The Twelfth Card

expert analyzing the note from Boyd’s safe house. Parker Kincaid and Rhyme traded newsbites about health and family. Rhyme learned that Kincaid’s live-in partner, FBI agent Margaret Lukas, was fine, as were Parker’s children, Stephie and Robby.
    Sachs sent her greetings and then Kincaid got down to business. “I’ve been working on your letter nonstop since you sent me the scan. I’ve got a profile of the writer.”
    Serious handwriting analysis never seeks to determine personality from the way people form their letters; handwriting itself is relevant only when comparing one document with another, say, when determining forgeries. But that didn’t interest Rhyme at the moment. No, what Parker Kincaidwas talking about was deducing characteristics of the writer based on the language he used—the “unusual” phrasing that Rhyme had noted earlier. This could be extremely helpful in identifying suspects. Grammatical and syntactical analysis of the Lindbergh baby ransom note, for instance, gave a perfect profile of the kidnapper, Bruno Hauptmann.
    With the enthusiasm he typically felt for his craft, Kincaid continued, “I found some interesting things. You’ve got the note handy?”
    “It’s right in front of us.”
    A black girl, fifth floor in this window, 2 October, about 0830. She saw my delivery van when he was parked in a alley behind the Jewelry echange. Saw enough to guess the plans of mine. Kill her.
    Kincaid said, “To start with, he’s foreign born. The awkward syntax and the misspellings tell me that. So does the way he indicates the date—putting the day before the month. And the time is given in the twenty-four-hour clock. That’s rare in America.”
    The handwriting expert continued, “Now, another important point: he—”
    “Or she, ” Rhyme interrupted.
    “I’m leaning toward male,” Kincaid countered. “Tell you why in a minute. He uses the gendered pronoun ‘he,’ referring, it seems, to his van. That’s typical of several different foreign languages. But what really narrows it down is the two-member nominal phrase in the genitive construction.”
    “The what ?” Rhyme asked.
    “The genitive construction—a way to create the possessive. Your unsub wrote ‘my delivery van’ at one point.”
    Rhyme scanned the note. “Got it.”
    “But later he wrote ‘plans of mine.’ That makes me think your boy’s first language is Arabic.”
    “Arabic?”
    “I’ll say it’s a ninety percent likelihood. There’s a genitive construction in Arabic called i.daafah . The possessive’s usually formed by saying, ‘The car John.’ Meaning, ‘The car of John.’ Or, in your note, the ‘plans of mine.’ But the rules of Arabic grammar require that only one word is used for the thing that’s possessed—the ‘delivery van’ won’t work in Arabic; it’s a two-word phrase, so he can’t use i.daafah . He simply says ‘my delivery van.’ The other clue is the misuse of the indefinite article ‘a’ in ‘a alley.’ That’s common among Arabic speakers; the language doesn’t use indefinite articles, only the definite ‘the.’ ” Kincaid added, “That’s true of Welsh, too, but I don’t think this guy’s from Cardiff.”
    “Good, Parker,” Sachs said. “Very subtle, but good.”
    A faint laugh came from the speakerphone. “I’ll tell you, Amelia, everybody in the business’s been doing a lot of boning up on Arabic in the last few years.”
    “That’s why you think it’s a man.”
    “How many women Arab perps you see?”
    “Not many . . . Anything else?”
    “Get me some more samples and I’ll compare them if you want.”
    “We may take you up on that.” Rhyme thanked Kincaid and they disconnected the call. Rhyme shook his head, staring at the evidence boards. He gave a scoffing laugh.
    “What’re you thinking, Rhyme?”
    “You know what he’s up to, don’t you?” the criminalist asked in an ominous voice.
    Sachs nodded. “He’s not going to rob the exchange. He’s going to blow it up.”
    “Yep.”
    Dellray said, “Sure—those reports we’ve had, about terrorists goin’ after Israeli targets in the area.”
    Sachs said, “The guard across the street from the museum said they get shipments of jewelry every day from Jerusalem . . . . Okay, I’ll get the exchange evacuated and swept.” She pulled out her cell phone.
    Rhyme glanced at the evidence board and said to Sellitto and Cooper, “Falafel and yogurt . . . and a