The watchmaker

chapter six

They were terrible ways to die.

Amelia Sachs had pretty much seen it all, or so she thought. But these were as cruel means of death as she could recall.

She'd spoken to Adam from Westchester and he'd told her to hurry to lower Manhattan where she was to run two scenes of homicides committed apparently hours apart by somebody calling himself the Watchmaker.

Sachs had already run the simpler of the two a pier in the Hudson river. it was a fast scene to process; there was no body and most of the trace had been swept away or contaminated by the abrasive wind flowing along the river. she'd photographed and videoed the scene from all angles. she collected the killers note too partly crusted with blood.Then she'd taken samples of the frozen blood. she noted fingernail marks on the pier where the victim had held on, dangling above the water and slid off. she collected a torn nail , it was wide Short and unpolished, suggesting the victim was a man.she found no footprints, fingerprints and no witnesses.NYPD divers and the coat guard were continuing their search for the body and any evidence in the water.

She was now at the second scene, the alleyway near Broadway.Theodore Addams, mid thirties was lying on his back, duct tape gagging and binding his ankles and wrist. The killer had looped a rope over a fire escape ten feet above Theodore and tied one end to a heavy six foot long metal bar with holes in the ends like the eye of a needle. This the killer had suspended over the victims throat, the other end of the rope he had placed in the man's hands.Being bound Theodore couldn't slide out from under the bar. His only hope was to use all his strength to keep the massive weight suspended until someone happened along to save him.

But no one had.

He'd been dead for quite some time and the bar had continued to compress his throat until the body froze solid in the December cold.His neck was only about an inch thick under the crushing metal. His expression was the chalky neutral gaze of death but she could imagine how his face must have looked for the ten or fifteen minutes he'd struggled to stay alive.

Who on earth would murder in these ways which were obviously picked for prolonged deaths?

Her first thought were that the killings were either organized hits or the work of a psychopath.

Ron Pulaski, in uniform and leather jacket approached. The blond NYPD patrolman, slim and young had been helping out Sachs on the Creed's case and was on call to assist Adams. After a bad run in with a perp had put him in the hospital for a long stay, he'd been offered medical disability retirement.

An he decided to undergo therapy and return back to the force.

Pulaski wasn't in Tyvek, so he stopped at the yellow tape marking the scene. "Jesus", he muttered as he stared at the grotesque sight.

Pulaski told her that Sellito and other officers were checking with security guards and other office managers in the buildings around the alley to learn if anyone had seen or heard the attack or knew Theodore Addams. He added I'm going to check all the license of the cars parked around here detective Sellito asked me to "

Her back to Pulaski, Sachs nodded. But she wasn't really paying much attention to this information;it wasn't useful to her at the moment. She was about to search the crime scene and was trying to clear her thoughts of distractions.crime scene cops have to mentally and emotionally become the perp's. The whole horrific scenario plays itself out in their imaginations: what the killer was thinking, where he stood when he lifted the gun club or knife, how he adjusted his stance, his escape route.

Sachs was now doing this

I'm him, I'm him...... what do I have in mind? Why did I want to kill these vics?Why in these ways? Why on the pier, Why here?

But she had no answers to these questions, not yet. She pulled on her headset "Adams are you there?"

"And where else would I be?" he asked, sounding amused "I've been waiting. Where are you? The second scene?

"Yes"

"What are you seeing Sachs?"

"Alleyway Adams" she said into the mic, it's a cul-de-sac for deliveries,it doesn't go through. The Vic's close to the street"

"How close"

"fifteen feet out of a hundred foot alley"

"How did he get there"

"No sign of tread marks but he was definitely dragged to the place he was killed: there's salt and crud on the bottom of his jacket and pants"

"Are there doors near the body?"

"yes. He's pretty much in front of one."

"Did he work in the building?".

"N. I've got his business cards. He's a freelance writer. His work address is the same as his apartment."

"He might have had a client there or in one of the other buildings."

"Lon's checking now"

"Good, The door that's closest? Would that have been someplace the perp could have waited for him?

"Yeah" she replied.

"Have a guard open it up and I want you to search what's on the other side".

Lon Sellito called from the perimeter of the scene "No witness. Everybody's f*****g blind. Oh and deaf too..... And there must be forty or fifty different offices in the buildings around the alley.If anybody knew him, it may take a while to find out."

Sachs relayed the criminalist request to open the back door near the body.

"You got it" Sellito headed of on this mission, blowing warming breath into his cupped hands.

It was likely that the perp had driven here,given the weight of the bar, but there were no tread marks.The center of the alley was covered with rock salt to melt the ice, and the grains prevent good contact with the cobblestones.

The she squinted. "Adams, something odd here. Around the body, for probably three feet around it, there's something on the ground."

What do you think it is?

Sachs bent down and with a magnifier examined what seemed to be fine sand. she mentioned this to Rhyme.

"was it for the ice?"