"I don't see smoke," Pulaski said.
Dennis Baker stared up at the second floor. He shook his head.
"If it's alcohol," one of the fire chiefs said, "there won't be smoke until the secondary materials ignite." He added evenly, "Or her hair and skin."
Sachs continued to scan the windows, clenching her fists. Was the woman dying in agony now? With police officers or firemen alongside her?
"Come on," Baker whispered.
Then a voice clattered through the radio: "We've got the device. . . . We've . . . Yeah, we've got it. It didn't detonate."
Sachs closed her eyes.
"Thank God," Baker said.
People were streaming out of the office building now, under the gaze of ESU and patrol officers who were looking for Duncan, comparing the composite pictures with the faces of the workers.
An officer led a woman up to Sachs, Baker and Pulaski, just as Sellitto joined them.
The potential victim, Sarah Stanton, explained that she'd found a fire extinguisher under her desk; it hadn't been there earlier and she hadn't seen who'd left it. Somebody in the office remembered seeing a workman in a uniform nearby but couldn't remember details and didn't recognize the composite or recall where he'd gone.
"Status of the device?" Haumann called.
An officer radioed, "Didn't see a timer but the pressure gauge on the top was blank. That could be the detonator. And I can smell alcohol. Bomb squad's got it in a containment vessel. They're taking it up to Rodman's Neck. We're still sweeping for the perp."
"Any sign of him?" Baker asked.
"Negative. There're two fire stairwells and the elevators. He could've gotten out that way. And we've got four or five other companies on that floor. He might've gotten into one of them. We'll search 'em in a minute or two, as soon as we get an all-clear for devices."
Ten minutes later officers reported that there were no other bombs in the building.
Sachs interviewed Sarah, then called Rhyme and told him the status of the case so far. The woman didn't know the other victims and had never heard of Gerald Duncan. She was very upset that the man's wife might've been killed outside her apartment, though she remembered nothing of any fatal accidents in the area.
Finally Haumann told them that all of his officers had finished the sweep; the Watchmaker had escaped.
"Hell," Dennis Baker muttered. "We were so close."
Discouraged, Rhyme said, "Well, walk the grid and tell me what you find."
They signed off. Haumann sent two teams to stake out the warehouse that Duncan had used as a staging site in case the killer returned there and Sachs dressed in the white Tyvek bodysuit and grabbed a metal suitcase containing basic evidence collection and preservation equipment.
"I'll help," Pulaski said, also dressing in the white overalls.
She handed him the suitcase and she picked up another one.
On the second floor, she paused and surveyed the hallway. After photographing it Sachs entered Lanam Flooring and proceeded to Sarah Stanton's workstation.
She and Pulaski set up the suitcases and extracted the basic evidence collection equipment: bags, tubes, swabs, adhesive rollers for trace, electrostatic footprint sheets and latent-print chemicals and equipment.
"What can I do?" Pulaski asked. "You want me to search the stairwells?"
She debated. They'd have to be searched eventually but she decided that it would be better to run them herself; they were the most logical entry and exit routes for the Watchmaker and she wanted to make certain that no evidence was missed. Sachs surveyed the layout of Sarah's cubicle and then noticed an empty workstation next to it. It was possible that the Watchmaker had waited there until he had a chance to plant the bomb. Sachs told the rookie, "Run that cubicle."
"You got it." He stepped into the cubicle, pulled out his flashlight and began walking a perfect grid. She caught him sniffing the air too, another of Lincoln Rhyme's dictates for crime scene officers searching. This boy was going to go places, she reflected.
Sachs stepped into the cubicle where they'd found the device. She heard a noise and glanced back. It was only Dennis Baker. He came up the corridor and stopped about twenty feet from the cubicles, far enough away so there was no risk of contaminating the scene.
She wasn't sure exactly why he was here but, since they still weren't sure where the Watchmaker was, she was grateful for his presence.