“Such language, Daniel. Really your speech has deteriorated since you became betrothed to me,” I said with mock severity. “I hope you aren’t already starting to disregard my delicate sensibilities.”

“I apologize,” he said, then seemed to realize what I had said to him. “Since when did you have delicate sensibilities?”

“I may yet learn to acquire them,” I said. “I understand they are deemed a useful attribute. So which woman has annoyed you so much that you resort to swearing in a lady’s presence?”

He pulled up a chair and stretched out his long legs. “Why—the girl who was cut in half last night.”

“She didn’t seem to be in a state to offend anyone,” I said. “Don’t tell me that she survived after all.”

“I couldn’t tell you that. It’s hardly likely but this morning she’s nowhere to be found. My men tried all the hospitals and none of them seems to have admitted her or even treated her.”

“She was probably dead before she could be admitted,” I pointed out. “She’d lost so much blood and was on the verge of death when I saw her.”

“I also tried the morgue,” he snapped. “And what’s more that Scarpelli fellow himself has vanished.”

“Vanished? A good illusionist indeed.”

“Well, he did leave a note for the theater proprietor saying that he couldn’t face anyone after what he had done and needed time to be alone with his grief.”

“There you are then,” I said. “That explains it all. I remember his saying that he wanted to break the news to Lily’s parents in person. What’s the betting he’s taken her body home to them so that she can be buried in the family plot.”

“A possibility, I suppose,” he said grudgingly because obviously he hadn’t thought of it. “But now we have no idea where her home is and no chance of finding him. My personal opinion is that he’s just pulled off a nice little murder and has skipped town before we have a chance to find out whether he had a motive.”

“What motive could he have?” I asked.

“Several I can think of. She was becoming a burden to him. She was blackmailing him. Maybe he was living with her and had left a respectable wife at home somewhere. Or maybe she was in the family way and was insisting that he marry her.”

“Do you always think the worst of people and come up with dark motives?” I asked.

He smiled. “Experience has taught me to expect the worst and take nothing for granted.”

“I expect you’ll manage to track him down and find a perfectly simple explanation for all this,” I said.