The Last Illusion (23 page)

“We’ll wait until my men get here then we’ll go over the whole place again.”

“I should take Bess home,” Dash said. “My mother will be worried about where we’ve got to. And Bess was supposed to be resting. She’s only just out of the clinic. She shouldn’t have come tonight at all.”

“I’m not leaving until they find my husband,” Bess said, her voice
rising hysterically again. “He’s got to be somewhere. He can’t just have vanished.”

Daniel put a calming hand on her shoulder. “As you say, Mrs. Houdini, he can’t just have vanished. Don’t worry, we’ll find him. Now why don’t you go home, as your brother-in-law suggested. We’ll need to talk to you in the morning.”

Bess reached out imploring hands to me. “Molly—come with me. I’m scared.”

I looked up at Daniel, not sure whether to comply with this request.

“I’ll need to question this young lady before she can go anywhere,” he said. “Go home to your family now. I’ll send a constable with you and we’ll put a guard on the house tonight. We’ll let you know as soon as we have any news.”

“I’ll come in the morning to be with you,” I said. “You’ll be quite safe.”

“I won’t.” She started to sob again. “I’ll never be safe again.”

As she was led away sobbing, Daniel looked at me and rolled his eyes for a moment.

“And I thought I was going out for a pleasant evening at the theater,” he said.

Nineteen

T
he theater was emptying out in remarkably orderly fashion. Most people, I’d imagine, were just glad to be able to escape from a scene of such horror. I wished I could escape myself. Three such shocks in one week were a little much for even the strongest of constitutions. And in this case I couldn’t shake off the feeling of guilt that kept nagging at me. I was hired to protect him, a voice kept whispering in my head. I should have been able to do something. Of course this was nonsense, since he had been unwilling to divulge his own suspicions to me, but the thought kept haunting me. Also I was now cold and shivering in my flimsy costume.

“Would it be all right if I went to change my clothes?” I asked. “I’m really cold.”

“That might be a good idea.” Daniel eyed me up and down. “But I don’t want you wandering around back there. Not until my men have had a chance to search the whole place.”

“I’d be happy to escort this lady to her dressing room if you fear for her safety,” Abdullah said.

“Thank you, but I prefer that everyone remain here right now.”

“Here, miss, put this around you.” One of the stagehands took down Houdini’s frock coat and put it around my shoulders. Suddenly, I remembered the keys in the pocket. Two keys that wouldn’t fit the trunk. I glanced down at the ground, noticed them still lying where they had been dropped, and bent to pick them up. I glanced back to see whether Daniel was looking, but he was interviewing the other illusionists. I tucked the keys into the waistband of my costume where there was a little pocket.

“Would it be all right if we went now?” I heard one of the volunteers from the audience ask as I straightened up again. “After all, we were nothing to do with the show. We only volunteered to come up here. My wife will be waiting for me. She was still in the audience.”

“I understand, sir. It’s inconvenient for all of us,” Daniel said. He looked up with relief as a voice called out, “Captain Sullivan?”

“Up here, MacAffrey!” Daniel called and a fresh-faced young policeman came up to the stage, followed by a retinue of constables.

“Take a look at this,” Daniel said, and explained what had happened. “Examine the body and tell me what you think.” He stood up to address the men who had accompanied MacAffrey. “I want this place searched. Every inch of it. I want to know where this man was killed, so look for traces of blood. He was obviously caught by surprise and finished off efficiently, so I don’t expect to find any sign of a scuffle. And you’re looking for any place that someone could hide.” He indicated two of the men. “You two. Outside the theater. Ask anyone working nearby—flower sellers, vendors, whether they saw Houdini come out. His picture is all over the posters so I’m sure they’d have recognized him. He can’t just have vanished. If he’s not here, he left the theater somehow.”

The men went about their duty and Daniel knelt beside the young detective. “Have you brought a photographer?”

“Yes, sir. Jackson has the photographic equipment.”

“Then let’s set it up and get a photograph of the body right away.”

A policeman began setting up equipment and suddenly there was a blinding flash and the air smelled of sulfur.

“So what do you think, MacAffrey?”

“Definitely killed here, I’d say, sir,” the young detective said. “And not too long ago.”

“That’s what I thought too. And a nice neat job, wouldn’t you say?”

The shirt was now fully open and they were examining the wound on the chest. Actually there was a surprisingly small amount of blood, compared to the horrors of what had happened to Lily the other night.

“A stiletto, from the size of the wound,” the younger man said. “And he knew exactly where to put it to cause instant death.”

“So we’re dealing with a professional,” Daniel muttered. “A professional assassin comes into the theater, kills a man, and substitutes his body for Houdini in a trunk that doesn’t ever leave the stage. A pretty puzzle, wouldn’t you say.” He glanced up at the other illusionists. “Any suggestions, gentlemen?”

“Don’t ask me. I’m just a carnival man. I know nothing about this kind of thing,” Abdullah said. “I’m not one of their fraternity at all.”

“He certainly is not,” Billy Robinson said disdainfully. “And I stick to cards. But I have to admire the skill involved in this. Whoever pulled it off knows his stuff.”

“So would you say we were dealing with a professional magician?” MacAffrey asked.

“Illusionist,” Robinson said. “Magicians are for children’s parties. But in answer to your question, I think you have to be dealing with a damned good illusionist.”

“Like Houdini, would you say?” Daniel asked.

“As good as Houdini, yes.”

