Deadly Magic (30 page)

“
Why would any of my people do that? I pay them very well—”

“
I don’t know. Maybe they were duped into helping Lily’s killer. Maybe they were frightened and felt they had no choice. Maybe they trusted the wrong person and didn’t realize what the killer had planned.”

“
Even if all of that was true, I would have seen them.” He pointed to the stage below.

“
You couldn’t have been watching the whole time.”

“
No, but when the chest rose to the ceiling, I was. Lily was sitting right here, waiting. I didn’t see anyone up here with her.”

“You said she was sitting. Did she normally sit here waiting for her cue to jump?”

“
No,” he admitted slowly. “Usually, she was standing.”

“
What if she was already dead?”

“
But there’s still the problem of her being thrown off the scaffolding. I would have seen them. Then there’s the text message Straker received just before. The police found her phone up here. Again, for any of that to have happened, someone must have been up here with her.”

“Think. You’re the master trickster. How could someone have killed Lily, send the message, and push her off all while being somewhere else in the theater?”

He
sighed. Turning to the side, he leaned out over the railing. His brow furrowed in thought. “It would be too risky and I’d need an accomplice. I’m assuming you’re not talking about me, but someone in the audience, right?”

She nodd
ed her head.

He walk
ed back over to the landing and looked down at the stairs. “I couldn’t kill her up here because the magician on the stage would have seen me. I would have had to kill her downstairs and bring her up.

“
In her dressing room?”

“
No. Too risky. I would have been caught. If I knew she would be coming up here, I would have hidden . . .” He walked past her to the landing. He pointed to the black magician’s box on the lower landing. “There. I would have jumped out when I heard her coming up the stairs. I’d strangle her there on the landing. It’s the safest place. It’s completely hidden from downstairs.”

“
She’d fight.”

He looked down at the landing. He folded his arms across his chest.
“It wouldn’t matter. With the audience and the music playing, no one would have seen or heard a thing.”

“
What then?”

“
I’d carry her up the stairs . . . but I would have been seen.”

Grace closed her eyes in disappointment. She looked around the small scaffolding. Lily was definitely murdered. The killer found a way, they just needed to think.

The magician suddenly laughed. “It’s so obvious.” He passed a hand over his eyes, smiling. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. I’d wait for intermission. No one’s on the stage, so no one would be looking this way.” He walked back to the end of the scaffolding. Reaching over he pulled a hook from a box attached to the middle railing and pulled a pulley towards him. “The chest would have already been in place up here. If I had someone who showed me or told me how it worked then I could have set her body here,” he said, pointing to the railing. “Tied the silk around her neck.” He furrowed his brow, as he looked back between the railing and the pulleys. “I could set it up, so that when the chest . . . when the chest comes up, the silks retract, and it pushes her off the railing.”

“
So, the killer could have been somewhere else when she finally fell.”

He nodd
ed. “It could work, but he’d be taking a big risk that she would have fallen at the right time and not earlier.”

“
Our killer takes a lot of big risks. He seems to strike whenever opportunity presents itself. What about the text message? How could he have pulled that off?”

He stood silently for a moment
, considering. “That would have been easy. I could have stayed on the landing. Once she fell and had been cut down, I could have snuck back up and dropped the phone wherever the police found it. Everyone’s attention would have been on Lily at that point.”

“
But what if you had to be somewhere else? What if you wanted a solid alibi?”

“
I’d need an accomplice. Someone who could run up here and drop the phone. It would have to be someone I trusted. Someone who was in on it.”

“
Or someone who was too afraid to say no.” Grace looked at the magician. “Just out of curiosity, that fifty thousand—it wasn’t for you, was it?”

The magician
shook his head. With his hands gripping the railing, he dropped his head to his chest. “Do you happen to know where my children are?”

“
Sorry. I don’t.” Grace swiveled around and ran back to the landing. “But when I find them, you’ll be the first to know.”

Saturday, December 23rd

12:00am

Grace
walked out
of the elevator. She had to hurry. Time was running out. She was certain she knew who the killer was, but it still didn’t make any sense.

She looked at her watch. Hopefully, Valerie would show up soon.
She was certain Valerie saw something the day Daniel was killed. She may not know what it was, but she must have seen something that could help her prove who stabbed Daniel. Ethan was right. Barring a confession, there really was no way to prove who murdered Lily. But maybe they could prove who killed Daniel. She just needed Valerie to reenact the scene one more time. Perhaps it would trigger some type of memory.

Remembering
what happened the last time she was on the fourth floor at night, she held up her pepper spray as she entered her office. Quickly turning, she flipped on the lights and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the room was empty. She automatically shrugged off her coat and hung it up on the coat rack next to the door. The umbrella, she shoved into the umbrella stand next to the coat rack. She glanced out the side window, just as thunder rumbled and a lightning bolt lit up the night sky. Rain was coming down hard.

