The Vanished Man

out.
    She paused and looked at the evidence board once more with a cloud in her striking blue eyes then started for the door.
    “Wait,” Rhyme said.
    She turned.
    “I’d like you to stay.”
    “What?”
    “Work with us on the case. At least for today. You could go with Lon or Amelia to talk to the people at the circus. And there might be more magic evidence we uncover.”
    “Oh, no. I can’t really. It was hard for me to get away now. I can’t spend any more time.”
    Rhyme said, “We could use your help. We’ve just scratched the surface with this guy.”
    “You saw Mr. Balzac,” she said to Sachs.
    In nomine patri . . .
    “You know, Linc,” Sellitto said uneasily, “better not to have too many civilians on a case. There are regs on that.”
    “Didn’t you use a psychic one time?” Rhyme asked dryly.
    “ I didn’t fucking hire her. Somebody at HQ did.”
    “And then you had the dog tracker and—”
    “You keep saying ‘you.’ No, I don’t hire civilians. Except you. Which gets me into enough shit.”
    “Ah, you can never get into enough shit in police work, Lon.” He glanced at Kara. “Please. It’s very important.”
    The young woman hesitated. “You really think he’s going to kill someone else?”
    “Yes,” he replied, “we do.”
    The girl finally nodded. “If I’m going to get fired, at least it’ll be for a good cause.” Then she laughed. “You know, Robert-Houdin did the same thing.”
    “Who’s that?”
    “A famous French illusionist and magician. He helped out the police too, well, the French army. Sometime, I don’t know, in the 1800s, there were these Algerian extremists, the Marabouts. They were trying to get local tribes to rise up against the French and they kept saying they had magic powers. The French government sent him to Algeria to have a sort of magical duel. To show the tribes that the French had better magic—you know, more power. It worked. Robert-Houdin had tighter tricks than the Marabouts.” Then she frowned. “Though I think they almost killed him.”
    “Don’t worry,” Sachs reassured her. “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen to you.”
    Then Kara looked over the evidence chart. “You do this in all your cases? Write down all the clues and things you’ve learned?”
    “That’s right,” Sachs confirmed.
    “Here’s an idea—most magicians specialize. Like the Conjurer doing both quick-change and large-scale illusion? That’s unusual. Let’s write down his techniques. That might help narrow down the number of suspects.”
    “Yeah,” Sellitto said, “a profile. Good.”
    The young woman grimaced. “And I’ll have to find somebody to replace me at the shop. Mr. Balzac was going to be out of the store with that friend of his. . . . Oh, man, he’s not going to like this.” She looked around the room. “There a phone I can use? You know, one of those special ones?”
    “Special one?” Thom asked.
    “Yeah, in private. So there’s nobody around to hear you lie to your boss.”
    “Oh, those phones,” the aide said, putting his arm around her shoulders and directing her toward the doorway. “The one I use for that’s in the hall.”
    T HE C ONJURER

    Music School Crime Scene
    • Perp’s description: Brown hair, fake beard, no distinguishing, medium build, medium height, age: fifties. Ring and little fingers of left hand fused together. Changed costume quickly to resemble old, bald janitor.
    • No apparent motive.
    • Victim: Svetlana Rasnikov.
        • Full-time music student.
        • Checking family, friends, students, coworkers for possible leads.
            • No boyfriends, no known enemies. Performed at children’s birthday parties.
    • Circuit board with speaker attached.
        •  Sent to FBI lab, NYC.
            • Digital recorder, probably containing perp’s voice. All data destroyed.
            • Voice recorder is a “gimmick.” Homemade.
    • Used antique iron handcuffs to restrain victim.
        • Handcuffs are Darby irons. Scotland Yard. Checking with Houdini Museum in New Orleans for leads.
    • Destroyed victim’s watch at exactly 8:00 A.M.
    • Cotton string holding chairs. Generic. Too many sources to trace.
    • Squib for gunshot effect. Destroyed.
        • Too many sources to trace.
    • Fuse. Generic.
        • Too many sources to trace.
    • Responding officers reported flash in air. No trace material