Magic's Most Wanted

by Tyler Whitesides

  “Truck, you say?” asked Avery, clueing me in that the detail was important. Of course! The note had told Talbot to bring his truck to the rendezvous point.

  “Big silver truck,” Kathy said. “A diesel, by the sound of it.”

  “I’ll have the country fried steak,” Avery said so abruptly that it seemed like she was speaking a foreign language.

  Kathy jotted it down.

  “And I’ll have the . . . uh . . .” How had Avery even had a chance to look at the menu? They had a ton of options. “Cheeseburger and fries.”

  “It’ll be right out.” Kathy topped off Avery’s water before sauntering away.

  “Steve Talbot,” Avery whispered across the table to me. “He must’ve been the pizza delivery guy.”

  “The one from the doorbell camera?”

  Avery nodded. “The one who accidentally came to your house during your mom’s lunch break on Wednesday.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “The silver truck that was idling on the curb was loud like a diesel,” she explained. “And I could see stickers in the back window, but I couldn’t make out what they were from the doorbell camera.”

  “But he didn’t come into the house,” I said. “My mom talked to him on the porch.”

  “Still,” she said, “it’s important. We need to find out where he lives so we can snoop around.”

  “Hopefully there won’t be any lava this time,” I added.

  Kathy walked past and Avery held up her hand. “Excuse me. You wouldn’t happen to know Mr. Talbot’s address, would you?” Avery asked.

  “I don’t,” said Kathy. “But if you’re looking to talk to him, I’m sure he’ll be in tomorrow morning. Eight thirty sharp. Five days a week.”

  Avery looked back at me as Kathy moved on. “Maybe we don’t need to snoop around his house. We’ll just grab him at his morning coffee and find out what we need to know.”

  “Isn’t that going to be . . . dangerous?” I asked.

  Avery gestured around the restaurant. “It’s a public place. And we need answers.”

  “Okay,” I said. “We’ll come back here first thing in the morning. My mom could drop us off on her way to work.”

  “We can’t stay at your house tonight,” Avery said. “Now that Magix knows we’re back in Indiana, your house will be under close supervision.”

  “We could probably stay at Hamid’s house,” I suggested.

  “And if he’s working for the Mastermind?” Avery said. “They’d have us exactly where they want us.”

  “Then where are we supposed to sleep?” I cried. “On the street?”

  Avery smirked, reaching up to tap the side of her hat. “I think we’ve got the perfect boon in here for that.”

  Chapter 22

  FRIDAY, MAY 15

  8:42 A.M.

  GRAN’S KITCHEN, INDIANA

  We had slept in a tent in Colter Park downtown. It hadn’t been an ordinary, uncomfortable tent like the one my dad and I had used on a camping trip before I broke my leg. This was a boon tent. And it had been manipulated, spliced with another boon—a bit of mesh screen—to make it twice as nice.

  When it was zipped closed, the tent became invisible to everyone on the outside, while the inside turned into a luxurious room way nicer than any hotel room I’d ever seen. There had been a bathroom, a small kitchen, and two beds that were far enough apart that I’d barely been able to hear Avery snore. It was actually amazing.

  But now we paused before the entrance to Gran’s Kitchen. The diner looked even more rundown in the morning light.

  “Steve Talbot is probably going to recognize you,” Avery said to me. “But I shouldn’t be familiar to him.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked.

  “Fluffball and I will go in first with the element of surprise and secure him in the booth,” she said.

  “How exactly do you plan on pulling that off?” I asked.

  “With that, genius,” said Fluffball, using his ears to point at an item draping between Avery’s fingers. It was a long necktie, already tied in a loop to slide easily over a person’s head. The pattern was bold, with large triangles of red, yellow, and blue.

  I tried to think back to Fluffball’s list. “I’m supposed to remember what that does?” I said.

  “If the tie is put on by someone who has the knowledge of its true power, then the magic causes the wearer to be frozen in place,” Avery explained.

  “Can they talk?” I asked.

