by Robert Innes
“Oh, one of those sorts, eh?” Blake said as he sipped the wine Robin had passed him. “I suppose he’s the one we blame for the state of the buses and the pathetic Christmas lights last year? Or ‘light’ I should say.”
The rest of the audience took their seats. Harrison watched as Jacqueline and Tom sat down a few rows behind. Jacqueline appeared to have given up trying to stop Tom from being on his phone constantly and was nattering to the woman on the next seat. Harrison frowned as he watched Tom cautiously watching his mother as he tapped frantically on the screen. Clearly, whoever Tom was in contact with was somebody he was worried about Jacqueline finding out about. The temptation was to try and find out exactly who that was, but Harrison also had a feeling that whatever Tom was up to, it was in his best interests to try and stay out of it. He did not want to give Tom any indication that he was in any way interested in his life. Blake had enough to worry about without additional concerns about Tom, who seemed to be wanting to take full advantage of any issues between them.
The lights in the hall began to fade, indicating that the show was starting. When the stage was in complete darkness, a single spotlight appeared in the centre, and Sebastian stepped out from behind the curtain to rapturous applause from the audience, mostly led by Jacqueline and, Harrison noticed, Arthur Stanbury, a few seats down from them, looking delighted by the whole experience.
Sebastian held his hands up for silence then smiled smugly at the audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began. “Good evening and thank you very much for your attendance tonight. As I look around, I can see that I have in front of me an audience that is open to having their perceptions altered, their understanding of possibilities widened, and above all, a raw excitement to watch real, raw magic.”
His eyes landed briefly in the direction of Blake. Harrison glanced at his boyfriend and had to suppress a snort of laughter at Blake’s expression.
“In an environment where the impossible is achievable and the unlikely is certain, anything can happen,” Sebastian continued. “For that reason, I would invite you all to make yourselves aware of the exits located at the back of the hall. Some of tonight’s illusions hold a real aspect of danger. Please do not attempt anything you are about to see. I am a trained professional with over twenty years’ experience as a magician. Also, trained to within an inch of her life to make all of these illusions possible is my beautiful assistant, my daughter Amelia!”
As the audience applauded again, the curtains fully opened to reveal Amelia Klein standing in the centre of the stage. She was wearing a similar outfit to the one Blake had seen her in the previous day which consisted of a very short denim skirt that barely covered her hips, a black vest top, and a pair of gold high heeled shoes, strapped around her feet.
Behind Amelia was a horizontal square cabinet on a trolley. It was decorated as extravagantly as Harrison had come to expect from any prop belonging to Sebastian. Bright blue and red stars and stripes were expertly painted across the whole front of the cabinet, leaving Harrison feeling quite relieved that he had not been entrusted to paint that himself.
Sebastian approached Amelia and placed his arm over her shoulder.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said quietly, “my first trick will involve this cabinet and the beautiful Amelia. I think I can safely say that there is at least one component of this trick guaranteed to keep the gentlemen of the audience interested, isn’t there?”
A ripple of deep laughter erupted from some of the men in the audience, mostly from the direction of Arthur Stanbury. Harrison and Blake exchanged looks and Blake rolled his eyes.
As much as Sebastian had built up the illusions that his audience was about to see, even Harrison was surprised by how basic a lot of the tricks appeared. The horizontal cabinet was for Amelia to be sawn in half, her ‘legs’ appearing at the end of the box before Sebastian pushed a saw through the centre of it and then separated the two to complete the illusion that Amelia was now in two bits. The trick appeared to delight the rest of the audience who ‘ooh’ed and ‘ahh’ed in all the right places.
“I’m glad he didn’t ask me to give my opinion on that one,” Blake said above the applause when Amelia had climbed out of the cabinet in one piece. “I could have told him without even having to see it.”
Unfortunately for Blake, the show’s standard of trick did not seem to pick up. Sebastian pulled two doves out a hat, amazed the rest of the audience with a trick where he appeared to levitate in mid air (“There’s a join in his trousers,” Blake murmured to Harrison. “All he has to do is step out.”), and then, to the delight of Jacqueline in particular, who stood up and clapped excitedly, performed a routine where he and Amelia danced around the stage, somehow changing the outfits they were wearing seamlessly about six times each.
“I don’t want to know,” Harrison said, grinning at Blake who clearly had the solution on the edge of his lips. Blake merely shrugged and folded his arms.
At last, the illusion that Harrison had been waiting for appeared on stage as the curtains were opened again to reveal the cabinet that he had painted.
Amelia stood by the box and smiled at the audience as Sebastian stepped forwards with a dramatic flourish of his cloak.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, “we are coming to the end of tonight’s show.”
“Aww!” cried a voice from the back of the room. Harrison glanced behind him and saw that it was Jacqueline. Next to her, Tom merely raised a disdainful eyebrow then caught Harrison’s eye and winked. Harrison pretended he had not seen and faced the front again.
“I now bring your attention to one of the most mystifying of illusions, that of dematerialisation,” Sebastian continued, indicating the cabinet. “Before your very eyes, my beautiful assistant will be placed inside this cabinet. What will then happen will amaze you.”
“I feel a bit bad,” Blake whispered to Harrison as Amelia was led inside the cabinet. “I should have given him a few wrong answers before I told him the right one.”
“Or,” Harrison said with a chuckle, “pretended that you had no idea how it was done whatsoever.”
Blake shrugged and then craned his neck in an attempt to see backstage. “Benjamin looks like he’s as ready for this to end as I am,” he muttered.
Harrison leaned across and spotted Benjamin in the wings. He was glaring furiously at Sebastian with his arms crossed, then spotted that he could be seen from the audience and took a few steps backwards so he was out of sight.
“For this trick,” Sebastian announced, as Amelia stepped inside the cabinet, “I will allow you, the audience, to see the magic from all angles!”
He waved his arms to indicate above the stage. The mirror was lowered down, giving the audience a full view of the back of the box
“This is not just a trick where my assistant sneaks out the back,” Sebastian said. “I invite you to watch all corners of the stage very carefully. Is it possible for someone to disappear, while levitating above our heads? As I will now demonstrate, it most certainly is.”
A murmuring of intrigue rippled around the audience as the cabinet, with Amelia inside, began to rise above the stage.
“Now, the trick is not how is the levitating possible,” Sebastian continued, pacing around the stage beneath the elevating cabinet. “You can see the wires. But how is it possible for Amelia to vanish before your very eyes in a box of that size?”
Sebastian stepped forwards and turned towards the cabinet. Amelia gave a last wave to the audience and then closed the door to the cabinet.
A few moments later, Sebastian raised his hands in the air and the audience was temporarily blinded by the flash of the smoke blast from the front of the stage. Then, the cabinet door fell open and Amelia was revealed to have completely disappeared.
The audience around them applauded loudly and Sebastian stepped forwards, a huge smirk on his face, and bowed deeply.
The applause continued as Arthur stood up in an attempt to
give Sebastian a standing ovation. Some of the other councillors on the front row took his cue and stood too. Blake just gave them a derisive look and continued politely applauding from his seat, unlike Jacqueline who was on her feet cheering loudly. Harrison could not help laughing as she elbowed Tom in his side to get him to stand up as well. He rolled his eyes and was on his feet, clapping slowly and unenthusiastically.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” Sebastian said loudly. “But it would be unfair of me to take all the credit for all you’ve seen tonight, so how about getting the gorgeous Amelia back to enjoy your applause too?”
With a flourish of his hands, the cabinet was slowly lowered down to the floor again.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my beautiful assistant, Amelia Klein!” Sebastian exclaimed. He opened the cabinet door and smiled expectantly at the audience.
The applause quickly died down and there was silence in the room. The cabinet was still empty. Sebastian stared at where his daughter should have been standing, looking confused, then laughed as he closed the door again.
