Magicide Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Tell us, Mr. Meiner, if you have any idea why someone would switch the manacle on Maxwell.”
    Digbee focused hard eyes at Edmund Meiner as if to will from him the correct answer, whatever it was. Meiner would not be intimidated. Cheri wondered how he had gotten past the yellow crime scene tape, or if he’d already been here when the accident occurred. Maybe near enough to do the deed himself.
    He shrugged again. “ Cherchez les femmes,” he said.
    She remembered her college French. “Look for the women? What women?”
    “Why, the ex and the girl friend, of course.” His mouth spread a little in a half-smile.
    Digbee gave Meiner an intense if-looks-could-kill stare. “You’d know how to make the switch. Was this some kind of sick joke? Or maybe payback?”
    Meiner scoffed. “Of course not. Any amateur magician would know how to make the switch, and so would the ladies.”
    “Why the ladies?” Cheri asked, though she already knew the answer.
    “They’re both magicians.”
    “Were they here tonight?”
    “Everybody was here tonight,” Digbee said.
    “I mean, did you see them near the jump spot before the show?” She tapped another note into her palm pilot.
    Meiner and Digbee regarded each other like two strange pitbulls who had accidentally come into the same yard.
    Finally Meiner spoke. “His girlfriend—that would be Regine—came by before the show, but Maxwell wouldn’t see her. She left in a real huff. That’s one angry woman.”
    Pizzarelli said, “Regine. Big redhead? Has a show at the Royal Las Vegas?”
    Meiner’s head dipped in a grudging nod. “A dove act. Common at best.”
    Digbee said, “Does an acceptable cage vanish at the end.”
    “Regine her first name? What’s her last name?”
    Both men shook their heads.
    “Don’t know,” Meiner said. “Just Regine.”
    “And the other woman?” Pizzarelli asked.
    Cheri felt a strange tightening sensation in her chest—this case? Or feelings she’d thought were long since buried now threatening to rear zombie heads? She knew the name she would hear next.
    “Larissa Beacham-Jones, the ex-wife,” Digbee said. “Can I go now? It’s been a bad night...” His words came out in a choked sound.
    “Of course,” Cheri said. “Here’s my card. Do you have one? Likely we’ll want to talk to you again.”
    Digbee took the card she offered and reached into the back pocket of his slacks for his wallet. He placed her card in a slot and withdrew another. When he handed it to her, she read, The Rabbit & The Hat, Magic Shop . “Most afternoons, you’ll find me there,” he said.
    Meiner watched Digbee walk away and disappear among the thrill-seekers. In a quiet, hoarse voice he said, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
    Pizzarelli rubbed a hand over his chin. “Is there anyone else you can think of who might want to see Maxwell dead?”
    Meiner’s laugh contained no humor. “How about every magician in the world?”
    “Jealousy for his success?”
    The man shook his head. “Let’s just say Maxwell was not a nice man. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, you know. If you’ll excuse me, I have people waiting.”
    “Mr. Meiner, we’d like to talk to you again,” Cheri said. “Where could we call?”
    From an inside pocket of the gray windbreaker he withdrew one of Maxwell’s business cards. His frame was on the thin side and he reminded her of a gnome illustrated in one of the children’s books she used to read to Tom. “My office is at the house.” He turned away and disappeared into the surrounding crowd.
    Cheri made a few more notes. She was thinking about Larissa Beacham-Jones when she saw a forensics investigator pick something up off the ground with his gloved hand and put it in a plastic bag.
    “Let’s see what they found,” she said. Her partner followed as she walked over to where the coroner was speaking with the forensics team.
    When Ottomeyer saw them, he pointed to the bag and said, “Diamonds in