The Last Illusion (40 page)

T
he cab set off with a clatter of hooves. We sat side by side in the semi darkness. “How did you know?” he asked me.

I turned to look at him. “I saw a photograph of your family. Leopold was quite a bit taller than you, although you have his beard and hair perfectly. What’s more, you recognized me this morning and I knew that Leopold had never seen me. Also, Harry Houdini and I were about the same height so Leopold would have been taller than me. I didn’t realize it right away, but you have a certain way of thrusting out your jaw when you speak. So when you appeared in the theater, I thought I’d take a chance that it was you and not your brother. I gave you the signals you’d drilled into me, and you understood them.”

He smiled. “Very clever, Miss Murphy—you even remembered to touch your hair when you said the words ‘will’ and ‘key,’ so that the message read ‘Wilkie at Houdini’s house.’ You were a good pupil.”

“How did you know I’d be at the theater?”

“I saw you in the stage box earlier this afternoon. I wanted to get a good look at Summer and Lily for myself. To tell you the truth, I had
suspected him all along. I wasn’t sure about her. And of course I have had to be extra cautious. They nearly killed me once. I didn’t want to give them a second chance.”

“Did they really throw you into the East River in the trunk?”

“They did,” he said. “I was stunned when the trunk dropped from the stage, so I couldn’t move as fast as I usually do. I couldn’t get the cuffs off in time. Then when I tried to get out of the trunk I suppose someone whacked me over the head, because I don’t remember any more. I came to my senses as I hit cold water and went under. The trunk was sinking fast. I knew I had to make the fastest escape of my life—and I did it. Luckily I had trained myself to hold my breath longer than any other living person and this helped me. I must have been underwater for several minutes. Long enough for my enemies to decide that they’d finished me off, anyway. I made my escape from the side panel of the trunk and came to the surface.”

He looked at me for affirmation.

“How incredible,” I said. “That was indeed your best escape ever.”

“I may try to incorporate it into my act,” he said, with that swagger returning.

“So what did you do then?”

“I made my way to my brother’s house and have stayed hidden there until I knew it was safe to venture forth. I thought it safer all around if I was presumed to be dead. Among other things, I sure didn’t want to put Bess at risk by letting her know I was alive.”

He turned to me. “I hoped I could rely on Mr. Wilkie to realize the truth from the articles I had written. But you were the angel who appeared to work on my behalf. When you showed up at Leopold’s house this morning and then at the theater, I knew you were on the right track and in great danger. I alerted the police and tried to keep an eye on you. I hadn’t banked on Smith whisking you off in a carriage. That scared the pants off me. I just prayed we weren’t too late.”

“You saved my life,” I said.

“As you did mine,” he said. “If you hadn’t arrived at the truth, I should never have been safe again.”

The cab came to a halt outside Houdini’s house. The street appeared quiet and undisturbed. The constable outside saluted to us.

“Has Mr. Wilkie arrived here or left a message?” I asked.

“No, miss. Nobody’s been here,” he said. “It’s been quiet as the grave.”

I thought that was a poor turn of phrase, considering.

We knocked and were admitted by Houdini’s mother. “Leopold!” she exclaimed. She went to hug him, then drew back as if burned. “
Du bist nicht Leopold
.” She held him at arm’s length, then she let out a stream of words out of which I could only make out, “
Mein Ehrich
.” But the way she hugged him and cried made it clear that she’d worked out who he really was.

With that he stripped off the beard. “Bess!” he yelled. “Bess, come down here. Your husband has returned from the grave.”

There was a scream from up above and Bess came flying down the stairs. We were in the midst of a touching reunion when there was a bang at the front door. We froze. Houdini’s mother went to answer it and I heard Mr. Wilkie’s calm, deep voice. In he came, and in his wake was Daniel.

Daniel pushed past him and swept me into his arms. “Thank God,” he whispered. “Thank God.” He held me close, his heart thumping against mine. Then he released me, holding me at arm’s length and frowning at me. “I’ve only heard the sketchiest account of what you might have been doing, but it’s never going to happen again, do you hear that? I utterly forbid it.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I have no aspirations to become a spy.”

“I can’t believe that you kept it from me,” he said, his eyes flashing angrily now. “You deliberately lied to me.”

“I was sworn to secrecy,” I said. “I had no choice. I’m sorry.”

“Miss Murphy has just endured a most harrowing experience,” Houdini said, and he recounted it.

Wilkie sighed. “I am sorry to have put you in such danger,” he said. “We have long suspected that one of my own men was a double agent, but I had no way to make him show his hand.”

“So you used me as bait,” I said angrily.

“I rather fear the answer to that is yes,” he said. “But it never occurred to me that he’d reach New York before me. Or that he’d realize you had discovered his true identity.”

“I did more than that,” I said. “I found out why the German agents were so eager to keep Houdini from meeting you.” I looked across at him.

