by Jane Tesh
“Tell me the truth,” I said. “Were you going to play fair? Did you really put the cabinet key in the box?”
“Yes! I knew no one could figure out the sequence. I knew our collection was safe.”
“That’s one reason you and Taft argued, isn’t it? He didn’t want you to risk the collection.”
Lucas wearily rubbed his face. For a moment, I didn’t think he was going to answer. “Yes.”
“Did Taft know how to open the box? Would he have taken the key?”
“He knew the trick, but he wouldn’t have taken the key out. He might have been angry with me, but we don’t go back on our word. I made a legitimate bet with all the members of WOW.” He turned the box in all directions, as if hoping somehow the key would fall out. “Where could it be? What’s going on?”
“I think we can assume someone else figured out how to open the box.”
“Then why not come to me and say, ‘I’ve won the bet’?”
“Maybe since Taft died they wanted to wait a while.”
“Jolly Bob wouldn’t wait. Neither would WizBoy. They’d both be too proud of themselves. Where did you find the box? You didn’t say.”
“Someone had taken it for a joke. We tracked it down.”
Lucas smoothed the lid of the box. “I don’t suppose it matters as long as I have it back. And I am grateful to have it back, don’t get me wrong. I only wish I knew what happened to the key.”
So did I.
***
On our way home, I got a call from Kary.
“David, if you want to see me in Omar’s magic act, you can come to the rehearsal right now.”
“Okay, where are you?”
“We’re at Robertson Elementary School. The principal said we could practice in their auditorium if we did a show for the students later this month.”
“We’re on our way.”
***
Kary’s costume was fantastic. She did have on tights, and the costume was a bit dance hall girl on top, but since Omar’s act involved scarves, the short skirt was made of multicolored bits of filmy material that was really quite pretty. She waved, and Omar motioned us in.
“Come sit down front. I like having an audience.”
The school auditorium had recently been remodeled, so the chairs had comfortable seats, and the stage had new curtains. Camden and I sat down next to the janitor, the cleaning ladies, and several interested-looking teachers who must have been working late and needed a break.
Kary introduced the Ring Master and handed him his first set of rings. He made them leap about, hook together and unhook, and ended with them all in a chain. Then he shook them free, and as each one bounced, Kary caught it gracefully on her arm and set them back on the table. Then she handed him a smaller set. He continued with his act, but I watched Kary. She stood in one pose while he did another trick and did a little dancing move when he needed a distraction. I could tell she was having the time of her life.
Camden leaned over. “She’s doing really well.”
“Think she’ll run away with the circus?”
When Omar finished with the rings, Kary handed him three scarves which he turned into six scarves and then more and more until the stage was littered with them. Kary then brought him a top hat. He showed us the hat was empty. She helped him scoop all the scarves into the hat. He tapped the hat three times, and she reached in and pulled out a kitten. We applauded.
Omar bowed. “Thank you very much. I am Omar the Ring Master, and this is my lovely assistant, Kary.” Kary took a bow. “Thank you for coming to our show.”
There were compliments all around from the teachers, janitor, and cleaning crew.
“Great job,” I told Kary.
She was still cuddling the kitten. “Thanks. That was only part of the act. We have a longer set for the Magic Club.”
“It’s a little early, but Camden and I would like to take you out for a victory dinner.”
“Okay, let me change clothes and help Omar pack everything. And I have some information for you.”
“You don’t have to change clothes.”
She gave a little twirl. “Oh, I think so.”
***
We took Kary to the Elms, a nice restaurant near the shopping center, and ordered their special of the day, which was fried shrimp and salad. While we waited for our order, Kary brought in her laptop and set it on the table.
“Omar knew quite a lot about Fancy, including her webpage address.” Fancy’s web page was elaborately decorated with stars and sparkles. “Fancy is her actual given name, and she’s been a professional magician for ten years. Here are some reviews of her act and links to some of her performances on YouTube. That’s where I found this.”
A few more clicks and we were treated to the sight of a younger Fancy and a tall redhead performing together on what appeared to be a stage in a high school auditorium. The quality of the film wasn’t the best, but I could tell the redhead was Rahnee, even though the clip was titled “Fancy Henderson and Rhonda Nevis, Tellareed High School Talent Show.” She made some cards disappear, and Fancy did her trademark juggling act, only the younger Fancy used traditional clubs instead of knives.
“Looks like they worked together for a while.” Kary let the clip run to the end and then took us to another page. “Here they are when they were a little older.”
The young women shimmered in golden spotlights. Rahnee’s hair glowed red while Fancy had opted for a shiny pink shade, and they both wore form-fitting black velvet suit jackets and black tights. I’d seen acts where the magician and his assistant magically change places, but the women put their own spin on the illusion by standing in two tubes that filled with swirls of metallic confetti. When the confetti settled, Rahnee was in Fancy’s tube, and Fancy was in Rahnee’s. Even viewed on the computer screen, it was a dazzling effect.
