The way I see it, since Annie’s strip was cancelled, Tracy has adopted her as a second “Daddy”. He just gave her an expanded origin story and, perhaps most importantly, helped keep her trademark active. And perhaps laid the groundwork for Annie’s next visit which hopefully will include some more time for girl stuff with Honeymoon like fighting criminals and international terrorists and stuff.
Fata’s disappearing trick is an audacious one and only works if no one takes a really hard look at “Baxter” and his background. Bosco’s attack makes it sure that Tracy WILL take a good hard look at Baxter.
Fata could have tried to brazen it out, gambling that Tracy would still be fooled, but she didn’t want to take that chance. And given that Tracy seemed to have some suspicions already, doing a cut ‘n’ run was probably Fata’s best option
This is the moment where, in the old “Ellery Queen” TV series, Ellery would blink and say, “That’s it!” And then he’d turn to the camera and address the audience: “I’ve figured out how the murder was done, and who did it! And if you’ve been paying attention, you have too!”
I have to admit that I wasn’t paying as much attention as some of the other commenters, who made the epee connection long before I did, but whether I anticipate the detective or not, this moment of detective satori is a traditional part of classic whodunnits, and this one is amusingly done.
Blowtop must be taking Anger Management therapy. He conducted that conversation without a single “Gosh! Woo!” For him, that’s fairly restrained.