Chapter Eight
Eight
“I t was a beautiful service,” Simone said, sipping her champagne in the vast back garden of Martha’s family’s Lake Forest mansion. “And this celebration of life is so much fun. You’ve really outdone yourself.”
“It was a first for us,” Chloe said brightly. “We’ve never done a circus-themed celebration of life.”
Chloe helped me with weekend events and we’d been up since five a.m. making sure everything was perfect, from the red-and-white-striped marquee to the authentic center ring complete with clowns, jugglers, fire-eaters, and trained poodles. I’d been worried that the festive party would be too much of a shock after the funeral, but event companies had to be flexible, even if the client’s demands were a little extreme, and even if the event planner had other things on her mind. The charade with Jack had brought back a myriad of feelings I didn’t want to admit, from the pain of his absence to the warmth of his kiss, and the terrible choice that loomed on the horizon.
“The magician was a great idea,” she continued. “He pulled a coin out of my ear, and he guessed the card I had in my hand.”
Her words pulled me away from bad thoughts and into the moment. “I didn’t hire a magician.”
Simone frowned. “Maybe he’s a guest.”
“I’ll go and find him and check the situation out,” Chloe said. “We wouldn’t want people’s wallets and jewelry to disappear.”
“When do I get to meet your friends to talk about the missing necklace?” Simone asked after Chloe had gone. “It’s so exciting. My friend Moira thinks I should dress in black and wear a mask, so I’m not recognized if we have to engage in any nefarious deeds. I’ve got a pair of Prada nappa leather gloves that fit over my nails and will ensure I don’t leave fingerprints behind. They’re as soft as butter.”
“As of right now, the necklace isn’t where we thought it was,” I told her. “Someone stole it before we could get to it. We’re meeting tomorrow to try and figure out what to do.” I wanted to keep Simone’s involvement to a minimum. It was totally unfair that Angelini would include her when all she’d done was make an innocent introduction to help a new friend.
“I just love a good mystery,” Simone said. “There was an unfortunate incident on our street when I was young, and a homicide detective came out to investigate. I was fascinated by his work, and he was kind enough to let me follow him around and answer my questions. For the longest time afterward, I wanted to become a detective, but my father was appalled. No one in our family has ever worked. It just isn’t done.”
“That’s very cool, Simone. You never mentioned an interest in criminal investigation before.”
“It was a long time ago,” she said. “My father made me study art history in college. He thought it would be more useful in our social circle. He introduced me to Richard the day after I graduated. I was surprised my father even knew him and even more surprised he was considering him as a son-in-law. Richard isn’t one of us. He’s a self-made tech billionaire. Very new money. We went out for dinner twice, and then he proposed.”
“That was fast. Was it love at first sight?” I’d definitely felt a spark the first time I met Jack, even though he was holding me hostage in the bushes.
She gave a resigned sigh and shrugged. “It wasn’t about love. My grandfather and my father lost most of the family fortune in bad investments and they needed Richard’s money. They pushed me into the marriage as a way of saving the estate and the family name. Richard needed someone to guide him through high society and manage all the charity work and social events that go with having wealth. Our marriage made sense. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy helping people, but this world I live in can be stifling at times. Sometimes I just want to do something reckless, something that makes me feel alive.”
I understood that feeling. I hadn’t felt truly alive until Jack had walked into my life and turned it upside down. “Our current situation should make you feel alive, at least until we’re dead,” I said dryly.
Simone laughed. “So funny, darling. Only bad guys wind up dead, and that’s not us.”
After Simone had left to find her friend, I wandered around the reception making sure that the waiters were keeping glasses filled, the trays of food were full and fresh, and the circus performers were entertaining the guests. In the end, I didn’t have to hunt down the magician. He found me just as I caught up with Chloe near the photo booth.
“Ladies.” He removed his top hat and gave a deep bow. “Magic Mike at your service.”
Tall and muscular with cold, hard eyes and a grim smile, the magician wore a black suit and mottled green tie. His neck was fully inked with skulls and roses on one side and fanged snakes and thorn-covered ladders on the other. His white collared shirt was open to display three heavy gold chains that glinted in the sunlight along with the five gold hoops that pierced his left earlobe. Menace dripped from his every pore.
“I was just looking for you,” Chloe said. “Are you with the entertainment company? Or are you a guest?”
“Neither.” The magician reached out and pulled a coin from behind my ear. He placed it in my hand. “We have a mutual friend who is concerned that Simi wasn’t paying attention when he paid her a visit.”
I felt the blood drain from my face, and I looked around to make sure no one could overhear us. Why had Angelini sent one of his men here? Did he have a gun? Were the guests at risk? Was he going to shoot me in cold blood? My insurance policy didn’t cover massacre by magician.
“I was paying attention,” I said. “I got the message.”
“If you got the message, you wouldn’t be running around trying to buy fake passports in West Englewood.”
Oh God. We were followed. Bile rose in my throat as he pulled a second coin from my ear and added it to the first in my palm.
“He has to understand that from my point of view, the whole thing seems a bit crazy,” I persisted. “I’m just an ordinary woman. I run an event-planning business. I don’t get involved in this kind of stuff.”
“Apparently you do.” He pulled a third coin from behind my ear and dropped it in my palm. His voice dropped to a low growl. “He gave you four weeks. If I were you, I’d stop wasting time trying to run from your problems and get busy trying to solve them.”
“It’s gone,” Chloe blurted out. “The necklace was in a museum in India, and someone stole it. We have no idea where it is.”
“Our mutual acquaintance thought you’d come up with more excuses, so he’s provided another incentive.” The magician held up his phone and showed me a picture that made my stomach heave. Cristian—I only knew it was him because he had on the same green Save the Whales T-shirt he’d worn on Friday when he walked out on us—was chained to a chair in a dimly lit room. His face was badly swollen and covered in blood. He had two black eyes and a bloody lip, and his shirt was torn, revealing deep gashes on his chest.
My breath left me in a rush. Chloe gasped out loud.
“Let him go,” she whispered. “Please. He didn’t participate in the heist. At least not the first part. He walked out when he found out about the—”
“Shh.” I grabbed her arm, nodding at Simone, who was walking toward us, a furrow in her brow.
“You involve the police; he dies.” The magician’s face morphed into a mask of menace. “Find the necklace or our mutual friend will gut you all like fish.” He tucked away his phone just as Simone joined us on the grass.
“Simi?” She looked from me to the magician and back to me. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes.” I forced a smile and dabbed the moisture from my eyes. “We were just marveling at the magician’s tricks.”
With a flourish, the magician produced another coin and added it to my collection. “That makes four,” he said. “It’s a lucky number, or unlucky if you waste any more time.”
Simone studied him for a long moment and then put her arm around my waist. “I’ll have to tear you away. I want to introduce you and Chloe to my friend Moira. She’s dying to meet you both.”
“Of course.” I shot one last pleading glance over my shoulder at the magician, who slowly drew a finger across his throat.
“He’s a bad guy, isn’t he?” Simone whispered. “I saw the tattoos, and of course your face looked like death. Should I get the security guards to escort him out?”
“He came to deliver a message from Tony Angelini. I don’t think he’s going to stick around. I just don’t understand how he got in. Everyone was vetted and I have security at the door.”
Simone introduced us to Moira. By the time we’d finished our conversation, the magician had disappeared.
“This situation just gets worse and worse.” I swiped two glasses of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter after Simone had gone to see Moira out. I handed one to Chloe and downed my drink in two big gulps to the tinny sound of “Entry of the Gladiators” played by one of the clowns on a toy piano. “If someone did rat us out to the mob…”
“You’re going to kill them,” