Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
Connect with me Online
About the Author
Other Series by A.L. Kessler
Disappearing Coins
A Parlor Tricks Mystery
A.L. Kessler
Copyright © 2019 A.L. Kessler
Cover: ImagineInk Designs
Editing: No Genre Left Behind
No parts of this book may be reproduced without the author's permission.
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CHAPTER ONE
I stood in front of my store with my hands on my hips as I admired the new writing in the window. "Parlor Tricks" was in glossy new white lettering with a little rabbit sitting under it. I loved it. I skipped to the door, grinning, and unlocked it to enter. Copperfield, my rabbit, was waiting patiently in his wired cage for me to let him out for breakfast. His little pink nose twitched in anticipation, and his white whiskers stood out against his currently black fur.
The moment I opened his cage he jumped out and his fur turned lavender, his favorite color. Copperfield was a special rabbit. Something went wrong with a spell, and I pulled a color-changing rabbit out of a hat. Since then, we had been best friends, and he became the mascot of my store. I gave Copperfield his carrots and went to flip the open sign to the store.
As I flipped the sign in the window of the door to open, I saw my neighbor, Trace, walk by and wave at me. Trace was a private investigator. He was tall, handsome, and well, he'd almost gotten me killed last year when I helped him on a case. No big deal. I pulled a hundred or so rabbits out of hats to save myself. Not really what I was going for, but it worked, and since then I've helped him out on cases here and there as an official consultant.
I went back to the counter and gave Copperfield a scratch on the head. "Shall we practice some more magic today?"
As a witch, I wasn't very talented. Most of the time I lucked out, and my spells didn't hurt anyone. They just got out of control and multiplied objects. Copperfield barely looked up from his carrots to give me much of an answer. I rolled my eyes at him and went to find a trick off my shelves to try.
I walked past the rings. I had finally managed that one and connected the rings magically as well as duplicated the proper amount without them going out of control. I looked at the seemingly never-ending scarf idea. That could be fun, and seriously, what else could happen? It was a long scarf that I pulled out of my hand.
I grabbed the package off the shelf and opened it up. Copperfield took one look at me and turned around, giving me his butt. He did a little wiggle before he hopped off and bounded to the door. He sat there and stared at me. "You have no faith." I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.
I shoved the scarf into the palm of my hand and wrapped my fingers around it. I waved my free hand over my fist and muttered some Latin words. I pulled at the tip of the scarf, and it slowly came out of my hand and kept going well after the amount it originally was. I grinned, but my smile faded as it started spurting out of my fist like a fountain.
I cried out and dropped it, but the scarf just kept growing. I ran out of the building, and Copperfield ran out behind me. I scooped him up and turned to look through the window of my shop. The rainbow colors of the scarf started taking over, leaving no room for anything else.
Trace stepped up next to me. His big dreamy brown eyes and hair hadn't changed much over the last year. He still wore a suit to work every day, even the days he didn't have clients. "What did you do this time?"
"I tried the infinity scarf trick."
"And?"
"Apparently my magic wanted to take it literally instead of making it longer. It's still growing."
We stood together and watched as the colors moved like a snake behind the glass.
He chuckled. "Well isn't that fun." He scratched Copperfield behind the ear, and the rabbit turned pink under Trace's fingers. "Glad to see he still likes me."
"How's work?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the window.
"Well you know, I have an interesting case. I thought I'd come over to talk to you about it." He motioned to the door. "Maybe we should grab some coffee while this works its way out."
I nodded. "Yeah, I feel like it might be a while before it wears itself out." I waved my hand, and the open sign flipped to close.
"You've got that little trick down now." He smiled.
I nodded. "Yeah, after making the sign disappear completely many times."
"Where do they go? The things you make disappear?"
I shrugged. "No one explained that to me. I imagine there's a pile of lost things somewhere. Maybe an alternate dimension. Kind of like the place lost socks go, and where all the Tupperware lids come from."
He laughed and started to walk down the sidewalk. "Now all I can think of is a place with signs stacked high with mountains of socks and Tupperware bottoms."
The image made me smile. Maybe he was right about that. Maybe.
Trace and I walked into the cafe, ordered our coffee, and sat down. I sipped my coffee and watched him. His shoulders were hunched a bit, and his brows were pulled together. Something was bothering him, but I wouldn't push until he was ready to talk. I gave him a minute to collect his thoughts while I just enjoyed my coffee.
"Okay, so, speaking of things disappearing."
I looked at him and raised a brow. "I swear, I'm not behind it."
"No, no, I know you're not. But there's been a psychic that disappeared."
My mouth formed a little 'o.' "I heard about that. It's all the buzz in the magical community. Rumors say he predicted his own disappearance, and no one would take him seriously. From what I understand his predictions where kind of hit and miss."
