Jeffery Deaver - The Vanished Man

His reaction was to give a tired sigh that somehow managed to sound cynical.

But, sure enough, her question jogged something in his mind. "I remember!" he said. "I asked him who he was."

"Good question. And he said?"

"He said he was a wizard… No, not just a wizard but something specific."

Rhyme squinted as he struggled to go back to that hard place. "It reminded me of The Wizard of Oz … The Wicked Witch of the West." He frowned. Then he said, "Yeah, got it. He said he was the Wizard of the North. I'm sure that was it."

"Does that mean anything to you?" Sachs asked Kara.

"No."

"He said he could escape from anything. Except, he didn't think that he'd be able to escape from us. Well, from me. He was worried we'd stop him. That's why he came here. He said he had to stop me before tomorrow afternoon. That's when he was going to start killing again."

"Wizard of the North," Sachs said, looking over her notes. "Now -"

Rhyme sighed. "I really think that's it, Sachs. The well. Is. Dry."

Sachs clicked the tape recorder off then leaned forward and with a tissue wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I figured. What I was going to say was now I need a drink. How 'bout it?"

"Only if you or Kara pour," Rhyme said to her. "Don't let him measure it." Nodding sourly toward Thom.

"Would you like something?" Thom asked Kara.

Rhyme said, "She'll want an Irish coffee , I'll bet… Why doesn't Starbucks start selling those? "

Kara declined the liquor but put in an order for a straight Maxwell House or Folgers.

Sellitto asked about the likelihood of some food since his anticipated Cubano sandwich hadn't survived the trip back to the townhouse.

As the aide vanished into the kitchen Sachs handed Kara the notes she'd taken and asked if she'd write down anything she thought was relevant on the magician profile board. The young woman rose and went into the lab.

"That was good," Sellitto told Sachs, "that interviewing. I don't know any sergeants could've done it better."

She nodded an unsmiling acknowledgment but Rhyme could tell she was pleased at the compliment.

A few minutes later Mel Cooper walked into the doorway, his face smudged too. He held up a plastic bag. "This's all the evidence from the Mazda." The bag contained what seemed to be a four-page folio – a single folded sheet – of The New York Times . It was clear that Sachs hadn't run the scene; wet evidence should be stored in paper or fiber mesh containers, not plastic, which promotes molds that can quickly destroy it.

"That was all they found?" Rhyme asked.

"So far. They haven't been able to raise the car yet. Too dangerous."

Rhyme asked him, "Can you see the date?"

Cooper examined the soggy paper. "Two days ago."

"Then it has to be the Conjurer's," Rhyme noted. "The car was stolen before then. Why would somebody save just one sheet from a newspaper and not the whole section?" The question, as many of Rhyme's, was purely rhetorical and he didn't bother to let anyone else have a shot at it. "Because there's an article in it that was important to him. And therefore maybe important to us. Of course maybe he's a dirty old man and likes the Victoria 's Secret ads. But even that might be helpful information. Can you read anything on it?"

"Nope. And I don't want to unfold it yet. Too wet."

"Okay, get it over to the document lab. If they can't open it at least they can image the headlines with infrared."

Cooper arranged for a messenger to take the sample to the NYPD crime lab in Queens and then called the head document examiner at home to expedite the analysis. He disappeared into the lab to transfer the newspaper to a better container for transport.

Thom arrived with the drinks – and a plate of sandwiches, which Sellitto promptly assaulted.

A few minutes later Kara returned and gratefully took the coffee mug from the aide. As she started pouring sugar in, she said to Sachs, "I was writing those things we found out about him on the board? And I got an idea. So I made a phone call. I think I found his real name."

"Whose?" Rhyme asked, sipping his heavenly scotch.

"Well, the Conjurer's."

The faint ring as Kara stirred the sugar into her coffee became the only sound in the otherwise dead-silent room.

"You've got his name?" Sellitto asked. "Who is he?"

"I think it's a man named Erick Weir."

"Spelled?" Rhyme asked.

"W-E-I-R." More sugar into the coffee. Then she continued. "He was a performer, an illusionist, a few years ago. I called Mr. Balzac – nobody knows the business like he does. And I gave him the profile and told him some of the things he'd said to Lincoln tonight. He got kind of weird – not to mention mad." A glance at Sachs. "The way he was this morning. He didn't want to help at first. But finally he calmed down and told me that it sounded like Weir."

"Why?" Sachs asked.

"Well, he'd be about the same age. Early fifties. And Weir was known for dangerous routines. Sleights with razor blades and knives. He's also one of the few people who's ever done the Burning Mirror. And remember I said illusionists always specialize? It's really unusual to find one performer who's good at so many different tricks – illusion and escape and protean and sleight, even ventriloquism and mentalism? Well, Weir did all of them. And he was an expert on Houdini. Some of what he's been doing this weekend are Houdini's routines or are based on them."

"Then that thing he also said – about being the wizard. There was a magician in the 1800s, John Henry Anderson. That's what he called himself – the Wizard of the North. He was real talented. But he had bad luck with fires. His show was nearly destroyed a couple of times. David told me that Weir was badly burned in a circus fire."

"The scars," Rhyme said. "The obsession with fire."

"And maybe his voice wasn't asthma," Sachs suggested. "The fire might've damaged his lungs or vocal cords."

"When was Weir's accident?" Sellitto asked.

"Three years ago. The circus tent he was rehearsing in was destroyed and Weir's wife was killed. They'd just gotten married. Nobody else was badly hurt."

It was a good lead. "Mel!" Rhyme shouted, forgetting his concerns about imperiling his own lungs. " Mel! "

A moment later Cooper stepped into the room. "Feeling better, I hear."

"Lexis/Nexis search, VICAP, NCIC and state databases. Details on a Erick Weir. W-E-I-R. Performer, illusionist, magician. He may be our perp."

Kara added, "First name spelled E-R-I-C-K."

"You found his name? " the tech asked, impressed.

A nod toward Kara. " She found his name."

"My."

After a few minutes Cooper returned with a number of printouts. He riffled through them as he addressed the team. "Not much," he said. "It's like he kept everything about his life under wraps. Erick Albert Weir. Born Las Vegas, October 1950. Virtually no early history. Weir worked for various circuses, casinos and entertainment companies as an assistant then he went out on his own as an illusionist and quick-change artist. Married Marie Cosgrove three years ago. Just after that he was appearing in the Thomas Hasbro and The Keller Brothers circus in Cleveland. During a rehearsal a fire broke out. The tent was destroyed. He was badly burned – third degree – and his wife was killed. No mention of him after that."

"Track down Weir's family."

Sellitto said he would. Since Bedding and Saul were fully occupied the detective called some Homicide task force detectives in the Big Building and put them on the job.

"A few other things," Cooper said, flipping through the printouts. "A couple of years before the fire Weir was arrested and convicted of reckless endangerment in New Jersey. Served thirty days. A member of the audience was badly burned when something went wrong onstage. Then there were some civil lawsuits by managers for damage to theaters and injuries to employees and some suits by Weir for breach of contract. In one show the manager found out Weir was using a real gun and real bullets in an act. Weir wouldn't change the routine and so the manager fired him." More reading. Then the tech continued, "In one of the articles I found the names of two assistants who were working with him at the time of the fire. One's in Reno and one's in Las Vegas. I got their numbers from the Nevada State Police."