The janitor's closet downstairs where he'd done his quick change yielded more—a paper bag in which he'd hidden the bloody squib and bladder and what he'd been wearing when they'd collared him at Grady's: the gray suit, the white shirt he'd used to wipe up and a pair of Oxford businessman's shoes. Cooper had found substantial trace evidence on these items: additional latex and makeup, bits of magician's adhesive wax, streaks of ink similar to those they'd found earlier, thick nylon fibers and dried smears of more fake blood.

The fibers turned out to be charcoal-gray carpet. The phony blood was paint. The databases they had access to didn't give any information about either of these materials so he sent the chemical-composition analysis and photos down to the FBI, with an urgent request for sourcing.

Then an idea occurred to Rhyme. "Kara," he called, seeing the girl sitting next to Mel Cooper, rolling a quarter over her fingers as she stared at the computer image of a fiber. "Can you help us out with one thing?"

"Sure."

"Could you go over to the Cirque Fantastique and find Kadesky? Tell him about the escape and see if there's anything else he can remember about Weir. Any illusions he particularly liked, characters or disguises he kept going back to, what sort of routines he repeated most often. . . . Anything that'll give us an idea of what he might look like."

"Maybe he's got some old clippings or pictures of Weir in costume," she suggested, slinging her black-and-white purse over her shoulder.

He told her that was a good idea and then returned to the evidence chart, which still stood as testimony to his earlier observation: the more they learned, the less they knew.

THE CONJURER

Music School Crime Scene

Perp's description: Brown hair, fake beard, no distinguishing, medium build, medium height, age: fifties. Ring and little fingers of left hand fused together. Changed costume quickly to resemble old, bald janitor.

· No apparent motive.

· Victim: Svetlana Rasnikov.

· Full-time music student.

· Checking family, friends, students, coworkers for possible leads.

· No boyfriends, no known enemies. Performed at children's birthday parties.

· Circuit board with speaker attached.

· Sent to FBI lab, NYC.

· Digital recorder, probably containing perp's voice. All data destroyed.

· Voice recorder is a "gimmick." Homemade.

· Used antique iron handcuffs to restrain victim.

· Handcuffs are Darby irons. Scotland Yard. Checking with Houdini Museum in New Orleans for leads.

· Sold to Erick Weir last month. Sent to Denver P.O. box. No other leads.

· Destroyed victim's watch at exactly 8:00 A. M.

· Cotton string holding chairs. Generic. Too many sources to trace.

· Squib for gunshot effect. Destroyed.

· Too many sources to trace.

· Fuse. Generic.

· Too many sources to trace.

· Responding officers reported flash in air. No trace material recovered.

· Was from flash cotton or flash paper.

· Too many sources to trace.

· Perp's shoes: size 10 Ecco.

· Silk fibers, dyed gray, processed to a matte finish.

· From quick-change janitor's outfit.

· Unsub is possibly wearing brown wig.