“Omar said Rahnee also went by RhoAnn, so I tried that name and this came up,” Kary said. Here was a glamour shot of a younger Rahnee captioned “RhoAnn.” “She modeled for a while and then took up magic again. The rest of the sites show her act, and the latest one is for the Magic Club.”
“That corresponds with what I know,” I said. “She and Fancy may have had a little rivalry, but nothing so serious that they’d attack each other.”
The Magic Club website featured a picture of the club’s grand opening. Fancy and Rahnee stood on stage together with another group of magicians, all smiles.
Kary pointed to Lucas and Taft Finch. “There are the Finch brothers. They all look so happy, don’t they?”
“Well, we managed to cheer up Lucas a little. We found the box. You’ll never guess who had it. Dirk Kirk.”
“How in the world did he get it?”
The waitress brought our food, and after she’d gone I explained what had happened.
Kary closed her laptop and set it beside her. “But didn’t Lucas look everywhere in the club?”
“I’m thinking the box wasn’t there until Monday.”
“Someone took it, hid it, then brought it back to the club on Monday? Why?”
“I don’t know. But it was there, and when Dirk saw it, he decided the club owed it to him. Despite the fact he always dropping things, he has sticky fingers. Ellin said things were missing from the studio. From the way the Kirks reacted, I think he’s stolen things before.”
“Does this mean the Kirks will go away?”
“We can only hope. Good work, by the way.”
“You see? There are ways to find facts.”
“And you’ve already got a gig at the school.”
“Omar says he does a lot of school performances. He’d like for more kids to take an interest in magic.”
Especially if they see you standing there, I wanted to say.
Camden put another pack of sweetener in his tea.
“How did he do that trick with the kitten?”
“I am sworn to secrecy.” She chose a fat shrimp from the platter, and after eating it in two bites, set the tail on her plate. “Okay, here’s what Omar told me when I asked him about the big WOW/WAM controversy. As you’d guessed, he was just starting out and got a chance to perform at Ali’s Cavern. He’d worked hard and paid a lot of money for a special illusion called the Dancing Fire. He kept an eye on Jolly Bob because he knew Jolly Bob had a reputation for stealing other magician’s tricks and passing them off as his own, only Jolly Bob would change things a little so it wasn’t exactly the same trick. When he caught Jolly Bob taking a younger magician’s trick, he told everyone at the Cavern. In retaliation, Jolly Bob told everyone how the Dancing Fire was done. Things were getting really heated between the two groups of magicians until Taft stepped in and gave Omar enough money to buy a new illusion.”
“I knew it had to be something like that,” I said.
Camden slid a shrimp through a pool of ketchup. “So a WOW magician crossed the picket line to aid someone from WAM.”
“Which brought peace to the land, except for Jolly Bob, who was banned from Ali’s Cavern.”
I unwrapped the crackers that came with my salad. “And the Magic Club. Rahnee doesn’t want him there. When I first talked to Omar about Taft, he said, ‘I owe him a lot.’ Now we know he wasn’t talking about Taft giving him handy tips about magic tricks. Taft saved Omar’s career.”
“That’s what it looks like.” Kary wiped her fingers on her napkin. “Omar did say something else about Jolly Bob that might be interesting. Jolly Bob is a fanatical collector of magic memorabilia. Omar said he covets the Finches’ collection. He’s tried to buy it from them several times. Omar said one night before all the trouble started, a group of magicians had a party and Jolly Bob got a little drunk and told him the only way to have real magic was to possess things that had belonged to the famous magicians of the past.”
“Like Houdini.”
“Especially Houdini.”
“So Jolly Bob feels if he could get his hands on the Finches’ magic treasures, he’d be the greatest magician of them all?”
“That’s what it sounds like.”
“Would he be desperate enough to kill for those treasures? I’m not sure.”
Camden signaled the waitress for more tea. “Why wasn’t Omar in on the Finches’ Find the Box contest?”
“He and his wife were celebrating their anniversary out of town when all that happened. He said he didn’t have an interest in the box, anyway. He’s not a member of WOW. He said as long as Jolly Bob is part of the group, he doesn’t want to join, and I don’t blame him. Jolly Bob sounds like a big loser.”
He is, I thought, but sometimes big losers have big grudges.
***
Omar had given Kary a smaller set of rings and some scarves. Back in the island at home, I stood in for the magician as she practiced her assistant moves. Camden sat on the sofa, drinking more Coke. Cindy hopped up next to him and curled up in his lap.
“You’re good,” I said. “Thinking of moving up in the magic world?”
She caught the next ring and slid it gracefully up her arm. “You never know. Try the scarves next.”
“Does he pull them out one by one, or all in a string?”
“One by one.”
I put the scarves in my pocket and pretended to make them magically appear. Cindy was immediately interested in the bits of shiny cloth. Her eyes moved back and forth as Kary presented each scarf.
She handed me the scarves. “Thanks. You remember you said getting a look at Baby Love’s financial records might be tricky? Well, what if Omar and I do a magic show at their next meeting, and while he’s dazzling them with his tricks and doing all sorts of misdirections with kittens, I could sneak around the house and maybe get into the owner’s computer.”
