Of course, there was always Frank Chiarillo, the guy who owned the Crystal Palace, a casino about half a mile away. He’d been trying to poach them for years.
The current act that headlined at his casino combined comedy with magic and food. Tony Tortellini and his Impastable Magic. Corniest name ever. I’d never seen it in person, but I’d watched a few clips on YouTube. He did things like toss pizza dough so high it vanished, put meatballs into a chef’s hat and turn them into doves, and make an enormous wheel of parmesan disappear.
His big finish was rolling his assistant through a giant pasta machine.
It was all very tongue-in-cheek and supposedly pretty funny, but again, I hadn’t seen it in person. I knew from experience that Tony was jealous of my parents’ success. Anytime they were at a function together, he made that very clear. I suppose that was to be expected from the number two guy.
An usher came to check our tickets and take us to our seats. “Right this way, folks.”
We followed him to the front and started to make our way to our seats.
“Princess! Sinclair!”
I looked at the older, blue-haired woman in the seat next to our empty ones and smiled. “Hi, Birdie.” She’d dyed her hair blue a while back and had been keeping it that way ever since. “What a nice surprise. What are you doing here?”
“Birdie!” Jayne put her jacket on her seat and gave Birdie a big hug. “What are you doing here? And why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“Well…” Birdie looked at the man beside her. “You both remember Jack Van Zant?”
I did. He was a raven-shifter and a witch’s familiar, although I guess werewolf-familiar was a better description because he only had eyes for Birdie. His salt-and-pepper hair gave him a very distinguished look that was slightly at odds with his stocky build. “Good to see you, Jack.”
He nodded back. “You too, Sinclair.”
Birdie’s grin was bright. “We just wanted to check out the wedding chapels.”
Jayne gasped. “Are you getting married? Did you get married?”
“No, no. If and when that happens, we’ll do it in Nocturne Falls. But the chapel there is doing really well. Because of that, we came out here to do some research on expanding and to see what kinds of things the chapels out here might offer that we don’t yet.” She was still smiling pretty big, though. “Strictly research. Combined with a little vacation to see the new finale.”
Jayne put her fists on her hips. “It had better be. Because if you get married and I’m not invited, you’re in big trouble.”
The house lights flickered. “We’d better sit. Show’s about to start.” Even so, I leaned in. “Why don’t you come to dinner with us and my parents after the show?”
Jack looked at Birdie. “What do you say, sweetheart? Sounds good to me.”
“Me, too.” She glanced at me. “We’d love to. Thank you for the invite.”
Jayne squeezed my arm as she whispered softly, “Thank you. That was kind of you.”
I shrugged. “Birdie’s family.” I meant it too. After all she’d done helping us plan our wedding, we were indebted to her for life.
I wondered if my parents had orchestrated her and Jack being in the audience tonight, knowing that we’d be here as well. I’d have to ask them later.
The house lights dimmed, and seductive but slightly eerie music started up along with fog and atmospheric lighting. The show had begun.
Ninety minutes flew by, and as the end of the show approached, I found myself getting nervous for the big new trick.
Jayne must have been feeling the same thing because she suddenly grabbed my hand hard. Her gaze was glued to my dad on stage.
He was alone under the spotlight and slightly off to the left. “Ladies and gentlemen, if there’s one thing the dead understand, it’s cold storage.”
He gestured dramatically toward the center of the stage. A new spotlight flared to life, illuminating an enormous, crystal-clear block of ice.
I sucked in a breath.
My mother was frozen inside, suspended like a rag doll. Only her hands stuck out from the ice on either side. She wiggled her fingers, the best she could do for a wave.
The audience gasped appropriately, and a hum rose up as all around us, people murmured in speculation of what was going to happen next.
I wasn’t sure myself. Jayne’s grip on my hand increased.
My father walked up to the block of ice, easily four feet taller than he was. He knocked on the side of it, the thunk of his knuckles reverberating through the theater. Then he walked all the way around it, knocking on the other three sides. “Solid as a rock.” He grinned. “Good thing she loves me.”
My mom made a thumbs-up with her right hand. Then a thumbs-down with her left.
The audience laughed, but the sound had an edge of nervousness to it.
My dad, ever the showman, paused just long enough to increase the tension. “All right, I guess I should get her out of there.”
He snapped his fingers, and an enormous black silk floated down from the ceiling to cover the block of ice almost all the way to the floor. Beneath the silk, my mom’s hands moved enough to show she was still in there.
At this point, I knew my parents’ magic well enough to know my mom was probably no longer in that block of ice. Somehow.
My dad, who’d gone just offstage during that distraction, returned with a menacing chromed sledgehammer over his shoulder.
The noise from the crowd increased again.
He stopped a few feet from the ice. “What? How do you get your wife out of a block of ice?”
He twirled the sledgehammer a few times to show just how weighty it was. He held it out to someone in the front row so they could confirm it was real, which they did. Then he squared up to the block and took a couple of slow practice swings like a baseball player preparing to knock one out of the park.
“On three,” he announced. “One…”
The audience counted with him.
“Two.”
My mom’s hands were still moving under the silk. Pretty sure that was just another of my dad’s illusions.
