The Magician's Secret (Nancy Drew Diaries #8)(9)

My curiosity was piqued. What was on those cards? And why did he need to gather them so badly? I kneeled down to pick up the cards myself, but before I could find out what was on them, Bess dropped to her knees next to me.

“Nancy,” she whispered. “I’ve got something to tell you.”

Bess picked up a few white cards. “While I was speaking to Ariana and Ayela, I suddenly remembered an article I read recently about Gritty Grand. If the report is accurate, she’s broke. According to a rival designer, her company is shutting down.”

“Do you think it’s true?” I asked.

“Probably. Bad news often is,” Bess said. “The thing is that Gritty Grand’s response to the report was that this rival designer ‘has kangaroos loose in the top paddock.’ I thought it was such a strange thing to say that I remembered it.”

“I’m guessing it’s simply Australian slang,” I suggested. “It’s possible that it’s just one of those phrases everyone says, like ‘she’s got a screw loose.’?”

“I’m not sure.” Bess pinched her lips together. “I mean, we are looking for a jewel thief, and there’s the possibility that Gritty Grand, who we’ve now connected to Drake Lonestar through her boyfriend and nieces, might be broke.”

The wheels started turning in my head. “I get what you’re saying,” I told Bess. “If she needed money to save her business, she might be interested in gems. That could be the connection we need to attach Lonestar to Smallwood.”

“While you’re thinking about that,” Bess said, “I have something else for you to consider.”

She handed me two of the cards we’d picked up from the floor. “They all say 5A on one side and 5B on the other,” Bess pointed out.

They were the white cards from the barrel that Lonestar had used to choose his onstage guest! Me.

So it wasn’t a coincidence that I was onstage for the performance. My dad had given me two tickets: seats 5A and 5B. Whichever seat I chose, I’d have been selected.

The moment Hugo and Officer Fernandez ended their conversation, I leaped forward.

“Hugo,” I said, thrusting out my hands filled with the white cards. “Care to explain?”

He laughed as he took them from my hands and tossed them into a nearby trash can. There was distinct humor in his eyes and a smile on his face.

“It was part of the marketing plan,” Hugo explained easily. “Drake heard about you, Nancy Drew. You’re famous around here.”

I wrinkled my nose. Sure, I’d solved a few mysteries, but I would never consider myself famous. Not like Drake Lonestar. He had fans screaming his name, jumping fences for him, and begging for autographs. I had a couple of articles in the local paper. There was no comparison.

“Drake decided he wanted you onstage. So he sent the tickets to your dad under the name of a past client that he’d read about in the news.”

“How did you know my father wouldn’t give them to our housekeeper, or take someone else himself??”

“It was a risk,” Hugo admitted. “But Drake’s a magician, Nancy. He’d have found a way to get you to the show, and anywhere you’d have sat, he would have picked you.”

I nodded.

“Drake figured that it would be much more impressive to have a known detective onstage, watching the trick with eagle eyes.” He added, “He also made sure that the ticket desk let your boyfriend in when he showed up. Just another pair of eyes confirming the wonder created by Drake Lonestar.”

My conversation with Hugo answered the question of how Ned got to his seat without a ticket. And it answered how my dad got tickets to the show. The problem was, there were so many questions still left unanswered.





CHAPTER SIX





A Midnight Chat


“HEY, GEORGE,” I HISSED. “YOU awake?”

It was late at night, and I was standing outside my friend’s bedroom window after having given up on sleep. All the excitement of the day had made my head feel full, and I figured that if George could clear up a couple of important things, maybe I’d be able to rest.

“George!” I banged my knuckles on the glass pane.

“Go away, Nancy!”

That wasn’t George. It was Bess. I’d forgotten she was sleeping at her cousin’s house.

I could see Bess roll over and put her pillow over her head.

“Go back to sleep, Bess.” George sat up. “I’ll take care of the intruder.” She opened the window. “Come on in,” she said, moving aside and giving me space to crawl through the frame.

“Thanks,” I said.

“I wasn’t sleeping anyway,” George admitted. She tipped her head toward her bed, and I could see a faint blue glow under the covers.

“Late night Internet research?” I asked with a grin.

“You know it.” She glanced at Bess. “Had to be quiet, though . . . don’t want to disturb the princess.”

“I heard that,” Bess grunted from the bed next to George’s. “The princess needs her beauty sleep. Now shhhhh.” She turned her back to us.

I whispered to George, “This case is making me crazy. I don’t see a connection between Smallwood and Lonestar.” I sat on the edge of George’s bed. “I mean, we could guess that Lonestar hired Smallwood to steal the gems for Hugo to give to the nieces to give to Gritty Grand, but that seems like a long and winding chain of relationships. There’s no evidence to prove any of that.”