Kara nod
ded. "Mr. Balzac used to do some of his routines. He was an illusionist who lived a hundred years ago. He did that routine. It's called Sawing a Woman in Half. This's the same, tied down, spread-eagle. The saw. The only difference is he picked a man for the performance." She blinked at the benign word. "I mean, the murder."
Again Rhyme asked, "Would only a limited number of people know it?"
"Nope. It was a famous trick, even more famous than the Vanished Man. Anybody with the slightest knowledge of magic history'd be aware of it."
He had expected this discouraging answer but said, "Put it on the profile anyway, Thom." Then to Sachs: "Okay, tell us what happened at Calvert's."
"Looks like the vic left through his building's back entrance on his way to work--like he always did, the neighbors said. He walked past an alley and saw that." She pointed to the black toy cat in a plastic bag. "A toy cat."
Kara looked it over. "It's an automaton. Like a robot. We'd call it a feke."
"A--?"
"F-E-K-E. A prop that the audience is supposed to think is real. Like a fake knife with a disappearing blade or a coffee cup with a hidden reservoir in it."
She pushed a switch and suddenly it started to move, giving off a realistic-sounding meow. "The vic must've seen the cat and walked over to it, maybe thought it was hurt," Sachs continued. "That's how the Conjurer got him into the cul-de-sac."
"Source?" Rhyme asked Cooper.
"Sing-Lu Manufacturing in Hong Kong. I checked the website. The toy's available in hundreds of stores around the country."
Rhyme sighed. "Too common to trace" was the theme of the case, it seemed.
Sachs continued, "So Calvert walked to the cat, crouched down to check it out. The perp was hiding somewhere and--"
"The mirror," Rhyme interrupted. A glance at Kara, who was nodding. "Illusionists do a lot with mirrors. You aim them just right and you can vanish whatever or whoever's behind them completely."
Rhyme recalled the name of her store was Smoke & Mirrors.
"But something went wrong and the vic got away," Sellitto continued. "Now, this is the crazy part. We checked the nine-one-one tape. Calvert got back inside and into his apartment then called emergency. He told them the attacker was outside the building and the doors were locked. But then the line went dead. Somehow the Conjurer got inside."
"Maybe the window--Sachs, did you search the fire escape?"
"No. The window on the escape was locked from the inside."
"Still should've searched it," Rhyme said shortly.
"He didn't get in that way. There wasn't time."
"Well, then he must've had the vic's keys," the criminalist said.
"There were no latents on them," Sachs countered. "Only the vic's."
"He must have," Rhyme insisted.
"No," Kara said. "He picked the lock."
"Impossible," Rhyme said. "Or maybe he'd gotten in before and had a mold made of the key. Sachs, you should go back and check out if he had--"
"He picked the lock," the young woman said adamantly. "I guarantee it."
Rhyme shook his head. "In sixty seconds he got through two doors? He couldn't possibly."
Kara sighed. "I'm sorry, but, yeah, in sixty seconds he got through two doors. And it might've taken him less than that."
"Well, let's assume he didn't," Rhyme said dismissively. "Now--"