“A lot, as it happens,” he said. “And I understand that you are also somehow intimately involved.”

“I was hired to assist Mr. and Mrs. Houdini with a problem, yes.”

“Can you share the nature of that problem with me?”

“If you can share the reason for your involvement with me,” I said.

He smiled again. He had a charming, avuncular smile and I found that I was bristling slightly less than before.

“Quite right, Miss Murphy. Actually I have set up this little assignation so that we can pool our knowledge. You see, I came to New York to meet with him, only to find that he had vanished.”

“You were the one he was planning to meet with?”

“He told you about it?”

“He said that something would be sorted out the next day and then he’d be off the hook.”

“Ah,” Wilkie said.

“So why would Houdini need to sort something out with you?”

“He was working for me, Miss Murphy,” Mr. Wilkie said in his soft, calm voice. “Don’t look so surprised. The Secret Service has found it most useful to employ entertainers, particularly magicians, as spies. They can move freely in foreign countries. They are invited to places like royal courts that normal foreigners never enter. They have perfect opportunities to overhear and to observe when those in power are at ease and speaking freely. And Houdini was one of the best.”

“Really?” I paused as my brain processed the implications of this. “So you do think that the incident at the theater last night had something to do with you?”

“I’m sure of it,” he said. “The man who was killed. He worked for me. I had placed him to keep an eye on Houdini because we had word that German agents were after him.” He leaned closer to me again. “Houdini had discovered something important, Miss Murphy. Something so vital that he couldn’t communicate in the normal manner.”

“Which was?”

“I wish I knew. There could be no direct communication between us, ever. He wrote articles for various magicians’ magazines, seemingly harmless reports on illusionists and performances, but with coded messages in them. Or he placed information in classified advertisements.”

“And you think he had discovered something important?”

“I’m sure of it. The future of our country may even be at stake.”

“Holy Mother of God!” I exclaimed. “You really mean that?”