Page 86 of Murder By Misdirection

Shaut held up his hands defensively. “I was willing to pay the price and I wanted to learn the effect. You had no right to keep other magicians from using an illusion.”

“I admit my interest was to protect the integrity of the illusion. I came to New York and went to visit Mister Floss, whom I found had been murdered.”

“But you haven’t told us why!” another audience member shouted.

“He was murdered because he tried to cheat the man who actually had designed the plans and explanation of my trick—Brent Williams.”

“How can you prove that?” Chu demanded from the stage. “Williams is dead!”

“I already proved it when I used the working prototype of Prism down in the workshop of Mister Shaut. The reason I went there was to find the plans. Instead I found a prototype. And even though Mister Shaut claims he did it, the workmanship had to be Williams’.”

“Merely conjecture,” Shaut pointed out, a bit flushed.

“It is also my conjecture that Floss wanted to cut out Williams and keep the money for the plans for himself. Williams, in a fury, grabbed a display rope off the counter and choked the old man to death. I know this because there was a thin space on the dusty glass counter where the rope used in the murder sat.” Max looked over at Chu. “You will see the dusty outline in the crime scene photos and you will find the murder weapon at Brent Williams’ apartment on 14th Street.”

“How do we know you didn’t plant it there?” Chu said.

“Because I didn’t have it when the police arrested me shortly after Mister Floss was killed. But let us move on, as it is here that it becomes more diabolical.”

Carson turned to a lady at the end of an aisle. “You can go to the lobby and give your name and address, if you want to leave.”

“Are you kidding?” the woman said. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“Williams needed a new middleman, because the buyer, Malcolm Shaut, would be furious if he discovered his own assistant had the plans the entire time. So, Williams approached Louie Tanner and Sam Lovell.”

“All right, all right,” Lovell responded. “It is true that Brent did ask me, but I turned ‘im right down.”

“Really?” Max replied.

“I saw it as a problem that I didn’t need. And, Max, I tol’ you that when you came by me place and dropped off those papers, your wallet, and phone.”

The smile on Max’s face was broad.

“Wait a minute,” Pro protested. “You gave me the box, but his wallet wasn’t in it. His wallet was found in the room Mike Mystique was killed.”

“I-I misspoke,” Lovell gulped, and took a step back. “I meant the things from inside ‘is wallet.”

“And that’s how you fell into my trap, Sam!” Max said. “I did drop off my wallet, but it was coated with a powder that lasts up to seventy-two hours.”

Sam Lovell looked at his hands and held them up. “Nothing there.”

In one slick move, Max pulled a small black light out of his jacket and turned it on. The move was so bold that Pro, Chu, and Carson all pulled their service weapons and pointed them at Max.

But their eyes immediately went over to Lovell’s hands, which glowed with a purplish light.

Max went on. “You saw a chance to remove a competitor and a disgruntled former lover, as well as get the plans for yourself.”

“No, I didn’t,” Sam denied.

“It all came to me when I saw Louie Tanner dead, and from the marks I knew that a left-handed man had strangled him. Not the right-handed man who killed Floss. That was when I decided to visit you and give you my belongings. I had a hunch you would leave my wallet at a crime scene, but I had no idea you would kill your ex-lover, Mike Mystique.”

“This is all bull,” Lovell said, and moved over toward Sergeant Carson. “Powder on my ‘ands or no powder, you can’t prove this.”

Max held up his hands, and slowly, with a look to Pro, he withdrew a small digital recorder from his pocket.

“You are right. I couldn’t prove it. Which is why I had to get here and put a listening device in Brent’s dressing room.”

He clicked the switch, and the recorder came to life. It was Lovell’s voice. “Look I ‘ave the plans now, so we’ll make the deal and get the money.”

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