Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

the two countries. He planned to rent a fishing boat for his return trip, bringing back his purchases by way of the open sea.
    He wasn’t worried at all about American customs agents; he assured Germaine and Evelyn that he counted many of them among his close personal friends. But he just couldn’t envision what the Canadian customs officers might do.
    It was August 3 when the newlyweds ate dinner at the Winklers’ Magnolia home. They enjoyed a wonderful meal and it was a happy night. However, Raoul was concerned about the extra $2,000 Germaine Winkler had added to her check to him. He wanted to sign a check right there giving that money back to her; he needed only the $8,000. But he patted his shirt pocket and found it empty; since he didn’t have his checkbook with him, he said, he would give her a promissory note later.
    His new mother-in-law assured him that wasn’t necessary.
    Raoul confessed that he was worried about leaving Evelyn alone while he was away in Canada. They had been staying at an upscale hotel since their marriage, but he was still uneasy about leaving her. “Would it be presumptuous of me if I asked you to have her stay with you while I’m gone?” he asked Germaine and Clifford. “She isn’t feeling that well, and I wouldn’t worry if I knew she was here with you.”
    “Of course she can,” Clifford Winkler said. “We would love to have her stay with us.”
    Raoul promised his new bride that he would be back in Seattle by August 6—or August 7 at the very latest.
    She hated to have him leave, even for that long. They’d been married for only six days, and she was completely in love with him. She had begged to go with him to Canada, but he told her he wouldn’t even consider risking her life; there was the possibility of danger not only in negotiating the purchase of the rare Indian treasures, but in getting them back across the U.S. border. She was much too precious to him to risk harming even one hair on her head.
    Reluctantly, she agreed once again that it would be wiser for her to stay with her family. Soon enough, they would be on their honeymoon in their new yacht. The Ibsen was currently moored in a marina in San Francisco, Raoul explained, and they would fly there, pick it up, and be off on the greatest adventure of their lives.
    Raoul excused himself after dessert and brandy, saying he had to go to his office to work on some details for the September cruise to Portugal. He called a few hours later, though, saying it was imperative that he leave for Canada at once. “I’ve just learned that there is another bidder on the Indian artifacts,” he told Evelyn hurriedly. “They’re prepared to offer twice the agreed-upon price: $16,000! I have to get up there to complete the deal I’ve been promised.”
    “Of course, darling,” Evelyn said. “Go. I’ll be fine here with my parents.”
    Raoul reiterated his promise to his new bride that he would be back in Seattle in four days at the most.
    Evelyn waited for Raoul’s return with some concern, knowing that there might be trouble with the other buyers who had suddenly surfaced. Raoul had even hinted at “pirate types” who might waylay him when he was out at sea.
    That made her anxious, but she grew really frantic when six days passed with no word from him.
    She realized that she didn’t know any of her groom’s intimate friends, but she did know that Raoul’s attorney was Jeffrey Heiman—he had handled the divorce from Manzanita. She called Heiman, fighting to hold back tears as she told him that her husband was missing. “I don’t know anyone else to call,” she said softly. ”I’m so sorry to trouble you.”
    Heiman thought she was overreacting, and he attempted to reassure Evelyn when she told him that Raoul had been gone since Wednesday, August 3. It was now August 9. He hadn’t even called her to let her know that the deal had gone as planned and that he was okay.
    When Evelyn confided that Raoul had over $10,000 that he had changed into Canadian currency before his flight out of Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Heiman, too, wondered if he had been the victim of foul play. The next day, the lawyer made a missing persons report to the Seattle Police Department.
    “He was either on a United flight—#669—or a Trans-Canada Flight—#148—leaving Seattle on the third about 9 P.M. ,” Heiman said. “I tried to verify that he was on the passenger list on one or the other of those planes, but they didn’t have