“But I saw your reaction when you told me that the brother had left for Atlantic City.”

I nodded. “Yes, it just struck me as being too conve nient that he had to go out of town before the police could talk to him. Maybe this is family business, Daniel. They’re a very close-knit family. Houdini worships his mother. He pampers a neurotic wife, calls her ‘babykins’ and ‘poopsie’ and other such ridiculous nicknames.”

“I gather you won’t want to be called such things when we’re married,” Daniel said.

I gave him a withering stare.

“Go on,” he said. “So what are you suggesting?”

“The brother who just did a bunk—he was Houdini’s younger brother. He’d been part of the act until Bess came along. Some resentment there at his brother’s success, maybe? He seems a nice enough fellow. They look very similar, although Dash is bigger.”

“Dash?”

“That’s his nickname. His real name is Theodore, I believe, but the family calls him Dash and he’s known professionally as Hardeen.”

Daniel gave me a knowing look. “Somewhat similar to Houdini, wouldn’t you say? Cashing in on big brother.”

“Or wanting to be like big brother.”

“And he’s another illusionist. Does the same kind of tricks,” Daniel said thoughtfully.

“And he’s close enough to his brother in appearance that nobody would look twice if he were prowling around backstage,” I went on.

“And he was in the theater last night, wasn’t he? In the stage box. It would have been easy enough to slip out and back again without Bess even noticing that he’d gone.”

“Do you think he planned this to kill or harm his brother, or do you think he planned this whole thing with his brother, to get rid of a person they found to be a nuisance?”

“I hadn’t considered that before,” I said, “but who would the dead man be? Someone who was somehow disrupting the family?”

Daniel put a hand on my shoulder, his eyes alight. “What if he was bothering Bess Houdini—an old suitor maybe? Someone Harry didn’t want hanging around her.”

I shook my head. “She didn’t recognize him immediately.”

“Maybe she didn’t look at him too closely. Women are squeamish about looking at dead bodies—apart from you, of course, who seem to possess no delicate sensibilities of your sex.”

“You’re right. I’ve never had the vapors in my life.” I laughed, then grew serious again as I considered his hypothesis. “I’d imagine Houdini could be horribly jealous. You should have seen the way he fussed over her.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. So he enlists his brother to do the deed, then somehow they manage to switch trunks, and Houdini is spirited away.” Daniel nodded in satisfaction.