The Skin Collector(Lincoln Rhyme)

Chapter 54





Rhyme phoned Rachel Parker and happened to get Lon Sellitto’s son.

The young man had come to town from upstate New York, where he was working after graduating from SUNY in Albany. Rhyme remembered the boy as being quiet and pleasant enough, though he’d had some anger issues and mood problems – common among the children of law enforcers. But that was years ago and now he seemed mature and steady. In a voice missing any of Lon’s Brooklyn twang, Richard Sellitto told Rhyme that his father’s condition was largely unchanged. He was still categorized as critical. Rhyme was pleased that the young man was doing everything he could to support Rachel and Sellitto’s ex, Richard’s mother.

After he disconnected, Rhyme gave Cooper the update – which was really no update at all. He reflected that this was one of the most horrific aspects of poisoning: The substance wormed its way into your cells, destroying delicate tissues for days and weeks afterward. Bullets could be removed and wounds stitched. But poisons hid, residing, and killed at their leisure.

Rhyme now returned to the chart containing the pictures of the tattoos.

What on earth are you trying to say? he wondered yet again.

A puzzle, a quotation, a code? He kept returning to the theory that the clues referred to a location. But where?

His phone buzzed once more. He frowned looking at the caller ID. He didn’t recognize it.

He answered. ‘Rhyme here.’

‘Lincoln.’

‘Rookie? Is that you? What’s wrong?’

‘Yes, I—’

‘Where the hell have you been? The team’s at the hotel, where you’re meeting Weller. Or were supposed to be meeting. They’ve been in place for an hour. You never showed up.’ He added sternly, ‘We were, you can imagine, a little concerned.’

‘There was a problem.’

Rhyme fell silent. ‘And?’

‘I kind of got arrested.’

Rhyme wasn’t sure he’d heard. ‘Say again.’

‘Arrested.’

‘Explain.’

‘I didn’t get to the hotel. I got stopped before.’

‘I said explain. Not confuse.’

Mel Cooper looked his way. Rhyme shrugged.

‘There’s an agent with the NYBI here. He wants to talk to you.’

The New York Bureau of Investigation?

‘Put him on.’

‘Hello, Detective Rhyme?’

He didn’t bother to correct the title.

‘Yes.’

‘This’s Agent Tom Abner, NYBI.’

‘And what’s going on, Agent Abner?’ Rhyme was trying to be patient, though he had a feeling that Pulaski had screwed up the undercover set and ruined whatever chance they had to learn more about the associates of the late Watchmaker. And given the ‘I got arrested’ part, the screwup must’ve been pretty bad.

‘We’ve found out that Ron is an NYPD patrol officer in good standing, active duty. But nobody at headquarters knew about any undercover set he was running. Can you confirm that Ron was working for you on an operation?’

‘I’m civilian, Agent Abner. A consultant. But, yes, he was running an op under the direction of Detective Amelia Sachs, Major Cases. An opportunity presented itself very fast. We didn’t have time to go through channels. Ron was just making initial contact with some possible perps this morning.’

‘Hm. I see.’

‘What happened?’

‘Yesterday, an attorney named David Weller, based in LA, contacted us. He was retained by the family of a decedent, Richard Logan – the convict who died?’

‘Yes.’ Rhyme sighed. And the whole fiasco began to unfold before him.

‘Well, Mr Weller said that somebody had come to the funeral home and was asking a lot of questions about Mr Logan. He seemed to want to meet the family or associates and suggested that he might want to participate in some of the illegal deals that Logan had started before he died. I suggested a sting to see what this fellow had in mind. Mr Weller agreed to help. We wired him up and he mentioned some crime in Mexico that Mr Logan had been involved in. Ron offered money to participate in another attempt to kill same official. As soon as he mentioned a figure we moved in.’

Jesus. Like the most common prostitution sting.

Rhyme said, ‘Richard Logan had orchestrated some pretty complicated crimes when he was alive. He couldn’t have been operating alone. We were trying to find some of his associates.’

‘Got it. But your officer was really pushing the bounds of undercover ops.’

‘He hasn’t done that kind of thing before.’


‘That doesn’t surprise me. Attorney Weller wasn’t too happy about the whole thing, as you can imagine. But he’s not going to pursue any complaint.’

‘Tell him we appreciate that. Can you have Ron call me?’

‘Yessir.’

They disconnected and a moment later the parlor phone rang once more. It was Pulaski’s undercover phone.

‘Rookie.’

‘I’m sorry, Lincoln. I—’

‘Don’t apologize.’

‘I didn’t handle it very well.’

‘I’m not so sure it worked out badly.’

There was a pause. ‘What do you mean?’

‘We learned one thing: Weller and his clients – the Logan family – don’t have any connection with any of the Watchmaker’s associates or any planned crimes. Otherwise, they wouldn’t’ve dimed you out.’

‘I guess.’

‘You’re free to go?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well, the good news is we can let the Watchmaker rest in peace. No more distractions. We’ve got an unsub to catch. Get your ass back here. Now.’

He disconnected before the young officer said anything more.

It was then that Rhyme’s phone rang and he received the news that there’d been a fourth attack.

And when he heard that the killing had been in a tattoo parlor in downtown Manhattan, he asked immediately which one.

Upon hearing that – not surprisingly – it was TT Gordon’s shop, Rhyme sighed and lowered his head. ‘No, no,’ he whispered. For a moment Views of Death No. One and Two vied. Then the first prevailed and Rhyme called Sachs to tell her she had yet another scene to run.