The Magician's Secret (Nancy Drew Diaries #8)(3)

There was also a different reason I was glancing around. “I’d like to check out the stage area,” I said, pushing a long strand of hair off my face.

“We’ll come with you.” Bess smoothed her bright-green skirt and grinned at me. “The show starts in fifteen minutes. Let’s see what kind of trouble you can get into until then.”

I laughed. “I’m not looking for trouble.”

“You never are,” George replied, putting a hand on my back. “But you’re a magnet for it.”

“If there’s trouble around, it will find you,” Bess added.

“Not today,” I said firmly.

“Right.” George winked and Bess laughed.

As we walked to the stage area, I turned and looked toward the audience. Metal folding chairs were set in long rows. There were enough seats for about three hundred people. Employees in Lonestar T-shirts—black with a silver star on the sleeve—were ushering ticket holders to their seats.

“Wow, it’s really exciting,” Bess said, pointing out that there was only one entrance to the area. Curtains, ropes, and caution tape created a closed space, with the courthouse straight ahead. “I don’t know why Lonestar picked River Heights, but I’m so glad he did.”

“He threw a dart at a US map and then came to the place that it landed on,” George said. “It just happened to be River Heights.”

Bess looked at her. “How on earth did you know that?”

“When Nancy said her dad had the extra seats, I checked him out online.” George shrugged as if she wondered why Bess hadn’t thought to do the same.

“You amaze me,” Bess said, shaking her head.

A banging sound made us all swing around.

George pointed. “Hey, look!”

There was a commotion near the back of the audience. At the left side of the entryway, a man had jumped the rope boundary. He was shouting, “Drake! You’re the best!” In literally seconds, the Lonestar staff had stopped him and were escorting him outside.

I took a sharp breath and quickly scanned the area. “Security sure is tight,” I noted. Big signs had warned: NO CAMERAS OR RECORDING DEVICES. We’d had to leave our smartphones at a check-in booth. In addition to Lonestar’s own security team, the local police were out in force.

Above us, two helicopters hovered in the distance. The blades hummed in the light spring breeze. I pointed them out to Bess and George.

“Those are military helicopters,” George remarked. Along with computers, her obsession was anything mechanical. She knew a lot about all kinds of hardware. “I think the models were retired. Must be more of the magician’s private security.” She made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Interesting.”

I’d never seen a show like this, but I wondered if the security and helicopters were there to protect skeptics from ruining the illusion. I assumed I wasn’t the only one there who was eager to figure out how the trick worked.

I turned toward the stage. It was the same standard rented raised platform the town used for outdoor concerts, and it had been set up near the bottom of the courthouse steps. Several thick, billowy velvet curtains framed the stage, and spotlights dotted the makeshift ceiling.

“Come on,” I said to my friends. “Let’s check it out.”

“Don’t get too close,” George said, then leaned in and warned, “You don’t want to get kicked out because you were snooping.”

“We aren’t snooping,” I countered. “We’re just surveying the scene!”

As I said that, I could feel the eyes of a Lonestar employee watching our every move. Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted a security guard with thinning, gray-speckled brown hair and very big arm muscles standing under a tree. He winked at me, not in a bad way, but in a way that let me know he was doing his job.

I gave him a tiny smile and looked away.

Bess pulled my arm and we moved to the side of the stage, where a small set of steps led to a thick, black curtain.

I guess Bess and George could sense my inner detective getting into gear, because they both shook their heads, but I put my finger to my lips, checked to make sure the burly security guard wasn’t looking our way, and darted up the steps. I knew it probably wasn’t the smartest move, but I was dying to know what was back there. And Bess and George must have felt the same, because they followed me. I parted the curtain panels, and the three of us found ourselves in the stage’s wings.

The stage setup was simple: a table sat in the middle with black top hat—the old-fashioned kind magicians usually drew a rabbit from—sitting on it. I have to admit, I was surprised the stage was so bare. I don’t know what I expected, but at least a few props or something.

“Magic baff??les me,” I said. “It takes so much preparation to pull off a single trick.” I seriously had no idea how Drake Lonestar was going to make the huge, solid courthouse disappear, and looking around the stage certainly gave me no clues.

Suddenly loud orchestral music blared from the speakers, and the stage curtains slowly pulled back. A murmur rose from the audience, who seemed to be scrambling back to their seats.

“Wait!” George hissed. “Is that smoke? The show isn’t supposed to start yet.”

Sure enough, smoke had started emanating from the stage. I squinted, trying to make out what was happening.