The tech rolls back to the moment she vanishes and replays the video frame-by-frame. Everyone crowds in closer to look for some kind of clue, as if in slow motion the flash of light will reveal her secret.

I’m skeptical. It’s like a magician’s puff of smoke. The flash isn’t an artifact of a miracle. It’s there to hide something.

Behind us, an NYPD detective steps from the elevator and walks behind the table. “So far we’ve tracked down fourteen people who were on the observation deck when it happened. None of them recall seeing the girl.”

“What about the flash of light?” asks Knoll.

“Two of them think they may have seen a really bright camera flash, but nothing for sure.”

Interesting. Everyone was too busy staring down at the city. None of them saw the Warlock’s greatest trick.

One of our agents, a woman with short brown hair and an FBI jacket, rushes in from outside holding the glass dome from a camera. “We may have found something.”

38

THE AGENT HOLDS up the dome in her gloved hands for us to see. “We noticed a thin film over this. Like a kind of spray. It may be the same kind of material they use on glass to allow you to project images onto its surface.” She pulls out a small flashlight and aims it at the dome. A bright glow appears around the point at which the light passes through.

“She was a projected image? Like a hologram?” asks one of the techs sitting at the table.

Knoll starts giving instructions. “Check all the cameras in the building and be careful about fingerprints. Check with security and the manufacturer to see if this is standard.”

The head NYPD detective gives orders to his subordinates to assist. Agents and field techs fan out to inspect the cameras in the lobby and elevators using the flashlight test. Just a few feet away from me, an FBI agent aims his penlight on the bubble over the camera aimed at the lobby. A glow appears on the surface when he brings the light closer.

The agent holding the first dome nods her head. “Just enough for a bright light, but not enough to be noticed. We should check the cleaning closets in case he slipped the material into the custodial supplies.”

One of the IT techs sitting at the table starts digging into an equipment case. “I can set up a video projector so we can see if that works. Maybe replicate the effect.”

They’re excited to think that they may have figured out his trick.

It’s a wonderful theory.

It’s wrong.

I don’t say anything yet because I don’t know what else they should be doing. People assume magicians use far more sophisticated methods than we usually do. Most of the time the explanations are mundane, nothing like holographic projections and sophisticated lasers. Those elements might be part of a trick, window dressing, but they aren’t the method.

When put on the spot to perform as a young girl, I’d sometimes just take a strand of my own long black hair and use it to make a napkin or a dollar bill float. Against the right background, it was invisible. People thought I was using magnets or wind currents. They never guessed my own body was the gimmick.