Rhyme wheeled close to the computer screen, looking over the article. He could see no connection between the events then and the Unsub 109 case.

Sellitto’s phone rang. He listened for a moment. His eyebrow lifted. “Okay, thanks.” He disconnected and looked at Rhyme. “Bingo.”

“What’s ‘bingo’?” Rhyme asked.

Sellitto said, “A canvass team in Little Italy – a half block from where they had the Columbus Day fair – just found a discount store on Mulberry Street. The clerk remembered a middle-aged white guy who bought everything in the unsub’s rape pack a few days ago. She remembered him because of the hat.”

“He wore a hat?”

“No, he bought a hat. A stocking cap. Only why she remembered him was because when he tried it on he pulled it down over his face. She saw him in a security mirror. She thought he was going to rob her. But then he took it off and put it in the basket with everything else and just paid and left.”

The missing $5.95 item on the receipt probably. Trying it on to make sure it would work as a mask. “It’s probably also what he rubbed his own prints off with. Does she know his name?”

“No. But she can describe him pretty good.”

Sachs said, “We’ll do a composite and hit the streets.” Grabbing her purse, she was at the door before she realized the big detective wasn’t with her. She stopped. Looked back. “Lon, you coming?”

Sellitto didn’t seem to hear. She repeated the question and the detective blinked. He lowered his hand from his reddened cheek. And grinned. “Sorry. You bet. Let’s go nail this bastard.”

AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM SCENE

Rape pack:

· Tarot card, twelfth card in deck, The Hanged Man, meaning spiritual searching.

· Smiley-face bag.

· Too generic to trace.

· Box cutter.

· Trojan condoms.

· Duct tape.

· Jasmine scent.

· Unknown item bought for $5.95. Probably a stocking cap.

· Receipt, indicating store was in New York City, discount variety store or drugstore.

· Most likely purchased in a store on Mulberry Street, Little Italy. Unsub identified by clerk.

· Fingerprints:

· Unsub wore latex or vinyl gloves.

· Prints on items in rape pack belonged to person with small hands, no IAFIS hits. Possibly clerk’s.

Trace:

· Cotton rope fibers, some with traces of human blood. Garrotte?

· No manufacturer.

· Sent to CODIS.

· No DNA match in CODIS.

· Popcorn and cotton candy with traces of canine urine.

· Connection with carnival or street fair? Checking with Traffic about recent permits. Officers presently canvassing street fairs, per info from Traffic.

· Confirm festival was in Little Italy.

Weapons:

· Billy club or martial arts weapon.

· Pistol is a North American Arms.22 rimfire magnum, Black Widow or Mini-Master.

· Makes own bullets, bored-out slugs filled with needles. No match in IBIS or DRUGFIRE.

Motive:

· Uncertain. Rape was probably staged.

· True motive may have been to steal microfiche containing July 23, 1868, issue of Coloreds’ Weekly Illustrated magazine and kill G. Settle because of her interest in an article for reasons unknown. Article was about her ancestor Charles Singleton (see accompanying chart).

· Librarian victim reported that someone else wished to see article.

· Requesting librarian’s phone records to verify this.

· No leads.

· Requesting information from employees as to other person wishing to see story.

· No leads.

· Searching for copy of article.

· Several sources report man requested same article. No leads to identity. Most issues missing or destroyed. One located. (See accompanying chart.)

· Conclusion: G. Settle possibly still at risk.

Profile of incident sent to VICAP and NCIC.

· Murder in Amarillo, TX, five years ago. Similar M.O. – staged crime scene (apparently ritual killing, but real motive unknown).

· Murder in Ohio, three years ago. Similar M.O. – staged crime scene (apparently sexual assault, but real motive probably hired killing). Files missing.

PROFILE OF UNSUB 109

· White male.

· 6 feet tall, 180 lbs.

· Average voice.

· Used cell phone to get close to victim.

· Wears three-year-old, or older, size-11 Bass walkers, light brown. Right foot slightly outturned.

· Additional jasmine scent.

· Dark pants.

· Ski mask, dark.

· Will target innocents to help in killing victims and escaping.

· Most likely is a for-hire killer.

PROFILE OF PERSON HIRING UNSUB 109

· No information at this time.

PROFILE OF CHARLES SINGLETON

· Former slave, ancestor of G. Settle. Married, one son. Given orchard in New York state by master. Worked as teacher, as well. Instrumental in early civil rights movement.

· Charles allegedly committed theft in 1868, the subject of the article in stolen microfiche.

· Reportedly had a secret that could bear on case. Worried that tragedy would result if his secret was revealed.

· Attended meetings in Gallows Heights neighborhood of New York.

· Involved in some risky activities?

· The crime, as reported in Coloreds’ Weekly Illustrated:

· Charles arrested by Det. William Simms for stealing large sum from Freedmen’s Trust in NY. Broke into the trust’s safe, witnesses saw him leave shortly after. His tools were found nearby. Most money was recovered. He was sentenced to five years in prison. No information about him after sentencing. Believed to have used his connections with early civil rights leaders to gain access to the trust.

· Charles’s correspondence:

· Letter 1, to wife: Re: Draft Riots in 1863, great anti-black sentiment throughout NY state, lynchings, arson. Risk to property owned by blacks.

· Letter 2, to wife: Charles at Battle of Appomattox at end of Civil War.

· Letter 3, to wife: Involved in civil rights movement. Threatened for this work. Troubled by his secret.

In the 1920s the New Negro Movement, later called the Harlem Renaissance, erupted in New York City.

It involved an astonishing group of thinkers, artists, musicians and – mostly – writers who approached their art by looking at black life not from the viewpoint of white America but from their own perspective. This groundbreaking movement included men and women like the intellectuals Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. DuBois, writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay and Countee Cullen, painters like William H. Johnson and John T. Biggers, and, of course, the musicians who provided the timeless sound track to it all, people like Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, W. C. Handy, Eubie Blake.

In such a pantheon of brilliance, it was hard for any single artist’s voice to stand out, but if anyone’s did, it would perhaps be that of poet and novelist Langston Hughes, whose voice and message were typified by his simple words: What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?…Or does it explode?

Many memorials to Hughes exist throughout the country, but certainly one of the biggest and most dynamic, and probably the one he’d have been most proud of, was an old, redbrick, four-story building in Harlem, located near Lennox Terrace on 135th Street.

Like all city schools, Langston Hughes High had its problems. It was continually overcrowded and underfunded and struggled desperately to get and retain good teachers – and to keep students in class as well. It suffered from low graduation rates, violence in the halls, drugs, gangs, teen pregnancy and truancy. Still, the school had produced graduates who’d gone on to become lawyers, successful businessmen and -women, doctors, scientists, writers, dancers and musicians, politicians, professors. It had winning varsity teams, dozens of scholastic societies and arts clubs.