Trace nodded. "Well, from what I understand, he 'disappeared' with all of his and his wife's money and she would like some help locating his whereabouts."
"Okay. I don't see how this is more interesting than the wife who tried to kill her husband, or the random snakes that kept following a woman," I paused for a moment, those had been two of our most interesting cases, everything else had been pretty dull.
He chuckled. "I was hoping you could tell me how the magic of psychics works, or who I'd need to talk to. There's literally no paper trail. The money was gone, just poof, gone. No visible transactions, cash withdrawals, or transfers. Then Mark was gone as well. He didn't take clothes with him, and I can't track him if he's using cash. I'm trying to get my hands on some surveillance to see where he might have gone."
"I can give you some names of others in that circle, but I'm not a psychic. I can't even read tarot cards." I couldn't imagine what kind of disaster that would lead to. I pictured little miniature Death and The Fool running around. I shook my head.
"That's a start. Would you be willing to come with me?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"
"Because I know people tend to trust other magical members of society more than none magical members. Besides, you've made quite a name for yourself since becoming my consultant."
I snorted. "You're right, 'freak' is the name I've made. People keep putting it on my building."
"Luckily it hasn't happened in a while."
He was right it hadn't happened much in the last few months. Maybe I was making a different name for myself. "Okay, okay, I have some time tonight, but I have dinner with my parents first."
"You enjoy that."
My parents had moved back from Florida and now required that I visit once a week for dinner. My mother was worried about me, and my father always liked hearing about the store and my adventures with Trace. Owning a magic shop was my dad's dream that I carried on after he retired. Now, he helped out on occasion. "Mom's making spaghetti if you want to come."
"I think I'm going to pass." He finished up his coffee. "I have to get back to the office. If you pass me those names, I'll make appointments with one or two tonight."
"Deal. I should get back and see if that scarf is done growing or not."
"What happens if it's not?"
"I'll call my dad and bribe him with pizza to help me to get it to stop. Hopefully, it doesn't come down to that." I laughed. "My mother might come with him."
We threw our cups away and walked back to the building together. Trace stopped outside his partially opened door. "Crap."
"Didn't you lock it?"
"I thought I did, but apparently, I didn't close it all the way."
Trace ran his hands over the door frame looking for any signs of damage to see if he was wrong, and I let my gaze slide lower and found scratch marks on the door. I bent down to get a closer look. The little claw shapes looked too small to come from a dog, maybe a cat. But I hadn't seen any stray ones lately. I had seen a raccoon the other night. Maybe that was it. "Looks like a raccoon came to visit?"
"It's too early for them to be awake and out of their den." He squatted down next to me and touched the marks. "That's what it looks like though."
He walked into the office clicking his tongue, but nothing answered back, and everything was silent.
"It's a raccoon, not a cat." I tried to cover up my laugh.
He glared at me. "It must have left."
"It doesn't look like it's gotten into anything." I looked at the waiting room chair where Copperfield was curled up and sleeping.
He nodded. "Well, no harm no foul."
"Well, since that small heart attack is over, I'm going to go deal with the scarf." I picked up Copperfield from the chair and walked back to my shop.
I looked through the window and saw that the scarf was no longer moving. I sighed and opened the door of the shop and started pulling the fabric out, little by little.
Three hours later, I had all the fabric removed and cut up into smaller scarves. I'd printed a sale sign for them and hung it on my door. Hopefully, someone would come and buy them up, and if not, I guess I had more scarves to practice on. I looked at Copperfield whose fur was now both black and white. I raised a brow. "What's gotten into you?"
He hopped off the counter, using boxes to get down to the floor. He moved to the front door and waited, his little nose twitching. I picked him. "No, it's not time for us to go home yet."
He turned a vibrant red and struggled to get out of my hands. I put him back in his cage, worried that he'd hurt himself trying to get outside. I swore he sat there and pouted at me, his beady little eyes following me around the store as I cleaned up the damage. A shiver shot up my spine, and I turned to look out the door. Nothing there, no one walking by, not even a car on the street. I shook my head and continued cleaning up the mess. I got to the top hats and saw one knocked over.
I pressed my lips together. I picked it up the hat, and a thrill of magic went through me, and a thought came to my mind.
What if something had come out of the hat while the magic for the scarf was running rampant? I looked around trying to find anything that might give me a clue if something had come out of the hat. Nothing in the store looked damaged, things were just shoved over from the pressure and the movement of the scarf. I hung the hat up and continued to move through the store to pick up the rest of the random items that had been pushed out of their spots.
The bell at the door dinged as the shop door was pushed open. I peeked my head out from behind a shelf. "Welcome to Parlor Tricks."
The woman stopped in her tracks as the door closed behind her. I walked up to greet her. "Excuse the mess, I'm in the middle of reorganizing."
