- Micki and Ryan track down a box used to perform a dangerous magic trick.
- Ryan, Micki, and Jack enter the world of stage magic when they discover that a magician is using a cursed antique to perform death-defying escapes. But the trio have to separate reality from illusion if they're going to find the antique in time to stop the next murder.
- Jack reads on the newspaper that his acquaintance, the famous magician Fahteem of the Cabinet of Doom, has accidentally died recently sliced in a box. He talks to Micki and Ryan, and they find that he had bought the cursed "Cabinet of Houdin" from Lewis. The box kills one life inside the cabinet to spare the magician's life while performing the trick. They try to find the whereabouts of the box, but they learn from Fahteem's assistant Robert Simpson that his belongings have been auctioned. They discover that there will be a contest of magicians and Jack remembers his Pendulum of Doom trick to participate the show, expecting to find the box. But magicians usually hide their tricks, and the new owner of the Cabinet of Houdin does the same, and capture Micki that will be the next victim.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- In his dressing room, the magician Fahteem shares a toast with his new assistant, Collette. He secretly drugs her glass of champagne and they share a toast to the assistance she will provide him. As Collette passes out from the drugged drink, his assistant Robert Simpson knocks at the door and says they need Fahteem to go on early because another magician called in sick. Fahteem tells Robert not to interrupt him again and Robert leaves.
Collette is unconscious, and Fahteem tells her farewell. He then goes out on the club stage and performs his finale. He gets into the "Cabinet of Doom", while in his dressing room, Collette sleeps inside of a large cabinet. Meanwhile, Fahteem has said that two people have died accepting his challenge to survive the Cabinet. He has Robert put a dummy in the cabinet, then pulls a lever to drop sword blades into it.
Waking up, Collette yells for help but no one hears her.
Once the blades are pulled back up, the cabinet is opened to reveal the pierced dummy. Fahteem enters the cabinet and his assistant closes the door. Robert then pulls the lever and releases the blades. Collette is skewered while Fahteem is unharmed. Once the swords are pulled up, Fahteem emerges to applause from the audience.
Later, Fahteem is packing up the Cabinet of Death in the empty club. A figure emerges from the shadows and pulls the lever, despite Fahteem's protestations. The swords fall, piercing and killing him.
At Curious Goods, Jack is reading an article about Fahteem's death. He tells Ryan and Micki that Fahteem was one of the world's great magicians, and died in an accident three months ago. Jack explains that magicians were surprised by Fahteem's rise to prominence, and he did an illusion that was so dangerous that few magicians try it: the Cabinet of Doom. The older man explains the illusion, and how no one ever figured it out. Jack says that he used to do the Pendulum of Death, and it required impeccable timing and skill. Fahteem was killed, apparently when the armature with the blades slipped.
Jack mentions Fahteem's real name of Harvey Ringwald, and both he and Micki recognize it from the manifest. They find Ringwald listed as the purchaser of the Houdin Box. Jack explains that the box once belonged to the legendary French magician, Houdin. Houdin died trying to perfect it, and the article mentions that Robert now works for a magical supply house. Jack sends Ryan and Mick to talk to Robert, while he checks with some fellow magicians at the Temple of Magic to see what they know about Fahteem.
When the cousins meet with Robert, Robert says that he hasn't seen Fahteem's things since the accident. Ryan says that it's important they get the Box back, and Robert wonders why. Micki claims that they want it for sentimental reasons, and Robert says that Fahteem didn't have partners but flunkeys, and Fahteem never revealed his secrets to anyone. Last he heard, all of Fahteem's items were auctioned off. Robert says that he should have been the headliner and Fahteem the flunkey.
Once the cousins leave, Robert calls a man and says that someone is asking about the cabinet. He assures the man at the other end that he didn't tell anyone anything, and the man tells Robert to handle Micki and Ryan if they get in the way.
