Houdini Harry - The Floating Lady Murder

TITAN BOOKS BY DANIEL STASHOWER

THE HARRY HOUDINI MYSTERIES

The Dime Museum Murders

The Floating Lady Murder

The Houdini Specter

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES

OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

The Ectoplasmic Man

THE HARRY HOUDINI MYSTERIES: THE FLOATING LADY MURDER

Print edition ISBN: 9780857682925

E-book edition ISBN: 9780857686206

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark St, London SE1 0UP

First edition: February 2012

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Names, places and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2000, 2012 by Daniel Stashower

Visit our website: www.titanbooks.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Printed and bound in the USA.

What did you think of this book? We love to hear from our readers. Please email us at: , or write to us at the above address.

To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website: www.titanbooks.com

THE

FLOATING LADY

MURDER

1

AGAIN, THE DREAM.

A dark curtain lifted and he saw his brother, blue and lifeless, hanging upside down in the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Harry was bobbing gently in the grayish water, his hair pulsing like seaweed, his arms folded across his chest as though settled snugly into a coffin. He could see every detail. The dark mahogany and nickel-plated steel of the cabinet. The thick glass panels. The tiny clusters of air bubbles clinging to his brothers nose and lips. He could even hear the ominous strains of music rising from the orchestra pit. Asleep in the Deep.

He would take a step closer, then, as the music started, and stretch out a hand as if to touch his brothers face. A terrible urgency would grip him as he knelt beside the front panel, peering through the clouded glass. Already he could hear the voices calling from behind, pulling him away.

A moment longer. That was all he required. In another moment, surely, his brother would open his eyes and give a sly wink. The blue-tinged lips would break into a smile as a stream of air escaped. Another moment. Just one more moment...

And then the ringing of the alarm. The dream always ended this way, leaving him confused and doleful. Perhaps next time, he thought.

The old man swung his legs over the side of the bed and padded to a wash stand in the corner, trying to dispel the foggy residue of gloom. He chided himself as he made his way down the hall to bathe, and by the time he returned to his room to dress he began to feel better. Why did he let it trouble him so? He glanced at the calendar. That was it, he told himself. It seemed impossible, but another year had passed. He hoped that perhaps this year the anniversary might pass quietly. He sat down and began polishing his black wing-tips, just in case.

He had finished brushing his jacket and was considering a damp press for his collar when he heard the front door chime. He parted the curtains and peered down at the front stoop. A reporter. No mistaking it. The old man had known plenty of reporters in his time, and he recognized the type. Slouch hat, pencil behind the ear, well-thumbed note pad. In fact, it appeared to be the same man who had come out the previous year. What was his name? Matthews, was it? Yes, Matthews. Call me Jack. Hed brought another photographer with him, too.

He heard the chime again and listened for the sound of Mrs. Doggetts footsteps galumphing through from the kitchen. Mrs. Doggett kept a clean house and did not much care for this annual intrusion of cigarette-smoking newspapermen from the city. She would show Matthews and the photographer to the parlor with pursed lips and a furrowed brow. A moment later she would return with a tray of tea and Keepa cakes, clucking all the while.

The old man hurriedly fastened his collar and knotted his filetto silk tie, regarding himself in the hall mirror. He had selected his best coat, merino wool in a crows foot pattern, but now he wondered if it might be showing a bit of wear. Were the pockets sagging? Were the shoulders riding a bit high? He ran a hand through his hair and centered his Windsor knot. He knew, at his age, that time spent preening was time wasted. Might as well go downstairs in his robe and slippers. Still, he had standards to maintain. In the old days, they called him Dash.

The old man studied his reflection and wondered if there would be time to go down the hall and splash on a bit of Lendells toilet water. No, he thought, probably not. Already he could hear Mrs. Doggett coming to the foot of the stairs, calling up to him about the visitors in the parlor. He frowned over his cuffs and picked at a loose thread on his elbow. Ah, well. The show must go on.

They came every year, these reporters, on the anniversary of his brothers death. Just once he wished they might spare a question or two about his own career. Say, Mr. Hardeen, you were quite a celebrated performer yourself in those days, werent you? You had a record-breaking run at the London Palladium, isnt that right? But no, it would be the same old shibboleth: Tell us about your brother, Mr. Hardeen. Tell us about Houdini.

The old man paused with his hand on the bannister and wondered what he would tell them this year. He had long since exhausted his supply of boyhood anecdotes, though Enrich of the Air was always good for half a column or so. My brother would hang upside down from a makeshift trapeze in our yard, and he would pick up needles with his eyelashes! That one was a complete fabrication, but the reporters seemed to like it. Or maybe he could trot out that perennial favorite about the Belle Island Bridge leap in Detroit. The river had frozen over, but my brother refused to cancel the stunt. But Harry! I cried. How are you going to do an underwater escape when the river is frozen over? Thats simple, he replied, well chop a hole in the ice...

No, not this year. That one was beginning to wear a bit thin. Wasnt true, in any case. Not a word of it. Harry started putting that one about in 1906. Funny how things catch on.

The Floating Lady, perhaps. That one might be good for a column or two. Incredible story, really, if he decided to tell all of it. Certainly they would be familiar with the illusion. Was there anyone left in the world who hadnt seen the Floating Lady by now? They call it different namesAsrah, Levitation, Lighter Than Airbut the effect is always the same. A female assistant is placed under hypnosis and then made to float in mid-air. These days, of course, its thought to be a bit old hat. Decades of endless repetition on the stage has robbed the effect of its power. Theyve even started to do it on television, where everything always looks like a cheap sideshow. But it was different back then, back when the Floating Lady was a prize worth having. That one effect in a magicians repertoire could guarantee years of work on the Orpheum or the Keith circuit. It could make a mans fortune.