“And there aren’t many of them around.”

Robinson nodded.

“Jackson. I want you to telephone HQ and put out a general alert. I want men at the train stations and ferry docks and the newspapers informed. I want the whole city searching for Houdini and I want him found right away.

“Now let’s get on with it,” Daniel said. “MacAffrey, I’d like you to start interviewing these people. Begin with Mr. Robinson and the sword swallower fellow. We need everyone’s movements from the moment
they entered the theater tonight and what they observed backstage. I’m going to go to the manager’s office to interview this young woman.”

I saw MacAffrey eyeing me with interest. “What exactly was her part in this?”

“That’s what I’m about to find out,” Daniel said dryly. “But it seems that she was acting as Houdini’s assistant. I noticed she was the one who brought the trunk onto the stage.” He gestured to me. “Please come with me, miss.”

I followed him. He said nothing as he stalked ahead of me. I started feeling sick, like a small child who knows it has done wrong and is about to feel the wrath of a parent. Down a dark hallway Daniel led me, and into a small office that smelled of stale cigar smoke. The moment he shut the door he grabbed me by the arms and spun me to face him. His eyes were blazing with anger. “Now, do you mind telling me what the devil is going on here? I come home early from the country because I think my poor fiancée is working hard and I’d like to surprise her with the two tickets I have managed to obtain to tonight’s show. Only she isn’t home. So I go alone and what do I find but this same future wife parading around in a costume that leaves little to the imagination and apparently taking part in a murder.”

I had been feeling guilty but suddenly I’d had enough. “Don’t be ridiculous. Taking part in a murder, indeed.” I glared at him, eye to eye. “Look, I’m sorry if you’re offended, Daniel,” I said. “I couldn’t tell you what I was doing because I was on an assignment. I can now let you know that I was supposed to be guarding Houdini.”

“You, a bodyguard? You’ve now expanded your detective services, have you? A strange choice, wouldn’t you say?”

We were inches away from each other, still glaring.

“Bess Houdini hired me because she believed someone was trying to kill her husband and she wanted me to find out who it was.”

“That’s hardly a matter for a private investigator, is it?” Daniel said coldly.

“Look, I told her that they should go to the police, but Houdini wouldn’t hear of it. In fact he kept denying that there was anything to
worry about, even after Bess was trapped in that same trunk and nearly suffocated.”

“And did the job really require you to parade around making a spectacle of yourself?” He was still glaring at me. “Do you realize what an embarrassing position this puts me in? At some stage I’ll have to admit to those men out there that the young woman showing her legs to the world is none other than my future wife.”

“Don’t be such a stuffed shirt, Daniel,” I said. “Plenty of eminent men have married chorus girls before now. Even English dukes, so you’re in good company.”

I was trying to lighten the mood with flippancy. When he didn’t smile I touched his arm. “You can also let them know that I was working undercover, as a detective,” I said. “They’ll admire my enterprise, I expect. And if it makes you feel any better, I would have been quite happy to have observed from the wings. But I was persuaded to take Bess’s part after she was almost killed. Believe me, I haven’t exactly relished the role, although I do believe I mastered the mind reading rather quickly.” I couldn’t resist a grin. “Including what was in your pocket.”

“Yes, that was quite impressive,” he agreed.

I saw his expression soften, then change. “My God, you look so alluring I could almost ravish you right here on this desk,” he said.

“As tempting as that might be, I think you’d find it hard to explain your methods of interrogation to your junior officers if we were surprised,” I said.

He laughed and let his arms slide down around my waist. “Damn it, Molly, how do you get yourself into these things?”

“The same way you do. It’s my profession.”

He sighed. “So what has the great private investigator managed to find out so far?” he asked. “Have you solved the case and can I send all my men home?”

“I have to confess I am completely at a loss,” I said. “I tried questioning Houdini but he revealed almost nothing to me, except that whatever was bothering him would be settled after tomorrow. He told me he was planning to take a trip and then he would have done his part. That’s what he said.”

“And do you have any idea what that meant?”

“No idea at all. My hunch was maybe he had run afoul of somebody—some gang maybe, and that the episode in the trunk the other night had been a warning, but I don’t see how a gang would have the expertise to pull off a trick like tonight’s. And I don’t see what that young man would have to do with it. I’ve seen gang members. They don’t dress like that.”

Daniel nodded. “After tomorrow,” he said. “Somebody knew that something was going to be settled tomorrow so they had to act swiftly. But if they wanted to stop Houdini from doing something, why kill somebody else?”

“Houdini’s missing,” I said. “It’s possible he’s also dead. Or kidnapped.”

“Or he has just committed a murder and fled the scene. That is the obvious conclusion, isn’t it? It was his act, his trunk. He was inside it and somehow switched places with a dead man. I was watching. Nobody else came onstage.”

“I know,” I said.

“And that trunk was not big enough to hold two men, was it?”

“I saw it before they put Houdini inside. It was empty. And I helped carry it onto the stage, remember?”

“Damn these illusionists,” he said. “They can make you believe anything they want to. It has to be one of their fraternity, doesn’t it? Those other men on the bill, if you’ve been guarding Houdini, what do you know about them?”

“Marvo and Robinson didn’t seem to pose any threat to me. They seemed like pleasant enough men and Marvo had gone home tonight before Harry started his act. Abdullah the sword swallower comes from Coney Island. I thought he might have been sent to settle an old score for a man called Risey.”