Read Online The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver - Free Book Online Page A

ofretribution, as real and invisible as gravity, existed and was now at work, punishing him for the bad he’d done in his life. Oh, he’d done much good. Raised children, taught them open-minded values and tolerance, been a good companion to his wife, helped her through a cancer incident, contributed to the great body of science that enriched the world.
    Yet there was bad too. There always is.
    Sitting here in his stinking orange jumpsuit, he struggled to believe that by the right thoughts and vows—and faith in the system he dutifully supported every election day—he could work his way back to the other side of the scale of justice and be reunited with his family and life.
    That with the right spirit and intention he could outrun fate through the same breathless effort with which he’d beaten Lincoln in that hot, dusty field, charging all out toward the oak tree.
    That maybe he could be saved. It might—
    “Move.”
    He jumped at the word, though the speaker’s voice was soft. Another prisoner, white, shaggy hair, full of tats but light on teeth and twitchy as the drugs leached from his system, had come up behind him. He stared at the bench where Arthur sat, though he could have picked anywhere. His eyes were just plain mean.
    And Arthur’s momentary hope—in some measurable and scientific system of moral justice—vanished. One word from this small but damaged and dangerous man killed it.
    Move . . .
    Struggling to hold back tears, Arthur Rhyme moved.

Chapter Seven
    The phone rang and Lincoln Rhyme was irritated by the distraction. He was thinking about their Mr. X and the mechanics of planting the evidence, if in fact that was what had happened, and wanted no distractions.
    But then reality struck; he saw the 44 in the caller ID, the country code that included England. “Command, answer phone,” he ordered instantly.
    Click.
    “Yes, Inspector Longhurst?” He’d given up on first names. Relations with Scotland Yard required a certain propriety.
    “Detective Rhyme, hello,” she said. “We have some movement here.”
    “Go on,” Rhyme said.
    “Danny Krueger heard from one of his former gun-runners. It seems that the reason Richard Logan left London was to collect something in Manchester. We aren’t sure what, but we do know that Manchester’s got more than its share of black-market weapons dealers.”
    “Any idea where he is exactly?”
    “Danny’s still trying to find out. It would be lovely if we could take him there, rather than wait till London.”
    “Is Danny being subtle?” Rhyme remembered from the videoconference a big, tanned, loud South African with a belly and a gold pinkie ring that both jutted outward alarmingly. Rhyme had had a case involving Darfur, and he and Krueger had spent some time talking about the country’s tragic conflict.
    “Oh, he knows what he’s doing. He’s subtle when he needs to be. Fierce as a hound when the situation calls for it. He’ll get the details if there’s any way. We’re working with our counterparts in Manchester to get an assault team ready. We’ll call you back when we know something more.”
    He thanked her and they disconnected.
    “We’ll get him, Rhyme,” Sachs said, not simply for his benefit. She too had an interest in finding Logan; Sachs herself had nearly died in one of his plots.
    Sachs took a call. She listened and said she’d be there in ten minutes. “The files in those other cases Flintlock mentioned? They’re ready. I’ll go get them. . . . Oh, and Pam might stop by.”
    “What’s she up to?”
    “Studying with a friend in Manhattan—a boy friend.”
    “Good for her. Who?”
    “Some kid from school. Can’t wait to meet him. He’s all she talks about. She sure deserves somebody decent in her life. But I just don’t want her getting too close too fast. I’ll feel better when I’ve met him and given him the third degree in person.”
    Rhyme nodded as Sachs left, but his mind was elsewhere. He was staring at