The Vanished Man

head. “I can’t think of anything thatmight lead you to a particular store or other place. But I do have some general thoughts.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “Well, the fact he used the changing rope and finger cups tells me he’s familiar with sleight of hand. That means he’ll be good at picking pockets, hiding guns or knives or things like that. Getting people’s keys and IDs. He also knows quick change and it’s obvious what kind of problem that’ll be for you. But more important—the Vanished Man routine, the fuses and squibs, the disappearing ink, the black silk, the flash cotton means he’s a classically trained illusionist.”
    She explained the difference between a sleight-of-hand artist and a true illusionist, whose acts involved people and large objects.
    “Why’s that important for us?”
    Kara nodded. “Because illusion is more than just physical technique. Illusionists study audience psychology and create whole routines to trick them—not just their eyes but their minds too. Their point isn’t making you laugh because a quarter disappears; it’s to make you believe in your heart that everything you see and believe is one way when in fact it’s the opposite. There’s one thing you’ll have to keep in mind. Never forget it.”
    “What?” Rhyme asked.
    “Misdirection. . . . Mr. Balzac says it’s the heart and soul of illusion. You’ve heard the expression that the hand is quicker than the eye? Well, no, it’s not. The eye is always quicker. So illusionists trick the eye into not noticing what the hand is doing.”
    “Like, you mean, diversion, distraction?” Sellitto asked.
    “That’s part of it. Misdirection is pointing the audience’s attention where you want it and away from where you don’t want it. There’re lots of rules he’s been drumming into me—like, the audience doesn’t notice the familiar but’re drawn to novelty. They don’t notice a series of similar things but focus on the one that’s different. They ignore objects or people that stand still but they’re drawn to movement. You want to make something invisible? Repeat it four or five times and pretty soon the audience is bored and their attention wanders. They can be staring right at your hands and not see what you’re doing. That’s when you zing.
    “Okay, now there’re two kinds of misdirection he’ll be using: first, physical misdirection. Watch.” Kara stepped near Sachs and stared at her own right hand as she lifted it very slowly and pointed to the wall, squinting. Then she dropped her hand. “See, you looked at my arm and where I pointed. Perfectly natural reaction. So you probably didn’t notice that my left hand’s got Amelia’s gun.”
    Sachs gave a faint jump as she glanced down and saw that, sure enough, Kara’s fingers had lifted the Glock partway out of the holster.
    “Careful there,” Sachs said, reholstering the pistol.
    “Now, look in that corner.” Pointing with her right hand again. This time, though, Rhyme and the others in the room naturally looked at Kara’s left hand.
    “Caught my left hand, didn’t you?” She laughed. “But you didn’t notice my foot, pushing that white thing behind the table.”
    “A bedpan,” Rhyme said acerbically, irritated that he’d been tricked again but feeling he’d scored a pointor two by mentioning the indelicate nature of the object she’d moved.
    “Really?” she asked, unfazed. “Well, it’s not just a bedpan; it’s also a misdirection. Because when you were looking at it just now, I got this with my other hand. Oh, here,” she said. “Is this important?” She handed a canister of Mace back to Sachs.
    The policewoman frowned, looked down at her utility belt to see if anything else was missing and replaced the cylinder.
    “So, that’s physical misdirection. That’s pretty easy. The second kind of misdirection is psychological. This is harder. Audiences aren’t stupid. They know you’re going to try to trick them. I mean, that’s why they’ve come to the show in the first place, right? So we try to reduce or eliminate the audience’s suspicion. The most important thing in psychological misdirection is to act naturally. You behave and say things that’re consistent with what the audience expects. But underneath the surface you’re getting away with . . .” Her voice faded as she realized how close she’d come to using the word that described the death of the young student that morning.
    Kara continued, “As