“You can never completely trust dematerialisation,” he chuckled. Harrison could see he was slightly flustered as he glanced backstage to where he could imagine Benjamin was standing.
“What the hell is he doing?” Blake murmured. “Where is she?”
Sebastian whacked the side of the cabinet and gave another dramatic flourish of his hands. “That should do it,” he announced. “Ladies and gentlemen, Amelia Klein!”
Again, he opened the door and again, nothing happened. Amelia was nowhere to be seen.
A confused murmur echoed around the room from the audience. Sebastian appeared at a loss for words as he glanced around the cabinet and then openly looked backstage and mouthed something at Benjamin. A moment later, he turned back to the audience and held his arms out.
“Thank you very much!”
A slow smattering of applause rippled around the room as the curtains closed, finally hiding Sebastian from view.
“Something’s wrong,” Blake said, above the bemused chatter from the audience around them.
“What’s going on?” Harrison asked as Blake stood up. “Wasn’t she supposed to be back in the cabinet at the end of that?”
“Yes,” Blake replied shortly. He was now pushing past the few people in front of him and making his way to the steps on the side of the stage, jogging up them. Harrison quickly followed as Blake disappeared behind the curtains.
5
When Blake walked backstage, he found Sebastian and Benjamin standing around the cabinet in the middle of what looked like a furious row.
“Where the hell is she?” Sebastian exclaimed. “Is this some sort of joke?”
Benjamin appeared just as confused as the man shouting at him. “I have no idea!” he told him, holding his hands out. “I was doing exactly what I always do with this trick, Sebastian, you saw me! I made the cabinet rise up and then lowered it again, nothing else was any different!”
“Something the matter?” Blake asked, folding his arms.
Sebastian jumped, clearly seeing Blake standing behind him for the first time.
“Mr Harte,” he said smoothly. “We don’t normally have audience members back here. If you’d like to just wait, I can come and do a Q&A shortly.”
“The only Q I have is where has your daughter gone?” Blake replied, walking towards the open cabinet. “I thought she was supposed to be revealed again at the end of the trick?”
“She was!” Benjamin replied, his eyes wide. “I don’t get what’s happened here!”
“Like hell you don’t,” Sebastian snapped, pointing angrily at the young stagehand. “You have done something to try and make me look a fool just because it’s your last show. You and Amelia have worked something out, for what reason I couldn’t possibly fathom, but this has to be you!”
“Do I take it,” Blake said loudly, stepping forwards, to prevent Sebastian from flying at Benjamin, “that you don’t actually know where Amelia is?”
He opened the door of the cabinet wide and examined the interior. The area where he had worked out that Amelia would normally be hiding looked empty. Blake frowned as he felt around the box. Apart from the secret compartment on the bottom, it was as narrow and cramped as it appeared from the audience. As Benjamin and Sebastian continued bickering, Blake glanced up at the mirror above the stage. He could see his own confused expression staring back at him. There did not seem to be any way for Amelia to escape from the cabinet, especially while suspended above the stage, without them seeing something. Yet, it appeared that she had, somehow, done just that.
“Do you think that if I knew where she was that I would have closed the show in such humiliating fashion?” fumed Sebastian. “I am the victim of a cruel practical joke here and I will not stand for it.” He turned back to Benjamin and thrust a finger into his face. “Tell me where she is!”
“I don’t know!” shouted Benjamin. “Although, if you ask me, wherever she’s gone, she’s better there than anywhere near you!”
“Alright, enough,” Blake said sharply.
“Blake,” Harrison said from behind them. “Shouldn’t you call in some people from the station? I mean, nobody knows where she is.”
“I can’t,” Blake replied as he turned towards Sebastian and folded his arms. “Because I don’t know that she’s actually missing, do I? For all I know, all this could just be the result of you not especially liking that I worked out how this trick is performed.”
Sebastian stared at Blake, eyes wide. “Me? You think this has something to do with me?”