At the Temple of Magic, the staff are preparing for a televised magician's contest. Jack meets with a friend, Monte, who says the winner will get $100,000 and an invitation to the Magic Star Society. Monte tells Jack that Fahteem's equipment has already been dispersed, and only a lunatic like his assistant, Tommy, would try something so dangerous.
Micki and Ryan arrive, and Jack introduces them to Monte. Monte says that it's a closet set but invites them to come back during the next night's contest as his guests. Once Monte leaves, the cousins tell Jack that Fahteem and Robert weren't friends. A magician, Montarro, is berating his daughter Lyla that she has been nothing but a problem since her mother died. Monte comes over and tells Montarro that the auditorium is magicians only. Montarro introduces himself and says that his specialty is a death-defying act, the Coffin of Blood. It's the Cabinet of Doom, with a new paint job.
The trio return to the shop and Jack tells the cousins that whoever has the Houdin Box can be the best magician in the world. He figures they'll try to prove it in Monte's contest, and says that they're looking for something spectacular and death-defying. Micki figures that Montarro is a likely suspect, and Jack figures that they can get in with him as a magician, and the cousins as his assistants.
Jack gets his old magic props out, and later at the Temple tells Monte that he'll be performing the Pendulum of Doom. Monte refuses to let Jack endanger himself, but finally gives. After telling one magician practicing, Miranda, to get her act together, he says that Jack will have to audition like anyone else, and only the top five will qualify for the televised contest. Ryan goes to unload Jack's gear and check out the prop room.
Ran takes the gear into the prop room. He looks around and finds the Coffin of Blood., marked the property of the Great Montarro.
Miranda slips an envelope under the dressing room door of Montarro's dressing room and then leaves.
In his dressing room, Jack practices his escape while Micki times him. He's rusty, and Tommy secretly watches Jack practice. He sees Jack use a hidden key in the straitjacket to unlock the padlock on it and free himself. Micki says that it too Jack 85 seconds to escape when the rope burns in a minute, and Jack assures her it's faster upside down. Ryan comes in and tells them he found the Coffin and it belongs to Montarro. Jack figures that Montarro has his hands on some of Fahteem's equipment and goes to check on it with Montarro.
Later, Micki and Ryan are having drinks in the Temple bar. Montarro is complaining to Lyla about how someone is trying to blackmail him out of jealousy or greed, and tells Lyla to stay out of his business. He insists that it's his chance and he won't be denied.
Jack goes to the prop room to check out the Coffin.
Montarro leaves, and Ryan tells Micki that he'll tail the magician to make sure he doesn't barge in on Jack. Ryan says that Micki should keep an eye on Lyla and leaves. Micki approaches Lyla, who is crying.
Going to the stage, Montarro enters the cabinet there and closes the door behind him. Ryan, following him, opens the doors and discovers that Montarro has vanished.
Lyla thanks Micki for her friendliness, and says that her father is strict and might not let her meet with Micki afterward. She tells Micki that she really loves her father, and Micki invites her to the store. Lyla says that she's been on the road with Montarro since she was 16, and Micki asks her about the Coffin. The woman admits that she doesn't know much about it. Lyla asks why Micki is there, and Micki says that they're trying to win the $100,000 first prize.
Jack measures the Coffin and then hides inside of it when Montarro comes in. Ryan finds Montarro, and Montarro accuses Ryan of following him. He says that Ryan doesn't belong there, and Ryan asks for his autograph. As Montarro signs the piece of paper that Ryan provides, Ryan leans on the level controlling the armature and Jack sees him. As Ryan talks about Fahteem, Montarro finishes signing the autograph and tells him to leave. Jack sighs in relief as Ryan leaves the armature, and Montarro leaves behind him.
Emerging from the Coffin, Jack finds Ryan and Micki. Ryan says that he didn't know Jack was in the Coffin, Micki says that Lyla is terrified of her father and doesn't have a clue how he performs the Coffin, and Jack reports that there's no way out of the Coffin. They figure it's the Box, which explains Montarro's paranoia.
Later, a figure slips into Jack's dressing room and files through the extended part of the key in the straitjacket.
