The Magician's Secret (Nancy Drew Diaries #8)(26)

“Drake got everything. The fame. The magic act. The girl.” He sighed. “And I ended up with nothing. So I’m going to do whatever it takes to prove to Gritty that I’ve always been the right man for her! Including getting her all the money she needs.” He grunted. “Way more than Drake could ever give her.”

“Hugo, we need to know where the other gems are.” I glanced at Sawyer, who was creeping toward the hotel room door. I really hoped he wouldn’t just leave us here like this. I wasn’t sure I could hold Hugo much longer. “Do you have them with you now?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” Hugo suddenly seemed fully relaxed. He smiled, sat back down, and crossed his legs. The posture made me again look at his shoes. I wondered . . .

He grinned. He winked. And then a puff of thick, white smoke filled the room. And a moment later, I was facing an empty chair.

Hugo was gone.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN





A Magician’s Secrets


THE NEXT AFTERNOON I WAS lying on George’s bed, waiting for her to show me the big project she’d been working on all day.

I tried to peek at the screen, but she blocked me, turning the computer slightly. “Not yet, Nancy. You’ll ruin the illusion!”

“Just like Sawyer ruined Hugo’s?” I asked with a satisfied smile.

As it turned out, magician Sawyer saw things in Drake Lonestar’s hotel room that I’d missed.

When I’d knocked over the bathroom trash can, I hadn’t understood the meaning of the items that spilled out. The bits of wood I’d seen were matchsticks with the heads cut off, and the sugar packets, well, those weren’t used for coffee. Both were among the ingredients commonly used to make a magician’s smoke bomb.

Sawyer’s experience in the River Heights Magic Club told him exactly what Hugo was up to, and he prepared for it.

The only possible exits out of that room were the hole in the bathroom ceiling, the balcony, and the front door. Sawyer had replaced the ceiling tiles when they left the bathroom. The balcony was a harrowing thirteen floors up. That left the door as the only viable escape, so Sawyer decided to position himself there. I’d seen him scooting that way but hadn’t even thought to wonder why.

When the smoke bomb went off, he blocked the door to keep Hugo from leaving. Of course he wasn’t really a match for beefy Hugo, but the swarms of reporters in the hallway had closed in on him. The police arrived just in time (I was right about my friends calling them), and found the gemstones were hidden in Hugo’s shoes.

“Did you finish the video yet, George?” Bess asked as she walked into the room. She was carrying a stack of magazines.

“Almost,” George said. She looked up from her computer. “What’s with the mags?”

Bess groaned. “Reporters can be so gullible.” She waved the pile around in the air. “Every single one of these reported that Gritty Grand had a relationship with Hal Thomas without even questioning it.” She sat down next to me.

“Hal’s not totally innocent. The publicity was good for him, too,” I said. “The controversy of dating a much older woman gets people talking.”

“He still uses too much hair gel, if you ask me.” George laughed as her fingers flew over the keys. “Nearly done,” she murmured.

“So I think I figured out how Hugo got the keys to the jewelry store,” I told my friends.

“Really?” George asked.

“Remember when we saw him at the Riverview? He was carrying a coffee cup from the River Run Coffee Shop.”

When they both nodded, I went on. “And Candy said she went there on her regular work breaks.”

“Ten, noon, and three,” Bess recalled.

“She was predictable. And he was a magician. I bet he pickpocketed her while she stood in line and made wax molds of her keys like Houdini.”

“But she said she’d never seen him when we showed her his picture,” George said.

“All that means is that she didn’t notice him,” I answered. “Hugo was a savvy magician—he was a master at going undetected.”

“I’m done,” George suddenly announced. “Come see!”

We all gathered around the computer. George was about to push the play button when Ned arrived. “Hello, ladies. What’s going on?”

“I’m showing Nancy and Bess a magic trick,” George explained. “And I think I figured out the secret to Drake’s disappearing courthouse show. All I’ll say is that I believe it involves clever use of video.”

“Oh, I want to see!” Ned moved in closer to the small screen.

On the screen was an image of River Heights High School. The music George had chosen was the school band. Suddenly the music stopped and the screen went black.

“Now you see it,” George said, “now you don’t.” The screen came back and now, where the high school was stood an amusement park. There was a Ferris wheel where the cafeteria used to be and a carousel in the open area where the gym stood.

“Okay, so the magic needs some work . . . ,” George said. “But I think I’m onto something. I just need to figure out how to make it a little less obvious.”

“Keep working on it,” I said. At this point, I was fine with not completely understanding how the courthouse had disappeared.