  “Originally, no,” answered Fluffball. “But the tie’s a nip. Somebody cut a little bit off the skinny end, and now the person wearing it can move their head. But only their head.” The rabbit chuckled, rubbing his paws together. “Pretty clever.”

  “Wait here,” Avery instructed me, tucking Fluffball into her hat to obey the “No pets allowed” rule.

  “So, you’re just going to leave me out here?” I said, trying not to panic. “At least give me a boon to defend myself in case the bad guys show up.”

  “Here you go,” shouted Fluffball from inside the hat. Suddenly, the magic baseball came flying up through the opening and I caught it in midair.

  “Don’t use it unless it’s an emergency,” Avery said. “You don’t want to make a scene out here. We’ll call you in as soon as it’s safe.” Then she turned and walked through the front door of the diner.

  The moment she was out of sight, I stuffed the baseball into my pocket and moved along the outside of the building. The waitress, Kathy, had told us that Talbot always took breakfast in the same booth beside the window. If I was sneaky enough, I could watch Avery net him and then join them when it was safe to come in.

  I thought I was in the right place, but sunlight was glinting off the glass, making it almost impossible to see in. I squinted, stepping into the flowerbed that bordered the diner. I tried to stay low, cupping my hands around my eyes. Then my foot caught a root and I stumbled forward, slamming my forehead against the glass.

  Inside, I saw the pizza guy, Steve Talbot, just inches away from me. His eyes grew large as he recognized me through the glass. He turned away, trying to stand up. Avery was waiting for him, looping the tie around his neck before his backside had left the bouncy booth seat.

  Avery stared through the window at me, tilting her head with a look of pure disapproval on her face. Her top hat was tilted back, and Fluffball’s face was just peeking out under the brim. He pointed both ears in my direction and laughed rudely, his buckteeth shining in the morning light.

  I peeled my face off the glass and retreated through the treacherous flowerbed. A moment later, I was inside the diner, sliding into the booth to sit beside Avery.

  Across the table, Talbot didn’t look too comfortable. His body was turned to the left, both hands braced on the edge of the table as though he were about to stand up. But his head was swiveling back and forth, finally stopping to focus on me.

  “Mason Mortimer Morrison,” he whispered.

  I just sighed. Maybe I was finally getting used to this bad-guys-say-my-entire-name thing.

  “You really think you can get away with this?” he asked quietly. “You’re Magix’s most wanted criminal. And if they don’t get you, the Mastermind will.”

  “Who is he?” I asked, leaning across the table. “Who is the Mastermind?”

  Talbot turned his face away from me, eyes closed, nose up in disdain. “You think I’ll talk?”

  “Yeah,” said Avery. “We know you will.” She held up the truth shoe. “Will you do the honors?” she asked me.

  I took the shoe and ducked under the table. Luckily, one of Talbot’s feet was hovering a few inches off the floor as if he’d been in the process of jumping up. I quickly slid off his tan shoe and put the dirty sneaker in its place.

  “That shoe is a boon that requires the wearer to speak only the truth,” Avery explained as I popped back up beside her. Now that she’d shared the knowledge with him, the sneaker would work perfectly.


  “This is a crime,” Talbot muttered. “This is against Magix code three dash two four; a boon cannot be—”

  “We know the law,” Avery said, even though I didn’t. “But like you pointed out: we’re Magix most wanted.” She shrugged. “What’s an extra crime or two?”

  “Who is the Mastermind?” I asked again.

  “Just because I have to tell the truth doesn’t mean I have to speak,” Talbot said. “I won’t answer any of your questions.” The bell on the diner’s front door chimed, catching Talbot’s attention. “Besides,” he said with a smirk, “looks like you’re out of time.”

  I peered around the edge of the booth and quickly drew back. “Magix agents,” I hissed to Avery. Just Clarkston and Nguyen this time. I risked another peek. They were glancing around Gran’s Kitchen, clearly looking for someone.

  “I’d say you’re out of time, too,” Avery said to our suspect. “When those agents find you sitting here with a paralyzation boon around your neck, you’ll be brought in for questioning. It won’t take much to realize that you’re the real criminal here.”