She was facing me, and behind her back Camden’s eyes went wide at her suggestion and at what I might do. I’m sure he heard my first thought, which was Have you gone completely crazy? but I didn’t say this out loud. “Aren’t you a vital part of the act? Wouldn’t you need to be there during the show?”
“For the first part, yes, but at parties Omar likes to do little sleight of hand tricks, like WizBoy did that night at the club. I’d ask to use the bathroom and take a quick look around. It’s the perfect cover.”
I grasped for any possible straw. “Is it likely the folks at Baby Love would want a magic show?”
“That part might need work. And I’ll need to convince Omar. But at least I have a plan.”
“You’d have to know the owner’s password,” Camden said in a vain attempt to dissuade her.
She gave a little wave. “There could be all kinds of evidence lying around. Checkbooks, receipts, photographs. It’s worth a shot.”
It’s not worth you getting shot, I thought, and I know Camden picked up on that one. “Don’t rush into this, okay? Make sure you know everything you can about the owner, the house, the rest of the guests.”
“I will be amazingly careful.”
She went upstairs, no doubt planning how to get her hands on some explosives. Camden and I looked at each other.
“Let it go,” he said.
“I’m going to have to.”
***
I made several more phone calls to pawnshops and jewelry stores searching for Sandy’s bracelet. Fred grumped about not being able to go to the grocery store until Camden showed him the cabinets full of food. He continued to fuss until Camden made him a sandwich. Rufus and Angie didn’t come in. I wondered if Rufus had convinced his sweetie to elope, or if her demands for a soiree had been the deal breaker and the hay in the barn had gone up in flames.
Around nine o’clock, I saw Ellin’s car drive up, and in a few minutes, Camden greeted her at the door.
“I thought you might like to hear the latest on the Dirk Kirk incident,” she said. “It’s not all good news.”
As I may have mentioned before, my office is perfectly positioned for eavesdropping, and if I lean over a little, I can see most of the island.
Ellin shooed Cindy off the sofa before she sat down. “Dirk had all the missing items from the studio in the trunk of his car. Phil Kirk apologized again. He said they thought this problem was over, and if Dirk had something to occupy his time, like helping Sheila run the PSN, he wouldn’t feel compelled to take things.”
“What happens now?”
“Sheila wanted to stay, but Phil didn’t think that was a good idea. He can’t babysit Dirk. Well, let me put it this way. He won’t babysit Dirk. But someone has to, or their son will end up in jail. Neither Phil nor Sheila could handle that sort of social embarrassment. Phil said he would continue to donate to the show, but he asked if I would please not say anything about Dirk’s kleptomania.”
“Which gave you the ideal leverage to kick Sheila out.”
“No! Would you believe she had the gall to suggest she could be a special guest star? Now what I am going to do? Can one of these magicians you’re dealing with make her disappear? Does Randall know how to dispose of a body?” I was surprised to hear Ellin’s voice catch. “I’m never going to get rid of her.”
“Well, it sounds like you need another guest star,” Camden said. “Maybe somebody who’s the real thing.”
The silence that followed was so long, I figured Ellin had fallen over from shock. Then she said, “Do you mean it?”
“If you can wait till my voice improves, I’ll come read a few people.”
Another long pause. Another slightly uneven reply. “That would be great, thank you.”
The sounds that followed meant a lot of thank you was going on.
I had to admire Ellin’s sheer stubbornness. Her family was well-to-do, and her father could’ve bought the PSN, but Ellin had refused his help. S
he had something to prove, not only to her parents, but to her two older sisters, who had teased her all her life. Being in charge of the PSN gave her that edge, and Camden agreeing to be on the show was a huge concession—and, come to think of it, possibly part of his master plan.
“Ellie, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“Hold that thought, baby. I need to make some phone calls and get things going. I’m so excited! You’ll love it, I promise, and maybe even consider being a regular.”
She hurried past my office door, phone already to her ear. “Bonnie, you will never believe what happened.”
She was out the front door and down the porch steps before I got to the island. Camden gave me a wry grin, and I held up my thumb and forefinger, inches apart.
“Close. So close.”
***
Much later that night, Camden and I decided to watch the Creature Feature on Channel 61. I was tired from my lack of success and from grubbing around through the trash, and I fell asleep as Gamera, the giant space turtle, careened into space.
I dreamed a moving van backed up to the house, and movers started bringing in baby beds and cribs and strollers. Then they brought in a large trunk. One mover handed me a key. “It’s all yours, pal,” he said. When I unlocked the trunk, it was full of babies, laughing and gurgling. And Lindsey was there in her white lace dress, her long brown curls tied with white ribbons. She picked up one of the babies and held it out to me.
“It’s okay, Daddy. You can have one.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want another baby. I want you.”
I shook myself awake. I took a deep breath and looked around. It was midnight. I was in the blue armchair in the island, and Camden was asleep on the green sofa. The only light came from the TV as Gamera swam off into the sunset.
A trunk full of babies. Good lord.
Then Camden sat up, alert. “Someone’s outside.”
“What?”
“Someone’s at the back door.”
“Didn’t you lock it?”