“Three.”
He struck the block squarely, and the ice beneath the silk exploded into a million tiny pieces. At the same time, the silk got yanked back up into the ceiling so the audience could see that nothing remained but shards of ice.
My mother was gone.
My father turned, his gaze on the very back of the theater, the cool, calm look on his face telling me that my mom was about to appear there any second.
Like everyone else in the audience, I turned to find her.
A spotlight illuminated the closed double doors we’d come through an hour and a half ago. Any second, she’d open them and walk through.
I glanced at my dad. He didn’t look quite as cool and calm. Then he looked offstage. Had something gone wrong?
I turned my attention back to the doors again.
My father’s voice rang out. “Fooled you.”
Everyone looked at him in time to see my mother step out from the rear of the stage, just beyond the melting ice shrapnel. She gave a little wave, then went back behind the curtain.
A roar of applause went up from the crowd, and a second later, the curtain fell. I stared at the stage, trying to work out what I’d just seen.
Jayne let go of my hand to clap. She glanced over at me. “Why aren’t you applauding?”
I shook my head, the sinking feeling in my gut almost making me sick. “Because that wasn’t really my mother on stage. That was another one of my father’s illusions.”
Chapter Twelve
Jayne
“What are you talking about?”
He shook his head again, looking about as worried as I’d ever seen him look. “We have to get backstage now.”
“Sin, you’re freaking me out.”
“Babe, I’m already freaked out. Come on, we need to move. I have to know what went wrong.”
Nothing had seemed wrong to me. Maybe a little delayed, but I trusted that Sin knew his parents’ act well enough to know if something had gone amiss. I grabbed Birdie’s hand. “Come with us. Backstage. Both of you.”
She didn’t argue, just told Jack to follow her, and he did. Sin went straight up to security, flashed an ID card I’d never seen before, had a few words with the guard, and we were escorted through.
Sin got on his phone immediately. After a moment, he spoke. “Dad, we’re on our way to your dressing room.”
He looked at me. “No answer, voice mail.”
“Are you sure something’s wrong?”
“Yes. For one thing, there was a delay, and the look on my dad’s face said that was not supposed to happen. For another, when my mother appeared on stage, she was in black dance flats. She wears those for practicing. For dress rehearsals and stage performances, she wears heels.”
I hadn’t noticed the change in footwear. It wouldn’t have meant anything to me even if I had. I wanted him to explain it in plain detail. “So what does that mean that she was in the wrong shoes? Couldn’t she have changed?”
“Sure, but why would she? That would have impacted their timing. What I think it means is that when she didn’t come through the theater doors at the back of the house, my father covered by conjuring up the last image of her that he remembered. The only one that would make sense. Her waving to him on stage at their last practice. His magic is strong enough that no one would realize they were seeing an illusion and not mom in the flesh.”
Birdie had been listening intently. She hustled a little closer. “Why didn’t she come through the doors?”
“I have no idea, and that’s what’s bothering me,” Sin said. His brow was furrowed, and something that looked very much like dread darkened his eyes.
“Maybe the timing was just off. That could happen, right?”
“It could,” Sin said. “With anyone besides my parents. They’re perfectionists.”
We reached the dressing room. Sin pounded on the door. “Dad, it’s me.” The door came open. “Dad?”
We peeked in. There was no one inside. Sin walked through the door for a better look around.
A moment later, Anson came rushing in, cell phone in his hand and a terrified expression on his face. “I was just about to call you.”
The poor man looked like he was about to break down.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Lila never reappeared.”
Sin nodded. “I know. She was supposed to come through the doors, wasn’t she?”
“Yes.” Anson swallowed. “Everything else went as planned. I don’t know why she didn’t come through the doors. I don’t know where she is.”
“Anson?” Birdie stepped forward with great concern evident in her clasped hands and soft eyes.
Sin’s dad looked at her but said nothing.
“I know this is a magic trick and magicians never reveal their secrets, but maybe if you told us step-by-step how things were supposed to go, we could figure out where it went wrong.”
He nodded, still quiet. “It’s not really a trick, because it’s real old-school magic. Some of it is my illusions, but mostly it’s Lila’s ability to withstand things no human ever could. And a lot of well-timed movements.” He reached out for the chair at the dressing table behind him and sat.
A knock on the door had him up on his feet again.
Sin put his hand out. “I’ll get it.” He opened the door just a crack. “I’m sorry. Mr. Crowe isn’t seeing any visitors right now.”
“Son, do you know who I am? I’m Frank Chiarillo. The Frank Chiarillo. Move aside now. I’m here to talk to Anson.”
Sin didn’t budge. “I’m not your son. I’m Anson Crowe’s. And I don’t care if you’re Harry Houdini come back to life; my father isn’t seeing anyone. Neither is he interested in whatever pitch you’re about to make for why the Crystal Palace is a better place for his and my mother’s show.”
On the other side of the door, Frank sputtered. “I didn’t mean any disrespect. I just wanted to offer my congratulations on the new trick. Quite the unexpected ending.”
“Great. I’ll let him know.” Sin shut the door without waiting for a response. “That guy is unbelievable.”
