"What's he going to say?"

"He'll hold a press conference late this afternoon. He'll announce that Backus is apparently alive and we're out looking for him. He'll hold up the picture Terry McCaleb took of the man who called himself Shandy."

"Did they check all of that out yet?"

"Yes. There's no trace line on Shandy yet-it was probably just a name he gave Terry. But photographic analysis and comparison of the photos Terry took and photos of Backus are under way as we speak. The initial report is they're going to come in as a match. It was Backus."

"And Terry didn't recognize him."

"Well, he obviously recognized something. He took the pictures, so there was some sort of suspicion. But the guy had a beard, hat and glasses. The analyst on it said he'd also changed his nose and teeth and maybe had cheek implants. There's a lot of things he could have done, even a surgery that would have changed his voice. Look, I looked at the photos and didn't see it for sure and I worked directly with Backus for five years, much longer than Terry. Terry got moved out to L.A. to man the Behavioral Sciences outpost."

"Any idea where he got all of that done?"

"We're pretty sure we know. About six years ago the bodies of a surgeon and bis wife were found in their burned-out home in Prague. The home had a surgical suite and the doctor was the subject of an Interpol intelligence file. The wife was his nurse. He was suspected of being a face man-a surgeon who would change your face for a certain price. The theory was that someone he changed murdered him and his wife to cover the trail. All records he might have kept on the faces he changed were lost in the fire. It was ruled an arson." "What connected Backus to him?"

"Nothing for sure. But as you can imagine, everything Backus did or touched as an agent was gone over once he was revealed. His entire case history was audited as much as possible. He did a lot of consulting on cases abroad. Part of the FBI image machine. He went to places like Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, you name it."

"He went to Prague?"

She nodded.

"He went to Prague on a case. To consult. Young women disappearing and ending up in the river. Prostitutes. The doctor-the face man-was questioned in the investigation because he did the breast augmentations on three of the victims. Backus was there. He helped question the doctor."

"And he could have been told about the doctor's suspected sideline."

"Exactly. We think he knew and we think he went there to change his face."

"That wouldn't have been easy. His real face was on the front of every newspaper and magazine back then."

"Look, Bob Backus is a psychopathic killer but he is a very smart psychopath. Outside of the made-up guys in books and movies, nobody's ever been smarter at this. Not even Bundy. We have to assume that he had an escape plan all along. From day one. When I put him out that window eight years ago, you better believe he already had a plan in place. I'm talking about money, IDs, whatever he would need to reinvent himself and get away. He probably carried it with him. We assume from L.A. he made his way back east first and then split to Europe." "He burned down his condo," I said.

"Right, we give him credit for that, which puts him in Virginia three weeks after I shot him in L.A. That was a shrewd move. He torched the place and then got to Europe, where he could lie low for a while, change his face and then start again."

" Amsterdam."

She nodded.

"The first killing in Amsterdam occurred seven months after the face man burned in Prague."

I nodded. It all seemed to fit together. Then I thought of something else.

"How is the director going to announce the surprise that Backus is alive when four years ago you had Amsterdam?"

"He's got all kinds of deniability on that. First and most important, that was another director's watch. So he can lay anything he needs to off on him. That's FBI tradition. But realistically, that was another country and it wasn't an investigation we were running. And it was never absolutely confirmed. We had handwriting analysis, but that was really it and that is not in the same league as fingerprinting or DNA when it comes to confirming. So the director can simply say nothing was for sure about Backus in Amsterdam. Either way he's safe. He just has to worry about the here and the now."

"Manage the moment."

"FBI one-oh-one."

"And you people are going along with his going public?"

"No. We asked for a week. He gave us the day. The press conference is at six p.m. eastern time." "Like anything's going to happen today."

"Yeah, we know. We're fucked."

"Backus will probably go under, change his face again and not turn up for another four years."

"Probably. But the director won't get hit with any blowback on it. He'll be safe."

We were silent for a few moments thinking about that. I could understand the director's decision but it certainly helped him more than it helped the investigation.

We were on the 15 and I was pulling into the exit lane for the Blue Diamond Highway.

"What happened at the nine a.m., before the director's meeting?"

"The usual round-robin. Updates from every agent."

"And?"

"And there's not a lot that is new. A few things. We talked about you mostly. I'm counting on you, Harry."

"For what?"

"For a new lead here. Where are we going?"

"Do they know we're riding together, or are you still supposed to be watching me as in watching me."

"I think they would prefer the latter-in fact, I know they would. But that would be boring and besides, like I said, what are they going to do to me if they find out I'm riding with you, send me back to Minot? BFD, I got to like that place."

" Minot might not be a big fucking deal, but maybe they'll send you someplace else. Don't they have bureau offices in Guam and places like that?"

"Yes, but it's all relative. I heard Guam isn't that bad-a lot of terrorism angles, which is all the rage. And after eight years in Minot and Rapid City, a change like that might not be bad no matter what the investigations are about."

"What was said about me at the meeting?"

"It was mostly me, since you are my assignment. I told them I ran a check through the L.A. field office and got your pedigree. I gave them that and told them you went behind the wall last year."

"What do you mean, that I retired?"

"No, Homeland Security. You ran afoul of them, went behind the wall and came back out again. That impressed Cherie Dei. Made her more willing to let you run a little."

"I had been wondering about that."

Actually, I had been wondering why Agent Dei had not simply put the clamps on me.

"What about Terry McCaleb's notes?" I asked.

"What about them?"

"Better minds than mine must have gone to work on them. What did they come up with? What was their take on the triangle theory?"

"It is an established pattern with serials that they commit what we call 'triangle crimes.' We see it often. That is, the victim can be traced through three points of a triangle. There is their point of origin or entry-then-home or in this case the airport. Then there is what we call the point of prey-the place where killer and victim come into contact, where they crisscross. And then there is the point of disposal. With serials the three points are never the same because it is the best way for them to avoid detection. That is what Terry saw when he read mat newspaper story. He circled it because the Metro guy was going the wrong way with it. He wasn't thinking triangle, he was thinking circle."

"So is the bureau working on the triangle now?"

"Of course they are. But some things take time. Right now there is a higher emphasis on crime scene analysis. But we've got somebody in Quantico working the triangle. The FBI is effective but sometimes slow, Harry. I am sure you know this."