On the stage, Monte complains to Micki and Ryan that Jack hasn't shown up and the audition is in a few minutes. Ryan goes to check the gym and Micki checks Jack's dressing room. When they don't find him, they return to the stage and finds a hooded Jack in the straitjacket. Micki introduces the Pendulum of Death illusion as the assistants rig Jack up above a bed of spikes.
Micki sets the rope suspending Jack on fire. Jack frees one hand and uses the key, but the end breaks off because of the filing. Jack falls to his death on the spikes, and Ryan removes the hood to reveal that it's Tommy. Jack comes out and tells the cousins that Tommy locked him in the closet so he'd have a chance to perform. They check the key and discover it was filed through so that it would break, and realize Tommy's death was no accident. Micki figures that they're getting too close, and that Montarro was too obvious. She suggests that Miranda is the murderer, and she's been watching them closely.
The trio go to Miranda's dressing room and find her dead of hanging, an apparent suicide. Ryan removes "her" wig and they realize that it's Robert. There's no suicide note, and they suspect that Robert didn't kill himself. There's sawdust in the wig, and assistant Tony comes in, see Robert's dead body, and runs. Ryan chases him down, and Tony says that it was Robert's idea to blackmail Montarro. Jack demands answers, and says that it has something to do with the Box. Tony tells them that Robert tried to find out about the illusion from Fahteem, but Fahteem wouldn't tell him anything before his death. They figure Montarro killed Fahteem to get the Box, and Robert and Tony came there to find the Box and write their own ticket. Robert found it but never told Tony where it was, but he did send a note to Montarro to arrange terms so they would be the headliners in exchange for their silence. All Tony knows is that when Fahteem performed his illusion, someone had to be inside the box.
That night a half-hour before the contest begins, the trio figure that whoever using the box is just murdering. Jack goes to Monte to try and get him to postpone the contest, Micki goes to convince Lyla not to perform and stop the performance, while Ryan looks for Montarro figuring he's lining up another victim.
Micki finds Lyla on stage as Montarro checks the Coffin. Lyla says that she and her father are getting along pretty well, and Micki asks her not to help her father perform the Coffin so that he can't go on. She says that it's real magic, and says that Montarro has the Box. Lyla has seen it and takes Micki to see it. It's in the wine cellar, and when Micki gets in to check it, Lyla locks her inside. She boasts that she's the Great Montarro, and she made her father what he is. Lyla says that her father doesn't know what's going on with the Box, and no one is going to get in her way. She thanks Micki for "helping" her with the act, and says that Micki will be at the show in spirit before leaving.
Jack finds Monte backstage and tries to get him to postpone Montarro's act. Monte figures that it's jealousy and Jack says that Tommy was killed in place of him. Jack says that the murderer killed Robert and made it look like suicide, but Monte doesn't believe him. Ryan finds Jack and they both realize that Micki is gone, and go to talk to Lyla. Lyla claims that she hasn't seen Micki for a while and prepares to go on with her father. Ryan sees sawdust on Lyla's back and realizes it's the same as the sawdust on Robert's wig. It came from the dummy in the Coffin act, but the Montarros haven't done the act yet. Ryan remembers seeing the same sawdust in the wine cellar, and they figure Micki is there.
Monte comes out on stage and introduces Montarro, Meanwhile, Ryan and Jack find the Box in the wine cellar. Montarro enters the Coffin and Lyla pulls the armature lever. Jack manages to open the Box and Micki gets out just in time. Montarro is killed by the sword blades in the Coffin, and they return to the stage as Lyla screams in horror. Assistants get Montarro's corpse out of the Coffin and take the hysterical Lyla away.
Later at the store, Jack ties Ryan in a straitjacket and chains. Micki joins them and Ryan jokingly suggests that she could turn psycho just like Lyla. She cheerfully tightens the straitjacket, and Ryan says that he can get out. He has Micki time his escape, and Micki and Jack go to get some coffee while Ryan tries to escape without success.
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