Anson scowled. “Tony’s show must be losing sales. Frank’s been after us hard lately.” He shifted his gaze to the floor. “None of that matters. Nothing does. Nothing but finding your mother.”
“Go through the trick,” Birdie said. She took a seat on the couch opposite him. “Take us through each step so we can figure this out.”
“Okay.” Anson cleared his throat. “While I spin time out talking to the audience, Lila gets into the block of ice. There’s actually a small opening in the top that she squeezes through. We do the reveal and there she is on stage, looking like she’s frozen solid.”
“So the ice is real?” Birdie asked.
“Yes. Takes two days in a specially built freezer to make those blocks. We have three in process at any given time just in case one cracks or doesn’t freeze clear.”
“All right, what’s next?”
“I knock on the ice, prove it’s real. Then I get the sledgehammer, let the audience see that it’s also real, then I shatter the block. Just before that happens, Lila escapes the ice via an invisible opening at the back of the block and goes through a panel in the floor just behind the ice. The door is set on a spring hinge so the moment she steps on it, she goes through. It’s kind of a slide.”
“Clever,” Birdie said.
Anson continued. “The slide shoots her down into the lowest level of the theater. There’s a big foam cushion she lands on to keep her safe. From there, she accesses a small door that leads into a secret passage that goes under the theater and comes up into another small booth that opens into the theater lobby. Once she’s through, there’s a peephole so that she can make sure there’s no one blocking the door and no one out there that might see her exit.”
I seized that idea. “Maybe that’s what happened? Someone was out there? Maybe she’s still in the booth waiting.” But even as the words came out of my mouth, I knew that wasn’t what had happened.
Anson shook his head. “No. If she’s delayed for any reason, she flips a switch inside the booth that illuminates a tiny red light on the left side of the theater. If I see that, I know to stall until the light goes off and the coast is clear. The light never came on.”
“You guys have thought of everything,” Birdie said.
I nodded. It sure seemed that way. “We need to retrace her steps.”
Anson took a breath. “I already went below to check out the lower level. The cushion still had some shards of ice on it, so the trapdoor definitely opened.”
The lines of concern on Sin’s face deepened. “We need to check the whole thing.”
Anson shook his head. “There’s no way she’s in that secret tunnel. I’d know it if she was. Your mother and I have a very deep connection. We’re soul mates. Always have been.”
“But Dad, there might be a clue in there as to what happened to her.”
“You’re right. I wasn’t thinking straight,” Anson said. “But that passage is narrow. I wouldn’t fit through it.”
I raised my hand. “Would I? Because I’m totally willing.”
He nodded. “Yes. Thank you.” He got up. “Follow me.”
He led us through the backstage area, then to a far corner and a set of steps. Down those and we came to the basement of the theater. He turned on a light. It looked exactly like a basement, too. Bare bulbs, unfinished concrete, steel beams, and drywall. There were a few things stored there, boxes, mostly, along with some old props and stage decorations, but it looked decades old.
He took us a little deeper in, and we came to the cushion he’d talked about. The trapdoor and short slide were clearly visible. Around the cushion were a few wet spots on the concrete. Ice that had melted, no doubt.
Birdie too
k a few steps, crouched down, and picked something up. She turned it over in her fingers. “Looks like a black sequin.”
“Lila’s costume was covered in them. Sequins, bugle beads, and Swarovski crystals. She has three of them in constant rotation because each one needs to be repaired before the next show. Sometimes she has to change before the show is over. They’re delicate because of all the embellishment.”
“Then she was definitely here.”
Anson nodded. “Now we just need to know where she went.” He looked at me, then pointed to a squat door across from the landing spot. It looked more like a cabinet than a door, really. “The tunnel under the theater is through there. I’ll be in the lobby, waiting on you to come through. But are you sure you want to do this? Considering your title and all?”
I nodded. “The only title that matters to me right now is daughter-in-law.”
Chapter Thirteen
Sinclair
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about Jayne following my mom’s footsteps. After all, her path hadn’t led her back to my father like it was supposed to. But I was also nervous that Jayne would find something bad.
I had no idea what that something bad might be. Part of me didn’t want to know. And part of me was desperate to find out.
Jayne’s willingness to help somehow made me love her more. I hadn’t thought that possible, considering how much I already loved her, but there it was.
She went through the little door, giving me a wink and a smile before she disappeared into the darkness, the last bit of light sparking off her glittering top.
I knew the wink was to reassure me, and it did. Even so, I left the door open just in case she needed to retreat quickly.
Thankfully, Jayne had her own serious magic, skills my mother didn’t have. Sure, my mom was a zombie, but the ability to eat brains wasn’t really a defensive weapon. Not in the way that being able to freeze someone in a solid block of ice was, which Jayne could do without blinking an eye.
My dad headed for the steps. “I’m going to wait for her. I’ll be in the lobby.”
“Okay.” He looked miserable, which I understood, as I was feeling the same way myself, but I could tell my father was blaming himself for whatever had happened. But there was no way he’d done something to cause my mom’s disappearance.
Lost in Las Vegas Page 7
