The Skin Collector(Lincoln Rhyme)

Chapter 10





Mel Cooper carefully opened the sole remaining evidence bag over an examination table. Using tweezers, he extracted the crumpled ball of paper. He began to unwrap it. Slowly.

‘Where was it, Amelia?’ he asked.

‘About three feet from the body. Below one of those yellow boxes.’

‘I saw those,’ Rhyme said. ‘IFON. Electric grid, telephone, I’d guess.’

The paper was from the upper corner of a publication, torn out. It was about three inches long, two high. The words on the front, the right-hand page, were these:

ies

that his greatest skill was his ability to anticipate

On the reverse page:


the body was found.

Rhyme looked at Cooper, who was using a Bausch + Lomb microscope to compare the paper fibers from this sample with those found under the victim’s fingernails.

‘We can associate them. Probably from the same source. And there were no other samples of the cloth fibers under her nails from the scene.’

‘So the presumption is that she tore the scrap in a struggle with him.’

Sellitto asked, ‘Why’d he have it with him? What was it?’

Rhyme noted that the stock was uncoated, so the scrap was likely not from a magazine. Nor was the paper newsprint, so the source probably wasn’t a daily or weekly paper or tabloid.

‘It’s probably from a book,’ he announced, staring at the triangular scrap.

‘But what’d the scenario be?’ Pulaski asked.

‘Good question: You mean if the scrap was from the pocket of our unsub and she tore it off while grappling with him, how can the pages be from a book?’

‘Right.’

‘Because I would think he sliced important pages out of the book and kept them with him. I want to know what that scrap is from.’

‘The easy way?’ Cooper suggested.

‘Oh, Google Books? Right. Or whatever that thing is called, that online service that has ninety percent or however many of the world’s books in a database. Sure, give it a shot.’

But, unsurprisingly, the search returned no hits. Rhyme didn’t know much about how the copyright laws worked but he suspected that there were more than a few authors of books still protected by the US Code that didn’t want to share their creative sweat labor royalty-free.

‘So, it’s the hard way,’ Rhyme announced. ‘What do they call that in computer hacking? Brute-force attack?’ He reflected for a moment then added, ‘But we can maybe narrow down the search. Let’s see if we can find out when it was printed and look for books published around then that deal with – to start – crimes. The word “bodies” is a hint there. Now, let’s get a date.’

‘Carbon dating?’ Ron Pulaski asked, drawing a smile from Mel Cooper. ‘What?’ the young officer asked.

‘Haven’t read my chapter on radiocarbon, rookie?’ Referring to Rhyme’s textbook on forensic science.

‘Actually I have, Lincoln.’

‘And?’

Pulaski recited, ‘Carbon dating is the comparison of non-degrading carbon-12 with degrading carbon-14, which will give an idea of the age of the object being tested. I said “idea”; I think you said “approximation”.’

‘Ah, well quoted. Just a shame you missed the footnote.’

‘Oh. There were footnotes?’

‘The error factor for carbon dating is thirty to forty years. And that’s with recent samples. If our perp had carried around a chapter printed on papyrus or dinosaur hide, the deviation would be greater.’ Rhyme gestured toward the scrap. ‘So, no, carbon dating isn’t for us.’

‘At least it would tell us if it was printed in the last thirty or forty years.’

‘Well, we know that,’ Rhyme snapped. ‘It was printed in the nineties, I’m almost certain. I want something more specific.’

Now Sellitto was frowning. ‘How do you know the decade, Linc?’

‘The typeface. It’s called Myriad. Created by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems. It became Apple’s font.’

‘It looks like any other sans serif font to me,’ Sachs said.

‘Look at the “y” descender and the slanting “e”.’

‘You studied that?’ asked Pulaski, as if a huge gap in his forensic education threatened to swallow him whole.

Years ago Rhyme had run a kidnapping case in which the perp had crafted a ransom note by cutting letters from a magazine. He’d used characters from editorial headlines as well as from a number of advertisements. Correlating the typefaces from dozens of magazines and advertisers’ logos, Rhyme had concluded it was from a particular issue of the Atlantic Monthly. A warrant for subscriber lists – and some other evidence – led to the perp’s door and the rescue of the victim. He explained this to Pulaski.

‘But how do we date it more specifically?’ Sellitto asked.

‘The ink,’ Rhyme said.

‘Tags?’ Cooper asked.

‘Doubt it.’ In the 1960s ink manufacturers began adding tags – chemical markers, in the same way that explosives manufacturers did – so that, in the event of a crime, the ink sample would be easy to trace to a single source or at least to a brand name of ink or pen. (The primary purpose of tagging was to track down forgers, though the markers also nailed a number of kidnappers and psychopathic killers, who left messages at the scenes of their crimes.) But the ink used for book printing, as in this sample, was sold in large batches, which were rarely if ever tagged.

So, Rhyme explained, they needed to compare the composition of this particular ink with those in the NYPD ink database.

‘Extract the ink, Mel. Let’s find out what it’s made out of.’

