme said wearily. “It’s a matter of who’s about to be awake.”

    Midnight, in the swamp.
    The sounds of insects. The fast shadows of bats. An owl or two. The icy light of the moon.
    Lucy and the other deputies hiked four miles over to Route 30, where a camper awaited. Bell had pulled strings and “requisitioned” the vehicle from Fred Fisher Winnebagos. Steve Farr had driven it over here to meet the search party and give them a place to stay for the night.
    They stepped inside the cramped quarters. Jesse, Trey and Ned hungrily ate the roast beef sandwiches that Farr had brought. Lucy drank a bottle of water, passed on the food. Farr and Bell—bless their hearts—had also dug up clean uniforms for the searchers.
    She called in and told Jim Bell that they’d tracked the pair to an A-frame vacation house, which had been broken into. “Looked like they’d been watching TV, you can believe that. ”
    But it had been too dark to follow the trail and they’d decided to wait until dawn to resume the search.
    Lucy picked up the clean clothes and stepped inside the bathroom. In the tiny shower stall she let the weak stream of water course over her body. Her hands started with her hair and face and neck and then, as always, tentatively washed her flat chest, feeling the ridges of scar, then grew more certain as they moved to her belly and thighs.
    She wondered again why she had such an aversion to silicone or the reconstructive surgery that, the doctor explained, took fat from her thighs or butt and remade the breasts. Even nipples could be reconstructed—or tattooed on.
    Because, she told herself, it was fake. Because it wasn’t real.
    And, so, why bother?
    But then, Lucy thought, look at that Lincoln Rhyme. He was only a partial man. His legs and arms were fake—a wheelchair and an aide. But thinking about him reminded her of Amelia Sachs and anger seared her again. She pushed those thoughts aside, dried herself and pulled on a T-shirt, thinking absently about the drawer of bras in the dresser in the guest room of her house—and recalled that she’d been meaning to throw them out for two years. But, for some reason, never had. Then she put on her uniform blouse and slacks. She stepped out of the bathroom. Jesse was hanging up the phone.
    “Anything?”
    “No,” he said. “They’re still working on the evidence, Jim and Mr. Rhyme.”
    Lucy shook her head at the food Jesse offered her then sat down at the table, pulled her service revolver out of its holster. “Steve?” she asked Farr.
    The crew-cut young man looked up from the newspaper he was reading, lifted an eyebrow.
    “You bring what I asked for?”
    “Oh, yeah.” He dug in the glove compartment and handed her a yellow-and-green box of Remington bullets. She ejected the round-point cartridges from her pistol and Speedloaders and replaced them with the new bullets—hollow points, which have more stopping power and cause much more damage to soft tissue when they hit a human being.
    Jesse Corn watched her closely but it was a moment before he spoke, as she knew he’d do. “Amelia’s not dangerous,” he said, in a low voice, the words meant for her only.
    Lucy set the gun down and looked into his eyes. “Jesse, everybody said Mary Beth was at the ocean but turns out she’s in the opposite direction. Everybody said Garrett was just a stupid kid but he’s smart as a snake and’s conned us a half-dozen times. We don’t know anything anymore. Maybe Garrett’s got a store of weapons someplace and has some plan or another to take us out when we walk into his trap.”
    “But Amelia’s with him. She wouldn’t let that happen.”
    “Amelia’s a damn traitor and we can’t trust her an inch. Listen, Jesse, I saw that look on your face when you saw she wasn’t under the boat. You were relieved. I know you think you like her and you’re hoping she likes you. . . . No, no, let me finish. But she busted a killer outa jail. And if you’d been the one out there in the river instead of Ned, Amelia’d have shot at you just as fast.”
    He began to protest but the chill look in her eyes kept him quiet.
    “It’s easy to get infatuated with somebody like that,” Lucy continued. “She’s pretty and she’s from someplace else, someplace