Turning around
, she walked the rest of the way into her office. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was in the room with her. She couldn’t see them, but she was positive she wasn’t alone. She began to back out when her eye caught a purple tipped finger poking out from underneath her desk. Thinking it was Belle, she called out her name.

Grace heard a heavy sigh and the sound of someone moving under the desk. To her
surprise, it wasn’t Belle that emerged from beneath the desk, but Tabitha Eddington. A very tired and older looking Tabitha. Her hair was a mess. Her eye makeup was smeared across her cheeks as though she had been crying recently. Her clothes were dirty and hung from her body.

“
Where have you been?” Grace threw her purse on the floor next to her desk.

Tabitha came around from the desk.
“Please don’t be mad. I didn’t know where else to go.” She raked a ragged hand through her blonde hair. “He’s going to kill me. I just know it.”

Grace took the hysterical woman by the shoulders and l
ed her to the chair. “Just calm down. You’re safe now. Let’s call the police.”

Tabitha jump
ed up. “No! No police. I can’t go to jail. I just can’t.”

“
What are you doing here? I figured you were half way around the world by now.” Or dead and buried, she thought, but decided not to say.

“
Around the world?” Tabitha walked over to the credenza and grabbed a handful of tissue. Blowing her nose loudly, she walked over to the chair and sat down, too weary to stand any longer. “How could I possibly go anywhere? I have no money. I’ve been too afraid to go back to my apartment. I’m not safe. I have nowhere to go.”

“
Were you the one hiding in the attic?”

“
Only for a few days. He figured out where I was, so I ran. I ran down the stairs and I just kept running.”

“
Who?”

Tabitha
shook her head. She wiped her eyes.

“
Where did you go after you left here?”

“
I ran to this little fleabag hotel a few blocks from here. I hid out there until my money ran out.”

“
I thought you and Daniel had stolen a quarter of a million. That’s more than enough money to take a little trip.”

“
We didn’t set out to steal a quarter of a million,” she said bitterly. “Daniel was only going to take twenty-five thousand.”

“
What, once he realized how easy it was, he decided to go back to the till?”

Tabitha
hung her head. “Easy? It wasn’t easy. It was over before it even started. He took the money out on a Friday. We headed straight to the airport, but while waiting for the plane, he had second thoughts. He told me that he still loved Louisa. He couldn’t do it. So he left. He was going to return the money on Monday morning before anyone discovered it was missing.”

“
What happened?”

“
We got caught.” Tabitha started to cry. “Then everything started to snowball. I swear I didn’t know Lily was going to die.”

“
You know who killed her, don’t you? You know who killed Daniel, too.”

Tabitha sadly nodd
ed her head.

“
Who?”

“
Trust me, you don’t want to know. I know and I’m going to die because of it.”

Grace press
ed the scared woman for details, but Tabitha refused to give up the name of her tormentor. “Were you the one I heard crying backstage the night Lily died?” Grace guessed.

Tabitha nodd
ed her head furiously. “Yes. He knew Daniel and I had been having an affair. He knew about the money Daniel took. He threatened to go to Louisa and her father and tell them everything if I didn’t help him. I didn’t know that he was planning to kill Lily. He told me that he was working with Sidney Harcourt. He said Harcourt just wanted to know how Ilya performed his illusions. I tried to tell him I would show him the next weekend, but he suddenly showed up and demanded that I show him right then. He slapped me. Then he told me he would kill me if I didn’t do exactly what he said. I was scared to death. So, I showed him. I thought if he saw how it was done, he’d go away, but then he told me to grab Lily’s phone.”

“
Is that why you were crying that night?”

“
I met him in the lobby and he handed Lily’s phone back to me. He told me to take it up to the scaffolding. I had no idea what was going on. I was just so scared. I didn’t know he was going to kill Lily and then once Lily was dead, he threatened to kill us if we said anything.”

“Why didn’t you go to the police?”

“We would have been arrested. I helped . . .” Her voice started to crack. “I would have been considered an accessory. He said that no one would believe us and that they would say Daniel and I killed her together . . . I wanted to run away, but Daniel wouldn’t leave. He was so angry. Danny hated being told what to do.”

“
Do you know why Lily died?”

Tabitha
shook her head. “No, but Danny said he knew. He said it had something to do with Mr. Straker’s brother. Danny came up with a plan.” She sniffled. “A very stupid plan. He said he was going to turn the tables on Lily’s killer.”

“
How?”

Tabitha shrugg
ed. “I told Danny that I wanted no part of it. I knew he was going to kill us, so I hid.”

