The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver Page B
Authors: Jeffery Deaver
Tags: Fiction, General, Suspense, Thrillers, Mystery & Detective, Crime, Mystery Fiction, Police, Police Procedural, New York, New York (State), Serial Murderers, Police - New York (State) - New York, N.Y.), Manhattan (New York, Rhyme, Lincoln (Fictitious character)
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Amelia had me check the boots of the Algonquin workers who were there. They were all different."
Rhyme turned his attention to the boot. "What's the brand, do you think, Mel?"
Cooper was browsing through the NYPD's footwear database, which contained samples of thousands of shoes and boots, the vast majority of which were men's shoes. Most serious felonies involving physical presence at the scene were committed by men.
Rhyme had been instrumental in creating the expanded shoe and boot database years ago. He worked out voluntary arrangements with all the major manufacturers to have scans of their lines sent into the NYPD regularly.
After returning to forensic work, following his accident, Rhyme had stayed involved in maintaining the department's product and materials databases, including this one. After working on a recent case involving data mining he'd come up with an idea that was now used in many police departments around the country: He'd recruited (well, bullied) the NYPD into hiring a programmer to create computer graphics images that depicted the sole of each shoe in the database in different stages of wear--new, after six months, one year and two years. And then to show images of the soles of shoes worn by people who had splayed feet or were pigeon-toed. He'd also gotten the computer guru to indicate wear patterns as a function of height and weight.
The project was expensive but took surprisingly little time to get online and resulted in nearly instantaneous answers to the questions of the brand and age of shoe, and the height, weight and stride characteristics of the wearer.
The database had already helped in the identification of three or four perps.
His fingers flying over the keys, Cooper said, "Got a match. Albertson-Fenwick Boots and Gloves, Inc. Model E-20." He perused the screen. "Not surprising, they've got special insulation. They're for workers who have regular contact with live electrical sources. They meet ASTM Electrical Hazard Standard F2413-05. These're size eleven."
Rhyme squinted as he looked them over. "Deep treads. Good." This meant they would retain significant quantities of trace material.
Cooper continued, "They're fairly new so there're no distinctive wear marks that tell us much about his height, weight or other characteristic."
"I'd say he walks straight, though. Agree?" Rhyme was looking at the prints on his screen, broadcast from a camera over the examining table.
"Yes."
Sachs wrote this on the board.
"Good, Sachs. Now, Rookie, what's the invisible evidence you found?" Gazing at the plastic envelope labeled Coffee Shop Opposite Blast--Table Where Suspect Was Sitting.
Cooper was examining it. "Blond hair. One inch long. Natural, not dyed."
Rhyme loved hair as a forensic tool. It could often be used for DNA sampling--if the bulb was attached--and it could reveal a lot about the suspect's appearance, through color and texture and shape. Age and sex could also be reckoned with more or less accuracy. Hair testing was becoming more and more popular as a forensic and an employment tool since hair retained traces of drugs longer than urine or blood. An inch of hair held a two-month history of drug use. In England hair was frequently used to test for alcohol abuse.
"We're not sure it's his," Sellitto pointed out.
"Of course not," Rhyme muttered. "We're not sure of anything at this point."
But Pulaski said, "It's pretty likely, though. I talked to the owner. He makes sure the busboys wipe the table down after every customer. I checked. And nobody'd wiped it after the perp was there, because of the explosion."
"Good, Rookie."
Cooper continued, speaking of the hair, "No natural or artificial curves. It's straight. No evidence of depigmentation, so I'd put him under fifty years old."
"I want a tox-chem analysis. ASAP."
"I'll send it to the lab."
"A commercial lab," Rhyme ordered. "Wave a lot of money at them for fast results."
Sellitto grumbled, "We don't have a lot of money, and
Rhyme turned his attention to the boot. "What's the brand, do you think, Mel?"
Cooper was browsing through the NYPD's footwear database, which contained samples of thousands of shoes and boots, the vast majority of which were men's shoes. Most serious felonies involving physical presence at the scene were committed by men.
Rhyme had been instrumental in creating the expanded shoe and boot database years ago. He worked out voluntary arrangements with all the major manufacturers to have scans of their lines sent into the NYPD regularly.
After returning to forensic work, following his accident, Rhyme had stayed involved in maintaining the department's product and materials databases, including this one. After working on a recent case involving data mining he'd come up with an idea that was now used in many police departments around the country: He'd recruited (well, bullied) the NYPD into hiring a programmer to create computer graphics images that depicted the sole of each shoe in the database in different stages of wear--new, after six months, one year and two years. And then to show images of the soles of shoes worn by people who had splayed feet or were pigeon-toed. He'd also gotten the computer guru to indicate wear patterns as a function of height and weight.
The project was expensive but took surprisingly little time to get online and resulted in nearly instantaneous answers to the questions of the brand and age of shoe, and the height, weight and stride characteristics of the wearer.
The database had already helped in the identification of three or four perps.
His fingers flying over the keys, Cooper said, "Got a match. Albertson-Fenwick Boots and Gloves, Inc. Model E-20." He perused the screen. "Not surprising, they've got special insulation. They're for workers who have regular contact with live electrical sources. They meet ASTM Electrical Hazard Standard F2413-05. These're size eleven."
Rhyme squinted as he looked them over. "Deep treads. Good." This meant they would retain significant quantities of trace material.
Cooper continued, "They're fairly new so there're no distinctive wear marks that tell us much about his height, weight or other characteristic."
"I'd say he walks straight, though. Agree?" Rhyme was looking at the prints on his screen, broadcast from a camera over the examining table.
"Yes."
Sachs wrote this on the board.
"Good, Sachs. Now, Rookie, what's the invisible evidence you found?" Gazing at the plastic envelope labeled Coffee Shop Opposite Blast--Table Where Suspect Was Sitting.
Cooper was examining it. "Blond hair. One inch long. Natural, not dyed."
Rhyme loved hair as a forensic tool. It could often be used for DNA sampling--if the bulb was attached--and it could reveal a lot about the suspect's appearance, through color and texture and shape. Age and sex could also be reckoned with more or less accuracy. Hair testing was becoming more and more popular as a forensic and an employment tool since hair retained traces of drugs longer than urine or blood. An inch of hair held a two-month history of drug use. In England hair was frequently used to test for alcohol abuse.
"We're not sure it's his," Sellitto pointed out.
"Of course not," Rhyme muttered. "We're not sure of anything at this point."
But Pulaski said, "It's pretty likely, though. I talked to the owner. He makes sure the busboys wipe the table down after every customer. I checked. And nobody'd wiped it after the perp was there, because of the explosion."
"Good, Rookie."
Cooper continued, speaking of the hair, "No natural or artificial curves. It's straight. No evidence of depigmentation, so I'd put him under fifty years old."
"I want a tox-chem analysis. ASAP."
"I'll send it to the lab."
"A commercial lab," Rhyme ordered. "Wave a lot of money at them for fast results."
Sellitto grumbled, "We don't have a lot of money, and
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