08 The Magician's Secret (11 page)

“The nieces!” someone said, but a man corrected her, “You mean the daughters.”

“Ariana,” someone furnished a name.

“Ayela,” another called out.

“That other guy!”

I wasn't sure exactly who the reporter was talking
about, so I asked. “Hugo?” I wrinkled my brow.

“No! John Smallwood! He was caught on tape!”

The voices and accusations swirled around me. It seemed that the city was suddenly filled with a lot of amateur detectives, all with different suspects to accuse.

“I hear it's Gritty Grand! Rumor is that she and that boyfriend singer of hers are in town in disguise.”

Wow. They'd found that out fast. Gritty was for sure in town. But the boyfriend? From the way she'd greeted Drake Lonestar, I wasn't convinced she had a boyfriend.

“Where's Lonestar now?” When a reporter asked me that, I knew my hunch had been correct. These reporters didn't know that Drake had been arrested. Otherwise they'd have left the hotel and headed to the courthouse. They were still hoping he'd show up here.

“Nancy! Who stole the jewels? Do you know?” a man at the back of the pack yelled to me.

I'd had enough. Even if I had known, I wasn't going to tell the tall guy from Channel Four before I
told the judge, the police, my dad, or Ned. “Let's go,” I told my friends.

Knocking on the hotel suite door would have started a huge media frenzy, ruining my subtle approach, so we turned around and headed back toward the elevators. The reporters continued to shout out at me, but luckily, no one followed. They weren't leaving the hallway, just in case someone more interesting than me happened by.

We went back outside to the valet.

“Hey! We can go get a coffee now if you want. It's almost time for my break.” In a blink he moved from behind the valet stand to Bess's side.

She smiled at George with an
I told you so
grin.

I checked his name tag. “Look, Sawyer, we have a problem. I need to get to the thirteenth floor, past the reporters, and into Drake Lonestar's hotel room. Can you help?”

I knew it was a lot to ask, but I was desperate. There was something in that room that would solve this case once and for all. I was sure of it.

“Hmm,” Sawyer said. “The thirteenth, you say?”

“Yes.” I explained the reporter problem.

He pursed his lips and said, “Look, I know who you are, Nancy Drew. You're famous.”

I blushed. “Not really.”

“I was at the magic show. Drake Lonestar is fantastic. I've always loved magic. In fact, I'm a card-carrying member of the River Heights Magic Club.”

I didn't even know there was a River Heights Magic Club. “We are going to prove he didn't steal the gems,” I said.

Bess flashed a toothy grin. “And we'd appreciate your help,” she added.

“I'll do it for Drake,” he said, winking at Bess.

Exactly three minutes later we were getting off the staff elevator on the thirteenth floor.

“I could have gotten a key,” Sawyer said, “but as far as I can tell, there's no way around the reporters.”

“We need to bypass them,” I confirmed.

“We could have pulled the fire alarm,” George suggested. “Chased them out and cleared the hall.”

“Or climbed in over the balcony,” Bess said.

“Nah, this is safer,” Sawyer told us. He opened a door marked
EMPLOYEES ONLY
. “My dad works on the maintenance crew at this hotel. I've been hanging out here since I was a kid. I know every nook and cranny by heart. When I got old enough, they let me bus tables in the café; now I park cars. I'll do maintenance with my dad this summer.” He grinned. “I'm working my way up.”

“Couldn't you get in trouble for this?” George asked, following Bess up a ladder in the maintenance closet. “I'd hate for us to get you fired.”

“Ah, it's okay. It's an adventure,” he chuckled. “I like adventures.” Sawyer scooted into the crawl space below a heat duct. We climbed in behind him. He was in the lead, with Bess and George in the middle, while I brought up the rear. “When I was a kid,” he continued, “I used to come up here all the time. The owners of this hotel used the highest-rated titanium alloys in construction. Not only are the vents—”

“—strong and light, but they are also incredibly
heat resistant,” George finished. There was just enough room to crawl on our knees, but not enough to move comfortably around.

Unable to turn his body, Sawyer looked back, past Bess, to George. He'd brought a flashlight and shone it in her face. “What are you, an astrophysicist?”

George laughed. “Maybe someday.”

“Well, I'm studying to be one,” Sawyer said. “The university here has a great program for students who hope to become astronauts. I can't imagine a greater adventure than visiting the stars!” He twisted around and continued to lead us down the vents. When the vents split in two directions, we went left.

Our leader stopped so suddenly, Bess ran into him, which meant George bumped Bess and I ran into George. We were a tangled mess of arms and legs.

“Shhh,” Sawyer said. “We're here.” He spun his flashlight around and this time pointed it at me. “Where do you want to go in? We could drop into the bedroom or the living room.”

“Is there an opening in the bathroom?” That
seemed like a safe place. We didn't have a ladder on this end, so it might be easier to step down to the sink or tub instead of risking broken bones by jumping out onto the cold floor.

“One bathroom, coming right up,” Sawyer said as he moved slightly to the right and removed a panel from the vent. He reached out and took a tile from the ceiling before lowering himself out of the vent.

I heard him land, then say, “Okay, Bess—”

“What on earth?!” A man's deep voice, low and threatening, came from below. I heard Sawyer squeal.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” The man's voice rattled the vents.

Smashed up behind Bess and George, and now without the flashlight, I couldn't see anything. But I knew that voice.

We'd found our jewel thief.

SAWYER'S NECK WAS FIRMLY IN
Hugo's grasp.

“Let him go!” I cried from the ceiling. When I'd realized what was happening below, I'd thrown myself over Bess and George, flattening them so I could slither like a snake to the front.

From where I was, I could see that Sawyer was turning blue.