Grace look
ed at the woman thoughtfully. “Why would he kill you?” She asked more to herself than to Tabitha. “I mean, didn’t he need you for the rest of his plan to work?”

Tabitha stopp
ed crying and looked up at Grace in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“
The plan to steal Straker’s inheritance.”

“
I haven’t mentioned his name, but you know who I’ve been talking about, don’t you?”

Grace nodd
ed. “It wouldn’t hurt if you could confirm it for me.”

Tabitha took a deep breath. Just
then, a loud thunderclap rattled the building. Both women jumped. The storm and the conversation had set both of their nerves on edge.

“
Did you hear that?” Tabitha slowly stood. She looked at the office door warily.

“
It’s just thunder.”

“
No,” Tabitha said softly. “Someone’s out there.”

“
It’s probably my friend.” Grace started for the door before stopping. Deciding safety before valor was in order, she walked back to her desk. Turning the phone around, she called Valerie’s cell phone. Better to know for certain that it was Val in the building than to just assume. Val picked up on the third ring.

“
Where are you?”

“
I’m in a taxi. We’re just pulling up to the building. Is everything all right?”

“
Yeah, why?”

“
You sound worried?”

“
We just heard a noise and were worried.”

“
We?”

Grace glanc
ed back at Tabitha. “I’ll explain when you get here.”

“
Okay. I’m just opening the door. Oh no . . .”

Whatever Valerie was saying was cover
ed by static when she entered the building.

“
Are you okay? Grace repeated for the third time before she got an answer between static bursts.

“
Yeah . . . dropped . . . umbrella . . . drenched,” were the only words she could make out before the line went dead.

Grace plac
ed the phone back into the receiver. “It’s all right. Valerie will be here in a second.” Grace turned around to discover she was speaking to an empty room.

♣ ♦ ♥ ♠

Grace paced anxiously down the hallway. Twenty minutes had passed without any sign of either Tabitha or Valerie.

She open
ed the door to the stairwell and dashed up the stairs to the next floor. She had searched all four floors of the building, top to bottom and was now searching them on the way up as well. She was about to search the workroom when she looked up at the ceiling. She could hear someone walking in the hallway directly above her.

She rac
ed to the stairwell, climbed back up to her office floor, and entered into an empty hallway. She was about to start screaming when she heard the telltale click clacks of high heels walking across the hardwood floors. The sound of a door swinging shut came next. Following the sound, Grace ran down the hall and opened her office door.

She blew out a reliev
ed gust of air. Valerie was standing at her desk, holding the phone up to her ear. She turned just as Grace shut the door.

“
Where have you been?” they asked in unison.

Valerie
placed the phone back in its cradle. “I thought we were going to meet in your office.”

Grace quickly fill
ed her in on her conversation with Tabitha.

“
By the time I hung up with you, Tabitha was gone. I chased her down the hall, but lost her. Then I couldn’t find you.”

Valerie smil
ed. “I was worried and went looking for you. Did Tabitha tell you who killed Lily and Daniel?”

“
No. She was too afraid to tell me.”

“
Perfect. That’s just great. You know what’s going to happen now, don’t you?”

Grace shook her head.

“
We’re going to be tripping over her body any second. That’s what’s going to happen.”

Grace scoff
ed. “Don’t be so morbid. No one knows she’s here.”

“
What was she doing here?”

“
I don’t know. When I found her she was hiding underneath my desk.”

Thunder boom
ed overhead as the lights began to flicker.

They
stood still. Waiting to see if the lights were going to give out or not. The lights held.

“Well, what was so urgent that I had to come here at this time of night?” Valerie asked.

Grace walk
ed over to her desk. Bending over she checked underneath. “I want to go over Daniel’s death again.”

Valerie groan
ed. “Not again.”

“
Yes,” she said quietly. Rising, she brought up a bright blue sequined backpack and laid it on the desk. “There were too many distractions before. Too many people wanted to get involved. Here, it’s just you and me. Well and Tabitha.”

“
Are you sure she’s still here?”

Nodding, Grace pass
ed the bag to Valerie. “She left this.”

“
She’s not the only one here, by the way.”

Grace wait
ed for Valerie to explain.

“
You really need to start locking this door Grace. I found Allen snooping around in here a few minutes ago. He was hiding behind your desk.”

“
What is it with people hiding under my desk?” Groaning, Grace walked to her desk and began searching through each drawer. “Is he gone?”

Valerie nodd
ed. “I followed him to the elevator. It stopped on the first floor, so I’m hoping he’s left, but who knows.

“
Unbelievable,” she said, angrily slamming the last drawer shut.

“
What’s wrong? What did he do?”

“
The files are gone.” She began pacing the office.

“
Your designs?”

“
No. All of our research. The pictures. The notes Ethan took. Everything.”