J&G's Emporium
1709 2nd Ave.,
Anderson Foods
34th & Lex.,
Food Warehouse
8th Ave. & 24th,
ShopRite
Houston & Lafayette,
ShopRite
6th Ave. & Houston,
J&G's Emporium
Greenwich & Franklin,
Grocery World
"That narrows it down," Sachs said, "to the entire city."
"Patience," said restless Lincoln Rhyme.
Mel Cooper was examining the straw that Sachs had found. "Nothing unique here." He tossed it aside.
"Is it new?" Rhyme asked. If it was they might cross-reference stores that had sold brooms and veal shanks on the same day.
But Cooper said, "Thought of that. It's six months old or older." He began shaking the trace evidence in the German girl's clothing out over a piece of newsprint.
"Several things here," he said, poring over the sheet. "Dirt."
"Enough for a density-gradient?"
"Nope. Just dust really. Probably from the scene."
Cooper looked over the rest of the effluence he'd brushed off the bloodstained clothing.
"Brick dust. Why's there so much brick?"
"From the rats I shot. The wall was brick."
"You shot them? At the scene?" Rhyme winced.
Sachs said defensively, "Well, yes. They were all over her."
He was angry but he let it go. Adding just, "All kinds of contaminants from gunfire. Lead, arsenic, carbon, silver."
"And here . . . another bit of reddish leather. From the glove. And . . . We've got another fiber. A different one."
Criminalists love fibers. This was a tiny gray tuft barely visible to the naked eye.
"Excellent," Rhyme announced. "And what else?"