“I was taken around a factory,” Houdini explained. “They were proud to show off their engineering superiority. I glimpsed a design for an underwater craft that could transport many men undetected. And then, on another occasion, when I overheard a plan to launch a surprise attack on the East Coast of the United States, I realized how dangerous this craft could be.”

Wilkie nodded. “We were half expecting something like this.”

“Why would the Germans want to attack the United States?” Daniel asked. “Do they want to wage war against us? Do they have the might to do so?”

“Not yet,” Wilkie said. “They merely mean to alarm us. They wish to expand their presence in the Americas—to establish colonies in Central and South America—and they think such surprise attacks would make a good bargaining tool with the country that dominates the Americas.”

“How foolhardy of them,” I said. “Smaller incidents have led to out-and-out wars, haven’t they?”

He nodded.

“So what will happen now?”

“We will let them know that we know. They will mumble apologies, claim that they meant no harm, that they were merely formulating possible strategies, that their agents overreacted, and the cat-and-mouse game will begin all over again.”

My head suddenly started throbbing again and weariness and pain swept over me. I clutched at Daniel. “I’m not feeling very well,” I said. “Would you please take me home?”

.   .   .

Soon we were sitting side by side in a hansom as it clip-clopped southward through the park. It was a glorious evening. Children played and couples strolled in the balmy air. The trees glowed in late sunlight. It felt as if the whole world had suddenly been put right.

Daniel slipped his arm around my shoulder. “Molly—” he began.

“I know. It can never happen again. Don’t worry. I agree with you. I have no wish to go through that again ever. Let’s pick a date and get married soon.”

“September?” he suggested. “It’s a lovely month, isn’t it? Cooler, fall colors beginning. A perfect time in Westchester.”

As he spoke I pictured it: tables on the lawn, an open carriage from the church with my veil blowing in the breeze. It did seem rather inviting. “All right,” I said. “We’ll get married from your mother’s house if it means a lot to you, only I’m inviting all my friends and I don’t want to hear any complaints from you.”

He looked at me and laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of crossing someone who has just taken on the cream of German espionage and won,” he said. “I want you to know that I’m very impressed. Mr. Wilkie said it was too bad you were a woman.”

“And what did you say?”

“I said it was absolutely perfect that you were a woman because I was madly in love with you.”

I laughed and turned my face toward him to be kissed. A long time of silence then ensued.

“So you will agree to give up this detective business, as promised?” he asked.

“I suppose I’ll have to if I’m to be a married lady,” I said, “but I’m willing to offer my superior detecting skills to my husband, should he need them.”

“I’ll remember that,” he said.

“By the way, did you analyze that bloody rag I gave you?”

“We did,” he said. “It was pig’s blood. Your instincts were quite right.”

I allowed myself a little smirk, which then broadened as I remembered something else.

“Tell me,” I began, “have any forged banknotes turned up in Boston yet?”

He looked astonished. “How the deuce did you—”

I grinned. “You can tell Mr. Wilkie that you have solved the problem of the fake money,” I said. “Or at least part of it. I suspect they are being printed in New York, below a theatrical boarding house, and are being distributed by the vanishing Signor Scarpelli, alias Alfred Rosen. Maybe other entertainers are in on it, and I suspect that we’ll discover that German agents are behind this as well.”

“Why didn’t you tell this to Mr. Wilkie when we were with him just now?”

I hesitated. In truth I was still too much in shock to be able to think straight about anything and in the heat of the moment I had forgotten the banknotes. So I permitted myself one small last lie. “I thought it might look good for my future husband’s career if he solved the case,” I said at last.

“Well I’m—” Daniel started. I put my finger on his lips.

“No bad language from now on. It won’t be good for the children.”

He laughed and swept me into his arms, hugging me fiercely.

“I love you, Molly Murphy,” he said.

“And so you should,” I replied.

Suddenly a strange expression came over his face. He sat up and reached into his pocket.

“It wasn’t the right time to give you this before,” he said. “But I can’t carry it around forever.” He drew out a small embossed leather box and opened it. In the shadows of the cab I saw the sparkle of diamonds.

Do not read until you have finished the book!
This is an order.

T
his is, of course, a work of fiction but not such an outlandish story as you might imagine. It is an established fact that John Wilkie, head of the Secret Service at the time, used entertainers to spy for him in Europe. A good case has been put forward that Houdini was indeed one of those spies and he corresponded with Wilkie through articles he wrote for magicians’ magazines. He really had worked on things like vanishing ink and shoes with hollow heels, which might have been useful for more than stage tricks.

Many countries were working to perfect the submarine at that time. Germany was gaining superiority in the building of machines of many kinds, and also eager to expand its colonies to include footholds in South and Central America. It has been suggested that they were planning surprise raids on cities on America’s East Coast. Whether one of these would have led to a war, who can surmise?

And as for Houdini and Bess, I have tried to make them as true to life as possible, as described by their biographers and in their letters. And their illusions are portrayed exactly as they have been described in newspapers of the time.