She nodded, making her carefully curled hair bounce around her perfectly made-up face. Her pencil skirt matched her charcoal gray suit jacket. Come to think of it, she looked more lost than anything else. Her eyes darted around the room and then finally landed on me.
"Are you Lacey Willow?"
I took a moment to debate on if I wanted to give her the real answer. "Yeah, what can I do for you Ms.?"
"Who I am is not important." She handed me an envelope. "I'm just here to deliver this to you."
I looked at the black envelope and hesitated. I'm not sure I really wanted to take the message. "Who is it from?"
"It's just an invitation to a dinner. It's not going to bite you." She shook it a bit, and I finally took it.
I flipped it over to see my name scrolled across it in a fancy silver calligraphy font. "Huh." I looked up, and the woman left without another word.
I shook my head and glanced at Copperfield. He twitched his nose at me, and his fur flowed from lavender to white. "I have no idea what to think either, buddy." I put the envelope behind the counter without another thought. I wasn't interested in going to some fancy dinner when the messenger wasn't even willing to let me have her name.
Not two minutes later Trace came in. "Hey, the weirdest thing just happened."
I came back out from behind the shelf I was cleaning up. "Describe weird?"
He paused for a moment. "Weird for me."
That made me smile. "Okay, what's up?"
"A woman just came to drop an invitation off at my office. I was sitting with a client, so I just had her put it on the desk up front."
I raised a brow. "Your client for the psychic case?"
He shook his head. "No, a different case. He stopped by to pay me the rest of what he owed and close the case." He shrugged. "But the invitation is -"
"A black envelope with silver lettering?" I walked behind the counter and grabbed mine. I held it up. "Yeah, I got one too."
He raised a brow. "Did you open it?"
"No, I'm not interested."
"It's from a local shop owner. Big fancy dinner and a ball."
I made a disgusted noise in my throat. "Too fancy."
"Come on, it's for charity."
I finally opened the envelope and looked at the invitation. The white cardstock had swirls of black on the corners and some more fancy writing. He was right. It was for a charity, and not just any charity. A local animal shelter, with a silent auction to help raise money.
"Okay, fine, but I'm not buying anything." I pulled out the little RSVP card. "Oh look, it's all fancy, you can do it online."
Trace laughed. "We call this the world of technology, Lacey."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't you have work to do?"
"I'm on my way to go look at where Mark performed." He smiled. "Want to come?"
"Can't, I have to get the store back together. Did you make any appointments tonight?"
"Yeah, we're going to go talk to his wife again, because she'd like to meet you, and then Mandy Banovo. She's one of the names you texted me."
I nodded. "She's well known in the circle of magic."
"I'll pick you up about eight then." He started out of the shop.
"Let me know what you learn while you're gone."
He gave me a little wave as he walked out.
CHAPTER TWO
By closing time, I had the whole store put back together, and it looked better than it had before the scarf had destroyed it. I put Copperfield back into his enclosure. "Okay, buddy, have a good night, okay?"
His nose twitched, and he went to hide in his giant bunny-sized log. I figured that meant he was ready to turn in for the night. I set the security for the store, locked up, and left.
I got into my little car and headed towards my parents' new place. The houses a
nd stores of Manitou disappeared into the more hilly area of the city and further into no man's land. My parents had chosen to live away from civilization because it was quieter. I was sure it was my mom's choice because my dad preferred to stay busy in his retirement.
I pulled into their dirt driveway and parked the car. I set the emergency brake and gave the car a moment to settle before I got out. With my luck, if I didn't put the brake on, the car would roll down the driveway. I took a deep breath before I walked up to the front door.
The house loomed over a yard cleared of trees and brush. With three stories, it was way too big for them, but they apparently got a price on it that they couldn't refuse. Mom swore something was weird with the house, but every time she mentioned it, dad just sat back and laughed. Which made me think he was hiding something.
I walked in and kicked my shoes off. "Mom? Dad?" I called out.
"In here dear!" my mother called. There was an odd pitch in her voice, and I wasn't sure what it meant. I tried to prepare myself for anything she might be plotting.
I walked into the kitchen, and my smile faded when I saw a stranger standing there with her. He was my age and handsome enough with his light brown hair and big brown eyes that made him look innocent.
"Mom, who is this?"
"Oh, this is Eli. His parents are here for dinner as well. They play bridge with us each Friday night, so I invited them to dinner."
I stared at Eli who looked as confused as I did. "Well then, I didn't even know you guys played bridge. Hi Eli, nice to meet you."
"You too, your mom says you own the little magic shop down in Manitou." He took a step closer to me, and my mother went to busy herself with something on the stove.
I tried not to roll my eyes. I knew what this was. My mother was trying to set me up with Eli. I started toward the dining room, assuming Eli was going to follow me. "I do. I also consult with a local PI on cases that concern magic."
"Oh, that sounds like a fascinating job. Do you get to deal with any dead bodies?"
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