08 The Magician's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page A

staff.
    â€œWe suspect that Drake Lonestar had something to do with the box’s disappearance,” Officer Fernandez told me. “Did you see anything onstage that might have indicated he was up to no good?”
    â€œUp to no good?” I repeated. “No.”
    â€œYou didn’t see him disappear during the trick or stash something or . . .” She fumbled for the right question before settling on a direct approach. “In your opinion, is there any chance he slipped away during the trick, snuck into the courthouse, and stole the box?”
    I considered the question. Lonestar had told menot to think too much about how the trick worked, so I intentionally hadn’t concentrated on details. As far as I could remember, he was onstage the whole time. He did disappear at the end, but only for a second, and then he disappeared again with his assistants. Would that have been enough time to get into the courthouse and take a box? I didn’t think so, but in this world of magic, nothing seemed certain.
    â€œNo,” I admitted, then asked Officer Fernandez a question of my own. “Have you talked to Mr. Lonestar?”
    â€œWe would if we could find him,” she said. “It seems that the magician has disappeared.”
    â€œNo one has seen him since the show?” I asked, glancing over at Bess with Lonestar’s staff. They were all laughing at something Bess had said.
    â€œNo,” the officer reported. “When he vanished from the stage that last time, he never reappeared. We have a team of officers searching River Heights. They’ll track him down.”
    â€œCan you excuse me for a moment?” I asked. I hurried over to Lonestar’s assistants.
    â€œHi,” I said, noticing that they weren’t much older than me.
    Bess introduced us. “This is Ayela.” She indicated the one on her right. “And Ariana.” The other one smiled. “They’re twins. And their aunt is fashion designer Gritty Grand.”
    â€œAh.” If Hugo was dating Gritty, it stood to reason that he would hire her nieces as Lonestar’s helpers. I shook hands with each of them, then asked, “So, where is Mr. Lonestar?”
    They didn’t know.
    â€œBut you performed the last trick with him,” I said. “You vanished together from the stage.”
    â€œOh, we can’t reveal how it’s done,” Ayela said.
    â€œWe’d be fired,” Ariana added.
    â€œI don’t need to know how it’s done,” I said, though I was curious. “I just wondered where Lonestar went afterward.”
    â€œThe police already asked them,” Hugo told me. “They don’t know.”
    He moved toward me in a way that almostseemed threatening. I stepped back to give myself some space from the burly bodyguard and looked to Ayela and Ariana. “Where did you reappear?”
    Ayela and Hugo exchanged glances before she replied, “In the dressing-room tent.”
    â€œBut Drake wasn’t with us,” Ariana said. “I guess you could say he dropped us off.” She smiled.
    â€œYou don’t know where he went?” I asked.
    â€œNo,” they said at the same time.
    â€œWho can ever guess what that man is up to? Drake Lonestar’s got kangaroos loose in the top paddock,” Ayela said with a giggle.
    I decided to give the girls a rest. I wouldn’t get anywhere by badgering them with the same question over and over.
    The facts were clear:
    â€¢Â Drake Lonestar was missing.
    â€¢Â A box that had been in evidence storage was missing.
    â€¢Â More than a million dollars’ worth of gems were missing.
    I was standing in the middle of a major mystery with a lot of unanswered questions. Still, one question loomed over the entire scene, bigger than the rest: What did any of this have to do with my dad’s client, John Smallwood?

CHAPTER FIVE

No Coincidence
    A HALF HOUR LATER THE same