From a rack of tools above the evidence examination tables, Cooper selected a modified hypodermic syringe, the point partially filed down. He poked this through the paper seven times. The resulting tiny disks, all of which contained samples of the ink, he soaked in pyridine to extract the ink itself. He dried the solution to a powdery residue, which he then analyzed.

Cooper and Rhyme looked over the resulting chromatogram – a bar chart of peaks and valleys representing the ink used in the printing of the mysterious book.

By itself, the analysis meant nothing, but running the results through the database revealed that the ink was similar to those used in the production of adult trade books from 1996 through 2000.

‘Adult?’ Pulaski asked.

‘No, not your kind of adult books,’ Sellitto said, laughing.

‘My—’ The officer was blushing furiously. ‘Wait.’

Rhyme continued, ‘It means as opposed to juvenile publishing. Legitimate books for adults. And the paper? Check acidity.’

Cooper ran a basic pH analysis, using a small corner of the paper.

‘It’s very acidic.’

‘That means it’s from a mass-produced commercial hardcover – not paperback because they’re printed on newsprint. And it’s commercial because more expensive, limited-edition books are printed on low-acid or acid-free paper.

‘Add that to your team’s to-do list, Lon. Find the book. I’m leaning toward nonfiction, the aforementioned years. Possibly true crime. And each chapter devoted to a different subject, since he sliced out only what he needed. Have your people start talking to editors, bookstores, crime book collectors … and true crime writers themselves. How many could there be?’

‘Yeah, yeah, in all the free time they have when they’re not browsing for the trillion quotations featuring the words “the second”.’

‘Oh, and by the way, make it a priority. If our unsub went to enough trouble to find a copy of the book, cut out the pages and carry them around with him, I really want to know what’s in it.’

The big detective was looking at the picture of the tattoo once more. He said to Cooper, ‘Print out a picture of that, willya, Mel? I’ll start hitting those tattoo parlors – is that what they still call ’em? Probably “studio” now. And get me a list of the big ones.’

Rhyme watched Cooper print out the picture then go online with the NYC business licensing agency. He downloaded a list of what seemed to be about thirty tattoo businesses. Cooper handed it to the detective.

‘That many?’ Sellitto grumbled. ‘Wonderful. I just can’t really get outside enough on these fine fall days.’ He tossed the list and the photo of the tattoo into his briefcase. Then pulled on his Burberry and dug his wadded gloves from the pocket. Without a farewell he stalked out of the room. Rhyme once again heard the wind briefly as the door opened and slammed shut.

‘And, rookie, how’re we coming on the marble?’

The young officer turned to a nearby computer. He read through the screen. ‘Still going through blasting permits. They’re blowing up a lot of stuff in the city at the moment.’

‘Keep at it.’

‘You bet. I’ll have some answers soon.’ He turned his gaze to Rhyme. ‘Hopefully.’

‘Hopefully?’ Rhyme frowned.

‘Yep. I’m filled with hope that I don’t get any more damn grammar lessons from you, Lincoln.’





* * *





237 Elizabeth Street



Victim: Chloe Moore, 26 – Probably no connection to Unsub

– No sexual assault, but touching of skin



Unsub 11-5 – White male

– Slim to medium build

– Stocking cap

– Thigh-length dark coat

– Dark backpack

– Wore booties

– No friction ridges



COD: Poisoning with cicutoxin, introduced into system by tattooing – From water hemlock plant

– No known source

– Concentrated, eight times normal



Sedated with propofol – How obtained? Access to medical supplies?



Tattooed with ‘the second’ Old English typeface, surrounded by scallops – Part of message?

– Task force at police HQ checking this out



Portable tattoo gun used as weapon – Model unknown



Cotton fiber – Off white

– Probably from Unsub’s shirt, torn in struggle



Page from book, true crime? – Probably torn from Unsub’s pocket in struggle

– Probably mass produced hardcover 1996–2000

ies

that his greatest skill was his ability to anticipate

– On next page:

the body was found.



Possibly used adhesive rollers to remove trace from clothing prior to attack

Handcuffs – Generic, cannot be sourced



Flashlight – Generic, cannot be sourced



Duct tape – Generic, cannot be sourced





Trace evidence



Nitric oxide, ozone, iron manganese, nickel, silver beryllium, chlorinated hydrocarbon, acetylene – Possibly oxy-fuel welding supplies



Tetrodotoxin – Fugu fish poison

– Zombie drug

– Minute amounts

– Not used on victim here



Stercobilin, urea 9.3 g/L, chloride 1.87 g/L, sodium 1.17 g/L, potassium 0.750 g/L, creatinine 0.670 g/L – fecal material

– Possibly suggesting interest/obsession in underground

– From future kill sites underground?



Benzalkonium chloride – Quaternary ammonium (quat), institutional sanitizer



Adhesive latex – Used in bandages and construction, other uses too



Inwood marble – Dust and fine grains



Tovex explosive – Probably from blast site





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