'Bowman was working up a sermon on the Ten Commandments. He planned to wave a clay model of the tablets, and finish with a replay of Moses destroying the originals in anger over the Hebrew people's abandonment of their faith. As a finale, he'd dash the mock-ups to the ground, and admonish the congregation to repent. When they begged forgiveness, he'd hit a couple of levers and a flock of doves would rise up in a cloud of smoke. He thought it would be effective.'

'Mind-blowing,' said Ryan.

'So that's his tel-al tabloid confession? He was in the backyard playing with pigeons and smoke?' said McMahon.

'That's his story.'

'Does he do this type of thing regularly?'

'He likes spectacle.'

'And he lied when questioned because he couldn't risk his parishioners finding out they were being duped?'

'So he says. But then the Almighty tapped him on the shoulder, and he began to fear the loss of his soul.'

'Or fear a bump in federal prison.' Ryan's scorn had increased.

I finished my green beans.

'It actualy makes sense,' McMahon said. 'The other witnesses, including Claiborne, stated they saw something shoot into the sky. Knowing the reliably unreliable nature of eyewitnesses, pigeons and smoke would taly.'

'Doves,' I corrected. 'They're more papal.'

'The NTSB has pretty much ruled out the rocket theory, anyway,' McMahon went on.

'Oh?'

'For a number of reasons.'

'Give me one.'

'There's not been a single trace of a missile found anywhere within a five-mile radius of the wreckage field.'

McMahon spread mashed potatoes on a forkful of meat loaf.

'And there's no twinning.'

'What's twinning?'

'Basicaly, it involves cracking in the crystaline structure of metals such as copper, iron, or steel. Twinning requires forces greater than eight thousand meters per second.

Typicaly, that means a military explosive. Things like RDC or C4.'

'And twinning is absent?'

'So far.'

'Meaning?'

'The usual components of pipe bombs, things like gunpowder, gelignites, and low-strength dynamite, aren't powerful enough. They only reach forces of one thousand meters per second. That doesn't create enough shock to produce twinning, but it's plenty of force to cause havoc on an aircraft. So lack of twinning doesn't rule out a detonation.' He emptied the fork. 'And there's plenty of evidence of an explosion.'

At that moment Ryan's cel phone rang. He listened, and replied in clipped French. Though I understood his words, they made little sense without the benefit of the Quebec end of the conversation.

'So the NTSB isn't much further ahead than it was last week. Something blew inside the rear of the plane, but they have no idea what or why.'