  She pulled off her top hat, and Fluffball jumped onto the table. Digging up to her armpit, Avery quickly retrieved two items. The first was the transportation atlas, and the second was an old newspaper.

  “What’s that supposed to be?” Talbot asked, glaring at the paper.

  “Invisibility newspaper,” said Avery. “Works like camouflage. All we have to do is open the newspaper and as long as we’re behind it, we’ll disappear.”

  “It also has a really interesting article about an old lady who knocked down a bicyclist with her purse,” said Fluffball. “She said he was going too fast—”

  “Not now, Fluffball,” I muttered.

  “It talks?” Talbot remarked.

  “What . . . I’ve been reading it when you guys make me go in the hat.” The rabbit shook his head in disappointment. “Nobody appreciates a real newspaper these days.”

  Avery grabbed the sides of the newspaper and unfolded it, holding it sideways to cover our booth. I assumed the three of us disappeared, but it was hard to tell. I could still see Talbot and Avery, but the newspaper in her hands was shimmering with a slight magical glow. From where I was seated, there was just enough gap between the newspaper and the back of our bench for me to see if the agents were coming our way.

  “We’re not worried about getting caught,” Avery said to our prisoner. “You know why?”

  “Why?” spat Talbot.

  “Because we came prepared. That atlas will transport us anywhere in the eastern United States, but you have to be touching the person that uses it. Answer our questions, and we’ll take you with us when we go. Or you can play tough and we’ll leave you here for Special Agents Nguyen and Clarkston to discover.”

  I grinned. Avery was really stepping up her game with this new tactic. She must have aced the intimidation portion of her detective training.

  “Who is the Mastermind?” I asked again.

  “I don’t know, okay?” Talbot said. “I’ve never spoken with him. I only ever communicate with the Mastermind’s right-hand man.”

  “And who would that be?”

  “I don’t know his real name,” said Talbot.

  “Ahh, this guy’s useless,” said Fluffball. “Let me bite off his fingernails.”

  Talbot’s face twisted with fear. “Everyone just calls him the Cleaner!”

  The Cleaner . . . wait a minute. My mom had spoken to a door-to-door salesman on Tuesday evening. A salesman selling cleaning solution. She’d sent him away, but he’d seemed very interested in coming inside.

  I glanced at Avery. “I think one of our doorbell camera suspects just shot to the top of the list.”

  “Where can we find this Cleaner?” asked Avery.

  “I don’t know where he lives,” answered Talbot. “Mostly, we just leave notes. I . . . I’ve only talked to him once over the phone.”

  “We’re going to need that phone number,” said Avery.

  “Okay,” said Talbot. “It’s in my wallet. You can get it out of my pocket.”

  I climbed onto the table and reached down, slipping his wallet free.

  “There’s a little slip of paper in there with a phone number on it,” Talbot said as I thumbed through. “That’s it!”

  I examined the number. It was written on the back of a Gran’s Kitchen receipt.

  “The Cleaner wrote this down for you?” I clarified. “This is his handwriting?”

  Talbot shook his head. “No. It’s mine. I jotted that down when I got his number from Janet.”

  Avery beckoned for me to hold the newspaper. It took just a second to switch seats, and then her hands were free.

  “This Janet?” she asked, setting Ms. Vanderbeek’s fake Skyline Appliance card on the table.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “What can you tell me about this note?” Avery unfolded the napkin message we’d taken from Vanderbeek’s closet.

  “The Cleaner left that for Janet and me,” he said. “We thought we were meeting him here, at Gran’s Kitchen, but when we arrived at the scheduled time, he was already gone. All he left was that note, and the bill for his meal, expecting us to pay for it.”

  “Why did you come to my house pretending to be a lost pizza guy during my mom’s lunch break on Wednesday?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know your mom was going to be home,” he answered. “I had to plant evidence in your room.”

  “The five stolen boons from the church?” I checked.

  “Yeah.”

