Deadly Magic (12 page)

Wednesday
, December 7th

CHAPTER
TEN

“
Ah, the land
of forgotten toys.” Kyle picked up a dusty baby doll. “So, this is where they all come to die.” He pulled the string attached to the doll’s back which let out a plaintive, “I love you.”

Grace suppress
ed a yawn. She had spent most of the night before tossing and turning. All she could think about were Straker’s letters and Lily’s supposed suicide note. She finally fell into a restless sleep somewhere around four-thirty only to be awoken by the sound of the telephone ringing an hour later. It was just as well. Lily’s death had seeped into her dreams. She could still see Dream Lily hanging over her bed, pointing an accusing finger at her. “I know you’re trying to steal my husband.” In her dream, Grace turned away only to find Straker lying next to her. “This isn’t my first time at a rodeo.” Grace shuddered. What a horrible nightmare.

“
Play with me,” the doll said, as its string retracted once again.

With Kyle’s help
, she climbed onto the top of an old sturdy desk. “It is kind of depressing, isn’t it?”

He let go of her
hand and reached for the doll again. He pulled its string. Its childlike voice abruptly slowed and deepened as the string retracted. “We’ll be best friends forever and ever,” it said in a suddenly creepy, deep mechanical voice. Kyle quickly tossed the doll to the side. “Why, exactly, did you bring me to Mephistopheles’ toy chest?”

She smil
ed down at him. “We used to sell a mystery board game in the 50’s called
All the Murderers
.” She shoved aside a box marked
Toy Cars
. “We didn’t sell it for long. The Parental Committee on Un-American Activities protested. They objected to the rampant violence in the game. Just because a few characters were drawn and quartered. It must be tame by today’s standards.” Grace handed a box down to Kyle, suppressing a sneeze, as a cloud of dust passed by her nose. “Maybe we could revamp it a bit.”

Kyle look
ed around at the rows of furniture and boxes. The expanse of the attic seemed to encompass the entire top floor. “This is going to take forever.”

Grace shov
ed aside another box. “No it won’t. There’s actually a system up here. It’s like geology. The deeper you go, the further you travel into the past.” She pointed to the far end of the attic. “That would be the 1910s. That life-sized harlequin standing next to the elevator—”

“
If it moves, you’re on your own,” he said, staring at the puppet intently.

“
That’s the 20s. That huge model of a bomber . . . that should be the 30s.” Grace looked around at all the baby dolls lying on the desks, hanging from the rafters, and poking out of boxes. “If I’m right, we should be in the 50s. That’s when our doll line took off. We just need to find a box labeled board games or discontinued or murderers.” She hopped off the desk and climbed onto another. Carefully making her way through the dolls, cowboys, trains, cars and model rocket ships, she climbed over an old filing cabinet. “I think I see—”

“
Shh.”

She look
ed back down. Kyle was staring at the far corner of the attic. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head.
“I thought I heard something.”

Grace look
ed down at his feet. “Mice?”

He shrugg
ed. “I wouldn’t be surprised. This place is creepy. I think I’d rather—Hey, a Red Ranger Razor Rocket Launcher!” He carefully climbed over a couple of old desk chairs and a broken chandelier. Standing on his toes, he reached over his head. His fingers were just a few feet from the toy, perched on a mountain of boxes above his head. “I haven’t seen one of these in years.” He jumped high in the air, his fingers just grazing the object of his affection. He knocked into the boxes causing them to shift.

“
What are you doing?” she asked worriedly.

“
Would Straker let me take this home?” he asked, pulling boxes off the shelves and stacking them next to the bookshelves.

“
I doubt it. That was discontinued. All of them were supposed to be destroyed on the order of the Department of Health and Safety.”

His head whipp
ed around. “That’s crazy. What for?”

“
All sorts of things. I think the main complaints were due to the fires it started.”

“
That was the best part.”

Reaching above her head and using the tips of her
fingers, she turned a large box around. On the side of the box was the words
Board
Games
written in red ink. “I found it. Can you help me? . . . Kyle?” She looked over her shoulder. Kyle was climbing up a makeshift pyramid, which was swaying under his weight. His fingers were just grazing the toy when he suddenly yelped and fell backwards toward the floor. Boxes of toys rained down from above.

Worri
ed, Grace hopped down from the desk. Shoving boxes aside, she kneeled down next to him. “Are you okay?”

He stood up suddenly and start
ed pushing boxes off the shelves.

“
What are you doing?” she asked, pulling at his arm.

He look
ed through the now empty metal shelves. Bending down, he threw the boxes aside until he found his flashlight. Snapping the light back on, he pointed it through the opening.

Grace look
ed past his shoulders. All she could see were more dolls, boxes and various other toys lying around pieces of old furniture. “What’s wrong?”

“
I thought—” He snapped the light off and shrugged. “Just my imagination. Did you say you found the box?”

She nodd
ed and led him back to the desk she had been standing on. She was just about to climb back up when the attic door flew open and Daniel Burns walked in. “What is going on up here?”

Kyle look
ed back at Grace with a sheepish expression. He hunched his shoulders over and slid behind her.

“
We’re just trying to find a box.”