“Well, you are the magician,” Blake said, shrugging. “I’m sure there’s another way this trick can be performed, well, clearly there is, and you could have just decided to perform it the other way. You could know exactly where Amelia is hiding.”
“Mr Harte,” Sebastian began, but he was interrupted by a new arrival from behind the curtain.
Arthur Stanbury was standing there, a look of bemusement on his face at what he was seeing.
“Sebastian? What’s going on?” he asked. “Is everything alright? I rather got the sense that something had gone wrong at the end of the show.”
“Everything’s fine, Arthur,” Sebastian said, with a brief, furious glare at Blake.
“Where’s Amelia?” Arthur asked, looking around. “It’s so silly of me, but it looked as though you’d lost her when you opened that cabinet door again. Too magical for your own good, eh?”
He let out a hearty chuckle which quickly dissipated when he realised that nobody else was laughing.
“You do know where she is, don’t you?”
Sebastian sighed. “Not exactly, no.”
Arthur’s mouth fell open. Blake was surprised to see that he looked absolutely horrified.
“Blake’s a detective,” Harrison explained to him, nodding his head in Blake’s direction. “He was just trying to find out what’s going on.”
Arthur appeared to go slightly pale. “You’re police?”
“That’s right,” Blake replied. “Do you have anything to offer as to where Amelia might have gone?”
“Me? No, no, of course not. Why would I?” He turned to Sebastian. “You should find her though, Sebastian. I mean, for goodness sake, what sort of magician makes someone disappear without having any idea where they’ve gone? You must have some idea. I mean, we all watched her go into that cabinet. There can’t be that many places she could have vanished to!”
“I don’t have any idea, Arthur,” Sebastian fumed. “Though I do have a pretty good idea who might.”
“No, you don’t,” Benjamin replied flatly. “Anyway, I’m done. Last show is finished, no matter how weirdly, and now you can pay me.”
“Pay you?” Sebastian exclaimed, with a humourless laugh. “You think I’m going to pay you for humiliating me in this fashion? You’re not getting a penny out of me.”
“That’s really not a good idea, Sebastian,” Benjamin told him. �
��You know the damage I can do to you.”
“You’ve got nothing on me! Other than wild accusations with absolutely no substance to them whatsoever.”
“Oh, I’ve got substance, don’t you worry about that!” Benjamin snarled. He stormed towards Sebastian and poked him hard in the chest. “Now, pay me what I’m owed!”
“It’s not my fault you’ve got nothing in your life to run back too!” Sebastian roared. “You made sure of that. You should be thanking me on bended knee for getting you out of the mess you created for yourself. You’re a criminal, and a liar. You’ll be lucky to get a job clearing dog dirt in the park by the time I’m through with you!”
Blake stepped forwards and pulled the two men apart.
“That’s enough!” he said through gritted teeth.
The sound of a ringing phone echoed around them, shattering the tension. Sebastian pulled himself free from Blake’s hold and pulled his mobile out of his pocket.
“Who the hell has sent me this?” he murmured staring at the screen and then tapping it.
“Sebastian, I think things are getting a little fraught here,” Arthur said, stepping forwards. “Whatever has gone on with Amelia, I’m sure it’s nothing that can’t be sorted out with just sitting down over a drink and discussing things. You know what teenage girls can be like. They thrive on drama. I’m sure that if we just called her…”
“Oh my God,” Sebastian gasped, his eyes wide at what he was seeing on his phone.
“What?” Blake asked.
“This is…How is this possible?” Sebastian seemed completely unaware of everyone around him. He was just staring at the screen of his phone, his mouth open.
Blake pulled the phone out of his hands and looked at the screen.
Sebastian had been sent a video by an unknown number. As he pressed play, the video showed what looked to be a dark warehouse. There, tied to a wooden chair, was Amelia. She was visibly crying and whimpering, a white rag tied around her mouth in place of a gag.
“What the hell?” Blake murmured.