The Ambitious Card (An Eli Marks Mystery)

by Gaspard, John

  Megan looked around to make sure that no one was within listening distance. “As it turns out,” she said quietly, “Nova confided in me that Arianna was one of the reasons she and Boone got back together again. Turns out, he’d been taking private lessons from Arianna, in order to learn how to please Nova the same way Arianna had. I mean, you know, sexually.”

  “Shut up,” I said, my mouth dropping open in an almost comic reaction to this news.

  “No, not like that,” she said as she slapped my knee. “They weren’t doing it. She was giving him actual lessons, with reading assignments and written tests and everything. Nova told me all about it. And, get this…it was Boone’s idea. He talked to Arianna, told her he really wanted things to work with Nova, and she took him on as a student, to teach him her secrets. The night she died was supposed to be their fourth lesson.”

  “Well good for Boone,” I marveled. “But now I can see why he didn’t want to tell the cops the reason he was at her apartment.”

  “You men,” Megan said, shaking her head. “You’d rather rot in jail than admit that you’re bad in bed.”

  “Hey, speaking of things we meant to tell each other,” I said, not so subtly changing the subject, “I didn’t tell you that I found the script for Nathan’s act.”

  She look puzzled. “I didn’t know it was lost.”

  “It was,” I said. “I couldn’t find it among all the stuff he left for me when he went out of town. All I could find was a sheet that said how long each bit was supposed to be. But no script. So I ended up doing Harry’s act instead. And then when I went to pack up Nathan’s gear, I found the script. It had been sitting in the bag the whole time. Although I’d swear it wasn’t there before. Weird, huh?”

  “Spooky,” Megan said, and then she added, “But these things often have a deeper meaning. So you have to ask yourself, what would have been different if you’d found the script and done Nathan’s act?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “Nothing, I guess,” I said. “Except that I would have been a lot less stressed out. And I would have blown up a lot more balloons.”

  “Really,” she said thoughtfully. “So, if you’d blown up more balloons, then you and I would have had less oxygen in the tank when we were in the cave?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I said. “A lot less. Nathan’s act calls for a ton of balloons. I probably would have drained the tank.”

  “So,” she said slowly, “if you had found Nathan’s script, you would have done Nathan’s act, and then you and I would have died in the caves from lack of oxygen.”

  “Well,” I said just as slowly, “you’re making a bit of a leap there.”

  “Not much of a leap,” she said. “These things always happen for a reason.”

  I thought about this for a long moment. I could feel her looking at me while I thought. It felt like she was smiling at me.

  “So let me see if I understand this,” I said, turning to face her. “You think some supernatural force hid Nathan’s script from me so I wouldn’t use up all the air in the tank. And this supernatural force did that so we’d have enough air to survive on when we were trapped in the cave? Is that what you’re saying?”

  Megan shrugged. “Franny says that the supernatural is much more powerful than the natural. That’s why they call it super.”

  “Franny says that, does she?” I asked, looking up at the gray sky and trying to sort out all the thoughts in my head. Megan was staring at me, her eyes sparkling with laughter that the rest of her face wasn’t willing to express yet.

  “She does,” Megan said. “She also had a few choice thoughts about my future with you.”

  “Did she?” I asked, moving closer.

  “She did,” Megan said. We were very close now.

  “What did she say?” I asked in a whisper.

  “I’ll tell you later,” she whispered back. She kissed me.

  And as she did, right on cue, it finally began to snow.

  Reader’s Discussion Guide

  Eli clearly doesn’t trust Grey from the beginning and is able to expose all of his mentalism tricks. Have you ever had a psychic experience that you couldn’t explain?

  Eli has moved back to his childhood home after his divorce. In general, does that seem like a good idea?

  Megan is just getting started as a psychic and is (clearly) having mixed results. Do you think psychics actually improve with time?

  Harry refuses to sell Pete a new trick until he masters the one he recently bought. Is that a reasonable expectation for a shop owner and have you ever been treated like that when trying to buy something?

  As the story went along, Eli suspected different people as being the killer. Did you agree with his assessments and did you ever get ahead of him?

  Eli ultimately succeeds at the birthday party by focusing on the audience members who seem interested and ignoring the birthday boy. What’s the perfect kind of entertainment for a child’s birthday party?

  Eli turns down Nova’s offer to sleep with her because of his feelings for Megan, even though they weren’t involved at the time. Was that a reasonable thing for him to do?

  Harry’s mourning of his late wife is softened every time he finds a dime on the ground. Does it matter that he doesn’t assign a mystical reason for the discoveries?

  Eli embarrasses Homicide Detective Fred Hutton by singing the song “Mediocre Fred” in the interrogation room, knowing that the recording will be passed around later. Given his relationship with Fred, was he justified in doing that?

  Megan is convinced that some supernatural force prevented Eli from doing the kid’s show as written, which helped them survive while in the cave (because otherwise he would have used up all the oxygen/helium mixture in his air tank). Do you think she’s right?

  Both Eli and Megan are at different stages of getting over a divorce. What do you think their chances are of surviving as a couple?

  About John Gaspard

  In real life, John’s not a magician, but he has directed six low-budget features that cost very little and made even less–that’s no small trick. He’s also written multiple books on the subject of low-budget filmmaking. Ironically, they’ve made more than the films.

  His blog, “Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts,” has been named “One of the 50 Best Blogs for Moviemakers” and “One of The 100 Best Blogs For Film and Theater Students.” He’s also written for TV and the stage.

  John lives in Minnesota and shares his home with his lovely wife, several dogs, a few cats, and a handful of pet allergies.

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