“So she’s an accomplice?” says Knoll. I’d already considered and dismissed this.

“I’d bet against it. At least not knowingly. She looks like she’s playing a game, having fun. It’s hard to see her ears, but maybe she has a Bluetooth and he’s giving her instructions. She probably has no idea of what’s going on. The film on the other camera domes is a ruse to give him enough time to kill her so she can’t explain her part in all this. He wants us to be chasing after phantom projectors.”

They still look unconvinced. “All he did was shine a bright light right at the camera lens to make us blink. On the security video, with the low frame rate, it looks like she vanishes. He could see her from the telescope, or be on the phone with her and know when she moved. That’s it. He could have triggered the laser from anywhere by sending the telescope feed to his phone. The point is, two girls. One is dead, while the other, the one who may have unwittingly helped him, might still be alive and in danger.”

The real question is if we can find her in time. Knoll pulls out his phone to check how the search for her is going. I step into the corner and call Ailes to see if he and Gerald have made any progress.

Ailes sounds pessimistic. “We checked the airports. Nobody has been spotted who matches that description. Five international flights already departed. We’ve sent photographs to the other end as well, asking gate personnel to ask passengers if they were at the Empire State Building. But there’s another thing we need to consider, Jessica.”

I know what he’s about to say. I realize my theory that she’s a girl from out of the country whom the Warlock is going to kill when she gets back home is only half right, if at all.

“He may have just sent a car for her and found someplace around here to kill her straight away. She could be dead by now.”

I can’t believe that just yet. My gut tells me she’s still alive, but not for much longer. I look out through the lobby windows at the lights of the city. She could be out there right now with just minutes to live.

40

A GIRL’S LIFE IS on the line. Chloe and Denise were killed before I was on the case; now two more people have already died. That’s too many. It’s got to stop. I can’t just think of myself as a bystander. This may be Knoll’s case, but it’s my responsibility. I’m supposed to be the expert. I have to see through the tricks. I have to be a step ahead of the Warlock.

I shout to one of the techs sitting at a laptop, “Pull up a map of the city!” I trace my fingers down the path from Times Square. He could have been there at the moment the angel fell and then taken Broadway to Thirty-fourth and picked her up in front of the Empire State Building. From there it’s just a few blocks east to the Queens Midtown Tunnel and off Manhattan and to any airport in the area.