The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver Page A

find out where he did get it. Call Bennington."
    "Right."
    "Okay," Rhyme continued. "We've got metalwork and hardware. That means tool marks. The hacksaw. Let's look at the wire closely."
    Cooper switched to a large-object microscope, also plugged into the computer, and examined where the wire had been cut; he used low magnification. "It's a new saw blade, sharp."
    Rhyme gave an envious glance toward the tech's deft hands, moving the focus and the geared stage of the 'scope. Then he returned to the screen. "New, yes, but there's a broken tooth."
    "Near the handle."
    "Right." Before people began to saw, they generally rested the blade on what they were about to cut, three or four times. Doing this, especially in soft aluminum like the wire, could reveal broken or bent saw teeth, or other unique patterns that could link tools found in the perp's possession to the one used in a crime.
    "Now, the split bolts?"
    Cooper found distinctive scratch marks on all the bolts, suggesting that the perp's wrench had probably left them.
    "Love soft brass," Rhyme muttered. "Just love it. . . . So he's got well-used tools. More and more, looking like he's an insider."
    Sellitto disconnected his call. "Nothing. Maybe somebody saw somebody in a blue jumpsuit. But it might've been an hour after it happened. When the whole friggin' block was crawling with Algonquin repair crews wearing friggin' blue jumpsuits."
    "What've you found out, Rookie?" Rhyme barked. "I want sources for the wire."
    "I'm on hold."
    "Tell 'em you're a cop."
    "I did."
    "Tell 'em you're the chief cop. The big cheese."
    "I--"
    But Rhyme's attention was already on something else: the iron bars forming the grate that barred entrance to the access tunnel.
    "How he'd cut through them, Mel?"
    A careful look revealed he hadn't used a hacksaw but a bolt cutter.
    Cooper examined the ends of the bars through a microscope fitted with a digital camera and took pictures. He then transferred the shots to the central computer and assembled them onto one screen.
    "Any distinctive marks?" Rhyme asked. As with the broken hacksaw tooth and scratches on the bolts and nuts, any unusual marking on the cutter would link its owner to the crime scene.
    "How's that one?" Cooper asked, pointing at the screen.
    There was a tiny crescent of scratch in roughly the same position on the cut surfaces of several of the bars. "That'll do. Good."
    Then Pulaski cocked his head and readied his pen as somebody at Bennington Wire picked up the phone to speak to the young cop in his new capacity as the emperor of the New York City Police Department.
    After a brief conversation he hung up.
    "What the hell's with the cable, Pulaski?"
    "First of all, that model cable's real common. They--"
    " How common?"
    "They sell millions of feet of it every year. It's mostly for medium-voltage distribution."
    "Sixty thousand volts is medium?"
    "I guess so. You can buy it from any electrical supply wholesaler. But he did say that Algonquin buys it in bulk."
    Sellitto asked, "Who there would order it?"
    "Technical Supplies Department."
    "I'll give 'em a call," Sellitto said. He did so and had a brief conversation. He disconnected. "They're going to check to see if anything's missing from inventory."
    Rhyme was gazing at the grating. "So he climbed through the manhole earlier and into the Algonquin work space under the alley."
    Sachs said, "He might've been down the steam pipe manhole to do some work and seen the grating that led to the tunnel."
    "Definitely suggests it's an employee." Rhyme hoped this was the case. Inside jobs made cops' work a lot easier. "Let's keep going. The boots."
    She said, "Similar boot prints in both the access tunnel and near where the wire was rigged inside the substation."
    "And any prints from the coffee shop?"
    "That one," Pulaski responded, as he pointed to an electrostatic print. "Under the table. Looks like the same brand to me."
    Mel Cooper examined it and concurred. The young officer continued, "And