“Please, Hugo.” I wasn't sure he could even hear me. As a bodyguard, he was trained to act first, think later.

“Hugo!” I raised my voice. “I'm coming down.”

There was no way to turn my body around, so Bess and George each took one of my legs and lowered me to the sink counter. I grabbed the towel bar to slow my decent, but ended up ripping it off the wall as I tumbled into a heap at Hugo's feet, knocking over the trash can; little bits of wood and used sugar packets tumbled out and littered the floor.

Hugo let go of Sawyer, turning toward me with a surprised expression.

Sawyer coughed and sputtered as the color came back into his face.

“Are you all right?” Bess shouted from the vent.

“He better not have damaged your ability to solve complex mathematic equations!” George yelled. “An astronaut needs math!”

“What's two plus two?” I asked Sawyer.

“Four,” he choked out.

“He's fine,” I called to Bess and George. “Come on down.”

“Nancy Drew?” Hugo stepped back as if seeing me for the first time. “I thought I'd caught a thief.”

“We need to talk.” I walked out of the bathroom, hoping Hugo would follow. I wanted to give Sawyer space to help my friends out of the vents, and I hoped that by leaving the room, I could keep everyone safe until the police arrived. We were so in tune with one another that I knew either George or Bess would call the police.

Pretending my heart wasn't beating wildly, I sat on the couch. I'd have preferred not to confront Hugo like this, but it was too late to back out. It all came down to this moment.

“What are you doing here?” Hugo asked me.

“I came to find you,” I said. “Drake Lonestar has been arrested for the crime you committed. You stole the jewels.”

“What are you talking about?” Hugo's face was expressionless.

“Don't pretend you don't know,” I said to him. “You're the one who left the mystery box filled with one million dollars' worth of gems in Drake's room and then called the police. After that, you called the press.”
I waved my hand toward the door to the hallway. In the quiet lull I could hear the reporters chatting with one another.

“The reporters came here and piled up in the hallway. They don't know about the arrest yet, and you've made sure the timing works on your schedule. You're using them as part of this massive illusion you've created.”

Hugo didn't deny it. He wasn't confirming it either.

“I realized this was the best place for you to hide out. If you'd been at the Riverview, Ayela and Ariana would have insisted you go with them to the courthouse. You weren't about to rush to
support
your friend, whom you'd just betrayed, so this was the most convenient spot to wait. As soon as the reporters hear the news, they'll immediately rush to the courthouse. Then you can quietly leave, completely unnoticed.”

“You're talking nonsense, Nancy,” he said.

“I don't think so. I'm confident I have this all figured out. In fact, you told me you'd committed this crime yourself,” I said to Hugo. “Not in those exact
words, but close enough. It just took me a while to understand.”

“I'd never say that.” Hugo sat across from me, which made me wary. He met my gaze and said, “Drake Lonestar stole the gems.”

“That's what you wanted us all to believe,” I said. “You told me yourself that magic was all about distraction and misdirection.”

He nodded. “That I did. It is. So?”

“I've been thinking about that ever since. Everything in this case pointed to Drake Lonestar. You set up Lonestar to
appear
to be the thief while you took the gems.”

“It's not wise to accuse someone without proof,” Hugo said, starting to rise. “Tell me, Miss Drew. What is it that you
think
you know?”

I glanced back at the bathroom. Hopefully Bess or George had called the police by now and they were on their way.

With a deep breath, I pressed forward. “You pulled off a good trick, Hugo, and for a while there I bought
the illusion, just like the police and everyone else.”

He frowned but didn't speak. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bess, George, and Sawyer slip out of the bathroom and into the back of the room.

“I've learned that there are several kinds of magic,” I said. “Drake does illusion, so you created a robbery that obviously fit within that type. The video with the darts gave the illusion that coming to River Heights was a coincidence. It wasn't. You somehow knew that Candy Corlean stored millions of dollars of loose gems at the shop and that the ones you stole would be easiest to take.”

I continued. “Using gum to clog locks so that they don't completely close is a classic illusionist move. So you left gum on the floor of the jewelry store. It's also well known that video is often used in illusion.” George had told me that.

“But the truth is, you used escape magic to actually open the locks and the gem cabinet. You just made it
look
like an illusion in order to frame Lonestar, who is a known illusionist.” George and Bess moved closer to
me, leaving Sawyer near the door. “And then there was the trick at the courthouse.”

When Drake rattled the handcuffs in the judge's chambers, he was silently telling me I was searching for a thief who was an expert at escapes.

“You never meant for the box to end up in the evidence locker,” I said.

Bess caught on. “Oh! You kept the gems you wanted, then planted the rest in the mandala box and put it in what you thought was Drake's hotel room. You probably thought it was Drake in the shower. It was John Smallwood!” Bess shook her head. “Imagine your surprise when it turned out he'd been a jewel thief and they confiscated your box. Poor John Smallwood,” Bess groaned dramatically. “Serious case of wrong place, wrong time.”

“Can I make a guess here?” George asked. “The box belongs to Gritty Grand. Drake wasn't lying when he kept insisting it wasn't his. But you knew that putting the gems there would once again point to Drake as the thief because of his tight relationship with Gritty.”
She quickly put in, “A relationship that doesn't look like divorce to me.”

Hugo flinched.

“So the box ended up in the evidence locker. You didn't want to lose the jewels, so you used Houdini-type escape magic to break in and out of the room and the courthouse.” I didn't know how he got the key, but as George had said about Houdini, I was pretty sure there was one hidden on Hugo somewhere. . . . I instinctively glanced down at the soles of his shoes, nice-looking dress shoes with a small heel. It seemed possible that the heels could have been hollowed out.