Page 39 of The Empty Chair (Lincoln Rhyme 3)

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FOUND AT PRIMARY CRIME SCENE-- BLACKWATER LANDING

Kleenex with Blood

Limestone Dust

Nitrates

Phosphate

Ammonia

Detergent

Camphene

FOUND AT SECONDARY CRIME SCENE-- GARRETT'S ROOM

Skunk Musk

Cut Pine Needles

Drawings of Insects

Pictures of Mary Beth and Family

Insect Books

Fishing Line

Money

Unknown Key

Kerosene

Ammonia

Nitrates

Camphene

Davett scanned the list up and down, taking his time, eyes narrowing several times. A faint frown. "Nitrates and ammonia? You know what that could be?"

Rhyme nodded. "I think he left some explosive devices to stop the search party. I've told them about it."

Grimacing, Davett returned to the chart. "The camphene ... I think that was used in old lanterns. Like coal-oil lamps."

"That's right. So we think the place he's got Mary Beth is old. Nineteenth century."

"There must be thousands of old houses and barns and shacks around here.... What else? Limestone dust.... That's not going to narrow things down much. There's a huge ridge of limestone that runs all the way through Paquenoke County. It used to be a big moneymaker here." He rose and moved his finger diagonally along the map from the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp to the southwest, from Location L-4 to C-14. "You could find limestone anywhere along that line. That won't do you much good. But"--he stepped back, crossed his arms--"the phosphate's helpful. North Carolina's a major producer of phosphate but it's not mined around here. That's farther south. So, combined with the detergent, I'd say he's been near polluted water."

"Hell," Jim Bell said, "that just means he's been in the Paquenoke."

"No," Davett said, "the Paquo's clean as well water. It's dark but it's fed by the Dismal Swamp and Lake Drummond."

"Oh, it's magic water," the sheriff said.

"What's that?" Rhyme asked.

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