Jeffery Deaver - The Bone Collector

“Yo boy dint tell you anything more?”

“No, man. Nothing more. Hey, I’m hungry. Can we eat somethin’?”

“Remember what I told you about dignity? Quit moaning.” Dellray stood up. “I gotta make a call.”

The RRV skidded to a stop on Sixtieth Street.

Sachs snagged the crime-scene suitcase, the PoliLight and the big twelve-volt flashlight.

“Did you get her in time?” Sachs called to an ESU trooper. “Is she all right?”

No one answered at first. Then she heard the screams.

“What’s going on?” she muttered, running breathless up to the large door, which had been battered in by Emergency Services. It opened onto a wide driveway that descended underneath an abandoned brick building. “She’s still there?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?” demanded a shocked Amelia Sachs.

“They told us not to go in.”

“Not to go in? She’s screaming. Can’t you hear her?”

An ESU cop said, “They told us to wait for you.”

They . No, not they at all. Lincoln Rhyme. That son of a bitch.

“We were supposed to find her,” the officer said. “ You’re supposed to go in.”

She clicked the headset on. “Rhyme!” she barked. “Are you there?”

No answer… You goddamn coward.

Give up the dead … Sonofabitch! As furious as she’d been storming down the stairs in his townhouse a few minutes ago, she was twice as angry now.

Sachs glanced behind her and noticed a medic standing beside an EMS bus.

“You, come with me.”

He took a step forward and saw her draw her weapon. He stopped.

“Whoa, time out,” the medic said. “I don’t have to go in until the area’s secure.”

“Now! Move!” She spun around and he must have seen more muzzle than he wanted. He grimaced and hurried after her.

From underground they heard: “ Aiiiii! Hilfe!” Then sobbing.

Jesus. Sachs started to run toward the looming doorway, twelve feet high, smoky blackness inside.

She heard in her head: You’re him, Amelia. What are you thinking?

Go away, she said silently.

But Lincoln Rhyme didn’t go away.

You’re a killer and a kidnapper, Amelia. Where would you walk, what would you touch?

Forget it! I’m going to save her. Hell with the crime scene…

“Mein Gott! Fleece! Some-von, pleece help!”

Go, Sachs shouted to herself. Sprint! He’s not in here. You’re safe. Get her, go…

She picked up the pace, her utility belt clanking as she ran. Then, twenty feet down the tunnel, she pulled up. Debating. She didn’t like which side won.

“Oh, fuck,” she spat out. She set down the suitcase and opened it up. She blurted to the medic, “You, what’s your name?”

The uneasy young man answered, “Tad Walsh. I mean, what’s going on?” He glanced down into the murk.

“Oh… Bitte, helfen Sie mir!”

“Cover me,” Sachs whispered.

“Cover you? Wait a minute, I don’t do that.”

“Take the gun, all right?”

“What’m I supposed to cover you from?”

Thrusting the automatic into his hand, she dropped to her knees. “Safety’s off. Be careful.”

She grabbed two rubber bands and slipped them over her shoes. Taking the pistol back she ordered him to do the same.

With unsteady hands he slipped the bands on.

“I’m just thinking -”

“Quiet. He could still be here.”

“Wait a minute now, ma’am,” the medic whispered. “This ain’t in my job description.”

“It’s not in mine either. Hold the light.” She handed him the flashlight.

“But if he’s here he’s probably gonna shoot at the light. I mean, that’s what I’d shoot at.”

“Then hold it up high. Over my shoulder. I’ll go in front. If anybody gets shot it’ll be me.”

“Then whatta I do?” Tad sounded like a teenager.

“I myself’d run like hell,” Sachs muttered. “Now follow me. And keep that beam steady.”

Lugging the black CS suitcase in her left hand, holding her weapon in front of her, she gazed at the floor as they moved into the darkness. She saw the familiar broom marks again, just like at the other scene.

“Bitte nicht, bitte nicht, bitte…” There was a brief scream, then silence.

“What the hell’s going on down there?” Tad whispered.

“Shhhh,” Sachs hissed.

They walked slowly. Sachs blew on her fingers gripping the Glock – to dry the slick sweat – and carefully eyed the random targets of wooden pillars, shadows and discarded machinery picked out by the flashlight held unsteadily in Tad’s hand.

She found no footprints.

Of course not. He’s smart.

But we’re smart too , she heard Lincoln Rhyme say in her thoughts. And she told him to shut up.

Slower now.

Five more feet. A pause. Then moving slowly forward. Trying to ignore the girl’s moans. She felt it again – that sensation of being watched, the slippery crawl of the iron sights tracking you. The body armor, she reflected, wouldn’t stop a full-metal jacket. Half the bad guys used Black Talons anyway – so a leg or arm shot would kill you just as efficiently as a chest hit. And a lot more painfully. Nick had told her how one of those bullets could open up a human body; one of his partners, hit by two of the vicious slugs, had died in his arms.

Above and behind…

Thinking of him, she remembered one night, lying against Nick’s solid chest, gazing at the silhouette of his handsome Italian face on her pillow as he told her about hostage-rescue entry – “Somebody inside wants to nail you when you go in they’ll do it from above and behind…”

“Shit.” She dropped to a crouch, spinning around and aiming the Glock toward the ceiling, ready to empty the entire clip.

“What?” Tad whispered, cowering. “What?”

The emptiness gaped at her.

“Nothing.” And breathed deeply, stood up.

“Don’t do that.”

There was a gurgling noise ahead of them.

“Jesus,” came Tad’s high voice again. “I hate this.”

This guy’s a pussy, she thought. I know that ’cause he’s saying everything I want to.

She stopped. “Shine the light up there. Ahead.”

“Oh, my everloving…”

Sachs finally understood the hairs she’d found at the last scene. She remembered the look that had passed between Sellitto and Rhyme. He’d known then what the unsub had planned. He’d known this was what was happening to her – and still he’d told ESU to wait. She hated him that much more.

In front of them a pudgy girl lolled on the floor, in a pool of blood. She glanced toward the light with glazed eyes and passed out. Just as a huge black rat – big as a housecat – crawled up onto her belly and moved toward the girl’s fleshy throat. It bared its dingy teeth to take a bite from the girl’s chin.

Sachs smoothly lifted the chunky black Glock, her left palm circling under the butt for support. She aimed carefully.

Shooting is breathing .

Inhale, out. Squeeze.

Sachs fired her weapon for the first time in the line of duty. Four shots. The huge black rat standing on the girl’s chest exploded. She hit one more on the floor behind and another one that, panicking, raced toward Sachs and the medic. The others vanished silently, fast as water on sand.

“Jesus,” the medic said. “You could’ve hit the girl.”

“From thirty feet?” Sachs snorted. “Not hardly.”

The radio burst to life and Haumann asked if they were under fire.

“Negative,” Sachs replied. “Just shooing a few rats.”

“Roger, K.”