Death out of Thin Air Read Online Free Page B

the Inspector said. “I saw you get out of a steel coffin once that was locked on the outside with sixteen different kinds of locks — God knows how! I don’t.”
    He followed Diavolo into the dressing room and watched every move as the magician finished donning his deep-red evening clothes and scarlet mask, the costume which had given him the name of The Scarlet Wizard.
    â€œMaybe, under some conditions, you could even get out of the Tombs.” Church added, “But not under the conditions you’ll get this trip! I’ll have a dozen guards on duty watching you every minute under bright lights. I’ll sleep with you myself, if necessary. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”
    Diavolo smiled beneath his mask. “I don’t smoke a pipe,” he said. “But you’ve given me a brilliant idea, Inspector. I was wondering how to dress up the old jail-escape stunt so it would really hit the headlines. We’ll do it the way you’ve just suggested.” Don Diavolo plucked a lighted pipe from midair under the astonished Inspector’s nose. He handed it to Church and added, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it!” 3
    Don Diavolo turned on his heel and went out. Inspector Church followed, thinking to himself, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he killed her just for the publicity!” He glared at the pipe he held rather as if it were a bomb with a lighted fuse.
    Woody Haines ambled down the corridor with them to the elevators. “See you later, boys,” he said. “I’ve got to make an edition with this yarn.” He grinned and waved a big, amiable hand.
    Church yelled after his retreating back. “If you put anything in it about bats, it’ll be the last inside story you ever get out of me! That’s no fooling!”
    On stage, Diavolo swung into his smoothly routined parade of deceptions. He closed as usual with the production, from beneath a great Spanish cape, of The Stack of Giant Fishbowls.
    He went forward to take his bow at the footlights and the curtains closed behind him. Inspector Church, watching from the wings said, “Damn!” and dashed out after him. But Diavolo backed through between the curtains just then, still bowing.
    Church said, “I wish you wouldn’t do that. Makes me nervous. I like to keep you where I can see you.”
    Pat, coming forward put in: “The new finish on The Sucker Dove Vanish is a wow, Don. Did you like it, Inspector?”
    Church growled peevishly. “I don’t like that word ‘vanish.’”
    Pat smiled mysteriously and, as the Inspector turned, winked once at the magician and nodded her head. Then, together the three of them returned to the dressing room.
    Pat went on down the corridor toward her own. Church and the scarlet-costumed Diavolo went in to where an unhappy-looking Chan was sitting, surrounded by detectives who were laying down a rapid-fire barrage of questions.
    The Scarlet Wizard preceded the Inspector into the small ten-foot cubicle that was the inner dressing room.
    Suddenly he whirled, and slammed the door in the Inspector’s face. They all heard the lock click over. Chan, watching them, grinned again, inscrutably.
    The Manhattan Theater Building is built of solid steel and concrete according to the latest fireproof construction methods. Don Diavolo’s dressing room was, just as he had said, entirely without doors, windows or concealed exits. Near the ceiling there was a small air-conditioning vent hardly large enough for an underfed kitten to squeeze through. That was all.
    The door was made of fire resisting metal. It also proved supremely able to resist the frantic efforts of Inspector Church and the whole Homicide Squad.
    Not a sound came through the door from inside in answer to their demands. Ten minutes later, when they had gloomily abandoned unsuccessful efforts to smash the door and were beginning to talk about blow-torches and