Now, in the car, he read the report. Ballistics had not produced any leads. Analysts at the CIA and the Bureau were combing through records of terrorist attacks around the world, looking for the presence of similar weapons. Nothing in the report referred to whether any U.S. agencies used such weapons.

Dental records had turned up nothing. The effort to trace the tattoo’s origin had yielded no information. The component agencies of the IATF were checking 347 people named Max Bridge. None appeared promising at the moment, and a group of psychiatric profilers could not agree on whether the suspect’s use of this name was significant. Maybe, they concluded. And they had not yet reached any conclusions on the meaning of HAPPY.

Dunne shook his head and continued reading.

Modest progress had been made in processing the flood of tips that had poured into the Bureau. Tens of thousands of Americans thought they knew the assassin. The unsolicited leads were being categorized and evaluated. Several men who had worked on a fishing trawler in Alaska reported that an old shipmate named Chet resembled the suspect. Three Marines thought that the assassin looked like a fellow who had attended the first weeks of basic training before dropping out. A search of the available Marine records turned up nothing. Some kids in New Hampshire swore that the suspect had once been a substitute teacher. The list was long. A part-time catcher for a minor-league baseball team in North Carolina. A right-wing survivalist in Idaho who used to be the night manager at a freight yard. My own son, claimed several parents. My ex-husband, claimed several wives. The Bureau was checking each lead as fast as possible.

The IATF had reached a preliminary finding on one point. Regarding the involvement of Brady Sandlin and Allison Meade, the obvious explanation was the most probable. The assassin had used Meade to entice Sandlin to the hotel room. It appeared unlikely that either was an active participant in the plot to kill the President.

“No shit,” Dunne said to himself.

He again nodded toward his partner of the moment. The fellow, on unofficial loan from the Metropolitan Police, was alert. A car came out of the embassy driveway. The officer shook his head. Dunne kept on reading.

The briefing report noted that later in the day Mumfries would meet with the presidential commission he had created to oversee and review the work of the IATF. The list of commission members included Senator Palmer, Secretary Alter, and CIA Director Wenner.

Another car was leaving the embassy, an aqua-green BMW convertible with diplomatic tags. The police officer placed a finger on his nose.