The Kill Room

And that would be a disaster.

“Thanks, Lon.”

They disco

Sachs checked her weapon once more and walked toward the door, defiantly refusing to give in to the nearly overwhelming urge to limp.

CHAPTER 28

Amelia Sachs had a 3G mobile phone, Jacob Swa

And this was good news. Cracking the encryption and listening to her conversations were harder than with phones ru

Not that his tech department was allowed to do such a thing, of course.

Yet there must have been a screwup somewhere, because just ten minutes after discussing the matter casually – and, of course, purely theoretically – with the director of Technical Services and Support, Swa

He already had a lot of interesting facts. Some specific to the Moreno investigation. Some more general, though equally helpful: for instance, that this Detective Amelia Sachs had some physical problems. He’d filed that away for future reference.

He’d also learned some troubling information: that the other investigator on the case, Lincoln Rhyme, was in the Bahamas. Now, this was potentially a real problem. Upon learning it, Swa

But he couldn’t concentrate on that at the moment. He was occupied. Crouching in an unpleasantly aromatic alleyway, picking the lock of the service door to a Starbucks wa

The morning was warm and the gloves and concealing windbreaker made him warmer yet. He was sweating. Not as bad as with A

And that god awful stench. New York City alleys. Couldn’t somebody blast them with bleach from time to time?

Finally the lock clicked. Swa

He now slipped inside, eased the door mostly closed and stepped into the office, pulling aside his jacket and making sure his knife was easily accessible.

Ah, there was the computer monitor, showing what the security camera was seeing on the restaurant floor at the moment. The camera sca

He then noticed a switch on the side of the monitor: 1–2–3–4.

He clicked the last and the screen divided into quadrants.

Oh, hell…

The store had four  cameras. And one was presently recording Swa

He quickly studied the computer and was even more troubled to see that dismantling it and stealing the hard drive, as he’d pla

Right, as if somebody would steal a five year old piece of crap, with Windows XP as the operating system. He equated a machine like this to a plastic Sears hand mixer, versus what he had: a six hundred dollar KitchenAid, with a bread kneading hook and fresh pasta maker.

Then Swa

Their words faded, though, and the hallway remained empty. He turned back to his task. He tested the bolts and straps. They weren’t giving way. And he didn’t have the right tools to undo them. Of course he could hardly blame himself for that. He had a basic tool set with him but this would require an electric hacksaw.

A sigh.

The next best thing, he decided, was to make sure that the police didn’t get the drive either.

Too bad, it wasn’t his first choice, but he had no other options.

Now voices from the front of the restaurant again. He believed a woman was saying, “I’m looking for Jerry, please?”

Could it be? Yes. The tone was familiar.

Good old fashioned A5/1 voice encryption…

“I’m Jerry. Are you the detective who called?”

“That’s right. I’m Amelia Sachs.”

She’d gotten here faster than Swa

Hunching forward to hide what he was doing from the camera, he reached into his backpack and removed an improvised explosive device, an anti perso

Hitting the arm button and then the trigger, Swa

He then rose slowly and backed out of the office, careful not to display his face to the camera.

CHAPTER 29

The air in Java Hut was rich with a dozen different scents – vanilla, chocolate, ci

Jerry, the manager, was a lanky young man with more extensive tats on his arms than a manager for a national franchise coffee shop probably should have. Even one headquartered in Portland. He shook her hand firmly, snuck a glance toward her hips. Men often did this – not checking out the body; he wanted a glimpse of her gun.

The dozen people here were all busy – typing on or examining some electronic device or another. A few were reading from paper. Only one, an elderly woman, was sitting quietly, looking out the window and doing nothing but leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee.

Jerry asked, “Would you like something? On the house?”

She declined. She wanted to get to the one lead in the case that had the potential to pay off.

“Just like to check out the security videos.”

“Sure,” he said, trying for another look at her weapon. She was glad she’d kept the jacket buttoned. She knew he’d want to ask her if she’d used it recently. And talk calibers.

Men. Sex or guns.

“Now, we’ve got one camera there.” He pointed above the cash register. “Everybody who comes in’ll get photographed at least once, pretty up close. What did this guy upload? Like insider information?”

“Like that, yes.”

“Bankers. Man, don’t you just hate ’em? And two other cameras.” Pointing.

One was mounted on a side wall and it sca

Good.

The other camera sca

“Let’s see the video,” she said.