Daniel look
ed at the boxes littering the floor. “Do you have to tear down the whole attic to find it? We could hear you from downstairs.”

Grace glanc
ed behind her shoulder at her cowering six foot one assistant. She quickly apologized and explained what they were hoping to find.

“
Don’t bother,” Daniel said. “It’s not here.”

“
But, I found a box—”

“
All those games are gone. Your predecessors tried looking for
All the Murderers
the last time Straker wanted them to come up with a mystery board game. It’s gone.” He looked at her crestfallen expression and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. It really wasn’t a very good game. I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with a much better design. One that won’t bring the wrath of parents everywhere down on us.” He motioned for them to follow him out to the stairwell. “You have a week to come up with something. If you want, I’ll go over your ideas with you before our next design meeting.” He looked over his shoulder as they climbed down the steps. “You could start with some . . . field research on the subject,” he said, winking at her.

She smil
ed at him. “That sounds like a good idea, Daniel.” She glanced over her shoulder at Kyle. “An excellent idea in fact.”

♣ ♦ ♥ ♠

“You cheated!”

“
Did not!” Kyle knocked her knight off the board. “You’re just bad at this game.”

Smirking, Grace grabb
ed at his sleeve, pulled out three magic wizard cards, and held them up.

He smil
ed and held up his hands. “That’s perfectly legal.” He reached for the rules. “See, subsection m of section five c, part twenty-two says that the head troll—which is me—can use any means at his disposal once the forces of good enter the magic forest.”

“
It doesn’t mean hoarding restoration cards.”

“
Any means at his disposal including, but not limited to lying, stealing—”

Grace reach
ed for the twenty-page rulebook. “It does not say that.”

He lean
ed back, holding the rulebook out of her reach. “I’m a troll. What do you expect?”

Laughing, she sat back on her knees.
“Fine. You win. It’s a dumb game anyway. The last one was much better. Far more educational.”

“
It was for six year olds.”

Grace reach
ed for another board game. “It was fun.”

“
You only say that because it was the only one you won,” he said, picking up the pieces and placing them back into the box. “What’s next?”

“
Dastardly Dinosaurs: A Game of Survival
.” She dumped the contents of the box on the floor. “I bet when you applied here you never realized how demanding this job is.”

“
It’s much better than my last one.”

“
Oh, what did you do?”

He smil
ed. “Not much and my boss wasn’t too happy about it.” He twisted his features. “Now the job before that was interesting. For a while.”

She divid
ed the game pieces into piles. “Was it as fun as this?”

“
No. Not like this at all. I was in a play.”

“
Oh?”

“
It was an off-off-off-off-Broadway play. I got really good reviews, but it was so boring. Saying the same thing over and over and over and over and—”

“
Got it. So, what happened?”

“
I tried to improvise, but the director and the other actors had a fit. They were being completely unreasonable. I only changed a couple of lines.”

“I’m surprised. I thought most actors improvised on occasion.”

“That’s what I thought too, but apparently they take a really dim view on changing Shakespeare. I thought I really added to the show.” He picked up a velociraptor piece and studied it. “I mean, why should Hamlet get all the good lines?” He dropped the piece on the floor and picked up another board game. “
The Great Merlin: A Game of Magic and Wonder
. Why don’t we play this one next?”

“
I’m saving it for Belle. I figure she might like to play it with us.”

“Do you do this type of thing
often?”

She shrugg
ed. “Sometimes. When Bonnie Caster worked here, we used to have tournaments during our lunch break. I remember Lily won the last one,” she said sadly. “We stopped having them when Bonnie retired.”

He plac
ed the game back on the floor. He looked at her thoughtfully. “Do you really think Lily was murdered?”

She nodd
ed.

He lean
ed forward. “I could help you, you know. I didn’t start work here until after she died, so I’m really the only one you can trust around here. I could act as your eyes and ears. We could work on this together.”

Grace look
ed at his eager face. He had a point. He really was the only one working for the toy company who wasn’t at the magic show the night Lily died. “That sounds—”

“
I know a little something about magic and magicians.”

She snapp
ed her mouth shut, suddenly doubting herself. “Really?”

“
Not much, just kid stuff, but maybe I could do some research.”

“
Unbelievable,” Ethan said from behind her.

Grace smiled at the handsome man, impeccably dressed in a black pinstriped suit and red silk tie, leaning against the
doorframe.

“
And I thought my job was difficult.”

“
Hi Ethan. Wanna play?”

“
So, this is what you do all day?”

“
Absolutely. Every day. It’s awful.” She pointed to the floor. “Have a seat. We could use an extra player.”

Grace made the necessary introductions as she
divvied up another pile of cards and tokens.”

“
Mmm. Sorry, I can’t stay long. I just wanted to drop by and see how you were doing.”

Kyle shook his head.
“Horrible. We’ve played five games and she’s only won one. And that was only because I let her win.”

“
You didn’t let me win and you’ve cheated on each game.”

“
Did not.”

“
Did too,” she said, yawning loudly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get any sleep last night. She looked over at Kyle and smiled. “That’s probably why I lost.”

Kyle held up his hand.
“Don’t even. You lost to a superior opponent. Just admit it.”

Grace rubbed her eyes.
“I admit nothing.”