  “But you didn’t come inside,” I said. “We watched the video. My mom was talking to you on the porch the whole time.”

  “I used a speed boon,” Talbot confessed. “It allowed me to run past your mom at high velocity, dump a bunch of boons out of my magic pizza box, and get back to the porch in the blink of an eye. And I knew the doorbell camera couldn’t record anything suspicious since I was using magic.”

  “But the camera never cut out,” I said. “There should have at least been a blip in the footage.”

  “The sandwich,” said Avery. “Your mom accidentally covered the camera with her sandwich for a second.”

  “And a second was all I needed,” said Talbot.

  “How did you know your way to Mason’s room?” Avery asked. “Was this your first time in the Morrison house?”

  Talbot shook his head. “I was involved in the first job, too.”

  “Stealing the boons from the church last month?” I asked.

  “No,” he said. “I’m talking about the very first job. We’ve had Mason Morrison under surveillance for years.”

  “Why?” I shouted, the newspaper trembling in my grasp. Avery glanced around the edge of our invisibility boon to see if my outburst had caught the agents’ attention.

  “I don’t know,” answered Talbot. “The Cleaner might have answers. And the Mastermind certainly does.”

  I sank back on my bouncy seat, feeling violated. People with magical knowledge had been spying on my family for years? Maybe my mom had reason to be paranoid.

  “What was the first job?” I asked, my voice low and threatening.

  “The Mastermind wanted your dad out of the picture,” said Talbot, “so we framed him for the bank robbery.”

  I felt so paralyzed that the necktie boon might as well have slipped around my own neck. It took a few long, heart-pounding seconds for the words to really make sense in my brain.

  “You . . . framed . . . my . . . dad?” I felt a rage bubbling up inside me. I wanted to leap across the table and put this guy in a headlock.

  “Take it easy, chief,” said Fluffball, hopping onto the table and positioning his fluffy self between Talbot and me.

  “Why?” Avery asked our suspect. “Why did the Mastermind want Mr. Morrison locked away?”

  Talbot swallowed nervously. “It was something we picked up on our surveillance of the house,” he said. “Last year, the Morrisons were getting ready
for Mason’s twelfth birthday. A week before the big day, Mr. Morrison came home, telling his wife that he had picked up a special present for the boy.”

  “What was it?” I asked. Last year’s birthday had been one of the worst, since it happened to be just one day after my dad’s arrest.

  Talbot shrugged. “He wouldn’t say. Wouldn’t even tell your mother what he’d found. He was keeping it a secret from her because he said he didn’t think your mom would want you to have the gift. The way he talked about it made us worry that he’d found a boon.”

  “Why would it matter?” asked Avery. “Igs keep boons all the time. That’s the whole point—to let the magic rub off on them.”

  “Maybe my dad is an Ed,” I whispered. The thought kept me shaking, and I turned to Talbot. “Did he have knowledge of real magic?”

  “No,” he answered. “He was an Ig just like you and your mom. But the Mastermind really didn’t want this reversal boon going into your house.”

  “Hold on, pal.” Fluffball spun to look at our suspect. “You said reversal boon?”

  “We sent in a powerful detector to examine Mr. Morrison for magical residue,” explained Talbot. “The results got the Mastermind panicked. Trace amounts of magic from a reversal boon were found on both of your dad’s hands and in his pocket.”

  “What’s the big deal about a reversal boon?” I asked.

  “They’re powerful,” said Fluffball. “And often unpredictable. They literally reverse the magical effects of any boon that is exposed to them.”

  “The Mastermind had people scour every inch of your house,” said Talbot. “But the reversal boon wasn’t there. Your dad had definitely held it, though. And it was small enough to put in his pocket. We knew he was planning on giving it to you for your birthday. The only way the Mastermind could make sure that didn’t happen was to remove your dad from your life.”

  I looked at Avery, trying to keep my voice steady against the pure anger I was feeling. “That’s all we needed,” I said. “Now we know for sure that my dad is innocent. We can use the boons from the hat to get him out of jail!”