lucky.” Anton squared his shoulders and straightened as if ready for the firing squad. “Nora Uberti. She’s a Solitaire girl from downtown. Her parents are back in Italy. She has to support herself. I love her. So I stole your rifle.”
“When?” Thalia dearly wanted to shake Anton, but she didn’t permit herself to move. “Why? What did she tell you she wanted it for?”
“Miss Nora is a stage magician too,” Anton said. “She wants her own act. Von Faber promised her he would help but he lied, of course. Nora needed her own rifle to do the Bullet Catch for her audition.”
Thalia frowned. If the syndicate enforced a noncompete clause against Thalia, or any other stage magician in the five boroughs, there was no chance they would let Nora Uberti perform. Clearly Anton hadn’t cared about a noncompete clause. He might not even know it existed. “When did she get the rifle?”
“I gave it to her a month ago,” Anton said. “It was for her birthday.”
“We will make this right,” Madame Ostrova stated. “No matter what it takes. You tell me, Trader girl. How do we make this right?”
“Do the police know about this?” Thalia asked. Anton shook his head. “Have you told anyone any of this?”
“The police haven’t asked me anything.” Anton’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to talk to them.”
Thalia suspected that the only reason the police hadn’t come after Anton was because they had fixed on Nutall as the murderer. “You went backstage at the Imperial the night before Von Faber’s last performance. Tell me about it.”
“Yes.” Anton glanced at Madame Ostrova, who nodded encouragement. “I was there. It was after the performance. Nora was cleaning the gear and putting it in order for the next show. I helped her. No one else ever did.”
Thalia kept her voice casual. “Who else was there?”
“Von Faber, of course. He was in his dressing room with fat old Mrs. Von Faber. I heard them arguing. Mr. Nutall was there when I arrived, but he was on his way out the door.”
“What were the Von Fabers arguing about?”
Anton shrugged. “Mrs. Von Faber had finally found out about Miss Nora being married to Von Faber. She was mad. Then Mr. Cadwallader arrived, so Von Faber told his wife to go back to their hotel. He said he had to talk to Mr. Cadwallader. To remind him who was the boss, he said.”
“What did Von Faber know about Mr. Cadwallader?”
Anton shrugged again. “If I knew, maybe I could persuade Mr. Cadwallader to offer Miss Nora a contract of her own.”
“So do you think Von Faber was blackmailing Mr. Cadwallader?” Thalia asked.
Anton said, “Miss Nora believed he was. I don’t know anything firsthand. But from what I heard, it sounded that way.”
“What made Nora think Von Faber would let her use the Bullet Catch if no one else was allowed to?”
Anton said, “Nora told me Von Faber had promised her she could have her own act.”
Had Von Faber really told her such a thing? It was possible the girl was making it up, but the possibility that Von Faber had lied to her was well in character. Thalia wondered how much more provocation he had given Nora Uberti to kill him. “Go on. What happened then?”
“Von Faber kissed Mrs. Von Faber until she calmed down and did what he said. He was good at the love talk. Then his wife did as she was told. Mr. Cadwallader came into Von Faber’s dressing room and shut the door. I couldn’t hear them after that.”
“What then?” Thalia prompted.
“Then Nora was angry.”
“Why? What happened to set her off?” asked Thalia.
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the love talk. It wasn’t very nice to hear. I have never seen Nora so upset. We argued, because I wanted to walk her home, and she didn’t want me with her. Finally she made me leave.”
“What did she do then?”
“I don’t know.” Anton wouldn’t meet Thalia’s eyes.
“Come on.”
“She called me names and made me leave. I don’t know what she did after that. I don’t care. She made me so angry. I walked all the way home from the theater.”
Thalia glanced in surprise at Madame Ostrova, who was giving Anton another of her sternest looks. “That was not safe at such an hour.”
“I didn’t care.” Anton’s eyes were red. “I almost hoped for trouble. I wanted to punch somebody.”
“What then?” asked Thalia.
“Then nothing.” Anton shook his head as if to clear it. “Then, the very next performance, Von Faber