TT Gordon asked if they needed any more help with the case. Sellitto glanced around the room at the others and when Rhyme shook his head, said, ‘Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it.’

‘I’ll keep an eye out for anything weird. In the community, you know what I mean? So long, dudes.’

Gordon stashed his gear, pulled on his pitifully thin jacket and headed out the door.

Seth and Pam shared a smile, looking after Gordon’s exit.

Sachs said, ‘Hey, Pam. I think Seth needs a ’stache.’

The clean-cut young man nodded, frowning. ‘Hell, I can outdo him. I’d go with braids.’

Pam said, ‘Naw, get pierced. That way we can swap earrings.’

Seth said he had to be going; a deadline for his ad agency loomed. He kissed Pam, chastely, as if Rhyme and Sachs were the girl’s real parents. Then he nodded a farewell to the others. At the archway he turned and reminded Sachs and Rhyme that his parents would like to have lunch or dinner with them soon. Rhyme generally disliked such socializing but since Pam was, in effect, family, he’d agreed to go. And reminded himself to endure the pleasantries and mundane conversation with a smile.

‘Next week?’ Rhyme asked.

‘Perfect. Dad’s back from Hong Kong.’ He added that his father had found a copy of Rhyme’s book about New York crime scenes. ‘Any chance of an autograph?’

Recent surgery had improved Rhyme’s muscle control to the point that he actually could write his name – not as clearly as before the accident but as good as any doctor writing a prescription. ‘Delighted to.’

When he’d left, Pam pulled off her jacket and hat, set them on a chair, asked Sachs, ‘So, your message? What’s up?’

The detective nodded toward the sitting room, across the hall from Rhyme’s lab/parlor, and said, ‘How ’bout we go in there.’

CHAPTER 15

‘Now,’ Sachs said, ‘listen. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.’

In her charming lilt of an alto voice Pam said, ‘Okay, there’s a way to start a conversation.’ She tossed her hair, which she wore like Sachs’s, beyond shoulder length, no bangs.

Sachs smiled. ‘No, really.’ She was looking the girl over closely and decided that she had a glow about her. Maybe it was her job, ‘costuming’, Pam called it, for a theater production company. She loved behind the scenes Broadway. College too she enjoyed.

But, no, Sachs asked herself: What’m I thinking? Of course. The answer was Seth.

Thom appeared in the doorway with a tray. Hot chocolate. The smell was both bitter and sweet. ‘Don’t you just love the winter?’ he asked. ‘When the temperature’s below thirty-five hot chocolate doesn’t have any calories. Lincoln could come up with the chemical formula for that.’

They thanked the aide. He then asked Pam, ‘When’s the premiere?’