Twisted

apparently only now realizing that Rhyme was in a wheelchair—and finding the fact unremarkable. Like his daughter, Anthony Dalton earned serious points with Rhyme for this.
    The criminalist explained exactly what had happened and what they knew.
    Dalton shook his head. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s been kidnapped,” he said quickly.
    “No, no, not at all,” Sellitto said. “We’re just not taking any chances.”
    Rhyme asked, “Do you know anyone who’d want to hurt her?”
    He shook his head. “I have no idea. I haven’t seen Susan in a year. But when we were together? No, everybody liked her. Even when some of her PR clients had done some pretty shady things, nobody had a problem with her personally. And she always seemed to have the particularly nasty clients.”
    Rhyme was troubled—for reasons beyond the danger to Susan Thompson. The problem was that this wasn’t a real case. They’d backed into it, doing a favor for someone; it was a Christmas present, as Sellitto had said. He needed more facts; he needed serious forensics. He’d always felt you run a case 110 percent or you don’t run it at all.
    Thom brought more coffee in and replenished the plate of ugly cookies. Dalton nodded at the aide and thanked him. Then the businessman poured coffee from the pot for himself. “You want some?” he asked Carly.
    “Sure, I guess.”
    He poured it and asked, “Anyone else?”
    No one else wanted anything. But Rhyme’s eyes flipped to the Macallan on the shelf and, lo and behold, without a syllable of protest, Thom took the bottle and walked to Rhyme’s Storm Arrow. He opened the tumbler, then frowned. He sniffed it. “Odd, I thought I washed this out last night. I guess I forgot,” he added wryly.
    “We can’t all be perfect, now,” Rhyme said.
    Thom poured a few fingers into the tumbler and replaced it in the holder.
    “Thank you, Balthazar. You can keep your job for now—despite the weeds on the back of my chair.”
    “You don’t like them? I told you I was going to decorate for the holidays.”
    “The house. Not me.”
    “What do we do now?” Dalton asked.
    “We wait,” Sellitto said. “DMV’s running all the Malibus with that fragment of a tag number. Or, if we’re real lucky, some officer on the street’ll notice it.” He pulled his coat off a chair. “I gotta go down to the Big Building for a while. Call me if anything happens.”
    Dalton thanked him, then he looked at his watch, took out his mobile phone and called his office to say he’d have to miss his office Christmas party. He explained that the police were looking into his ex-wife’s disappearance and he was with his daughter at the moment. He wasn’t going to leave the girl alone.
    Carly hugged him. “Thanks, Dad.” Her eyes lifted to the window, staring at the swirling snow. A longmoment passed. Carly glanced at the others in the room and turned toward her father. In a soft voice she said, “I always wondered what would have happened if you and Mom hadn’t broken up.”
    Dalton laughed, ran his hand through his hair, mussing it further. “I’ve thought about that too.”
    Sachs glanced at Rhyme and they turned away, letting the father and daughter continue talking in relative privacy.
    “The guys Mom’s dated? They were okay. But nobody special. None of them lasted very long.”
    “It’s tough to meet the right person,” Dalton said.
    “I guess . . . ”
    “What?”
    “I guess I’ve always wished you’d get back together.”
    Dalton seemed at a loss for words. “I tried. You know that. But your mom was in a different place.”
    “But you stopped trying a couple of years ago.”
    “I could read the writing on the wall. People have to move on.”
    “But she misses you. I know she does.”
    Dalton laughed, “Oh, I don’t know about that.”
    “No, no, really. When I ask her about you, she tells me what a cool guy you were. You were funny. She said you made her laugh.”
    “We had some good times.”
    Carly said, “When I asked Mom what happened between you, she said it wasn’t anything totally terrible.”
    “True,” Dalton said, sipping his coffee. “We just didn’t know how to be husband and wife back then. We got married too young.”
    “Well, you’re not young anymore. . . .” Carly blushed. “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.”
    But Dalton said, “No, you’re right. I’ve grown up a lot since then.”
    “And Mom’s really changed. She used to be so