"The hotel card key was from one of three hotels—one of them was the Lanham Arms—Detective Bell thought it sounded familiar and checked his logbook. It turned out that he had coffee with Charles Grady in the lobby bar to talk about the security detail for his family a week ago. Roland told me that the Lanham was right next door to Grady's apartment. Then the press pass? I called the reporter you stole it from. He was covering the Andrew Constable trial and had interviewed Charles Grady several times. . . . We found some brass shavings and assumed the worst, that they were from a bomb timer. But they might've just come from a key or a tool."

Sachs took up the narrative. "Then The New York Times page we found in your car in the river? It had an article about the circus, yes. But there was also an article about Constable's trial."

A nod toward the evidence board.

MILITIA MURDER PLOT TRIAL OPENS MONDAY

Rhyme continued, "The restaurant check too. You should've thrown that out."

"What check?" Weir asked, frowning.

"Also in your jacket. From two Saturdays ago."

"But that weekend I was—" He stopped speaking abruptly.

"Out of town, you were going to say?" Sachs asked. "Yeah, we know. The check was from a restaurant in Bedford Junction."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"A trooper in Canton Falls investigating the Patriot Assembly group called on my phone, asking for Roland," Rhyme said. "I recognized the area code from the caller-ID—it was the same as the number of the restaurant on the check."

Weir's eyes grew still and Rhyme continued, "Bedford Junction turns out to be the town next to Canton Falls, which's where Constable lives."

"Who's this Constable you keep talking about?" he asked quickly. But Rhyme could see telltale signs of recognition in his face.

Sellitto took over. "Was Barnes one of the people you had lunch with? Jeddy Barnes?"

"I don't know who you mean."

"You know the Patriot Assembly though?"

"Just what I've read about in the paper."

"We don't believe you," Sellitto said.

"Believe what you like," Weir snapped. Rhyme could see the fierce anger in the eyes, the anger that Dobyns had predicted. After a pause he asked, "How'd you find out my real name?"