The Vanished Man (Lincoln Rhyme 5)

"Where did Loesser park, exactly?"

"It was under the box seat scaffolding," she said.

"Not under the expensive seats though?" Rhyme asked Kadesky.

"No," the man said.

"So it was near the main fire exit--the one most people would use in an evacuation."

"That's right."

Bell asked, "Lincoln, what're you getting at?"

"What I'm getting at is Loesser parked the ambulance so that it would do the most damage and yet still give a few people in the box seats a chance to escape. How did he know exactly where to park it?"

"I don't know," the producer responded. "He probably checked it out ahead of time and saw it was the best location--I mean, best from his point of view. Worst for us."

"He might've checked it out earlier," Rhyme mused. "But he also would be reluctant to be seen doing reconnaissance around the circus--since we had officers stationed there."

"True."

"So, isn't it possible that someone on the inside might've told him to park there?"

"Inside?" Kadesky asked, frowning. "Are you saying somebody was helping him? No, none of my people would do that."

"Rhyme," Sachs said, "what are you getting at?"

He ignored her and turned again to Kara. "I asked you to go to the tent to find Mr. Kadesky about when?"

"I guess it was about seven-fifteen."

"And you were in the box seat area?" She nodded and he continued, "Near the exit row?"

The woman looked around the room awkwardly. "I guess. Yeah, I was." She looked at Sachs. "Why's he asking me all this? What's going on?"

Rhyme answered, "I'm asking because I remembered something you told us, Kara. About people who're involved in an illusionist's act. There's the assistant--the person that we know is working with the illusionist. Then there's the volunteer from the audience. Then there's someone else: the confederate. Those're people who are actually working with the magician but seem to have nothing to do with him. They pretend to be stagehands or volunteers."

Kadesky said, "Right, lots of magicians use confederates."

Rhyme turned to Kara and said sharply, "Which is what you've been all along, haven't you?"

"What's that?" Bell asked, his drawl more pronounced in his surprise.

The young woman gasped, shaking her head.

"She's been working with Loesser from the beginning," Rhyme said to Sachs.

"No!" Kadesky said. "Her?"

Rhyme continued, "She needs money badly and Loesser paid her fifty thousand to help him."

Desperate, Kara said, "But Loesser and I never even met before today!"

"You didn't need to see him in person. Balzac was the intermediary. He was in on it too."

"Kara?" Sachs whispered. "No. I don't believe it. She wouldn't do that!"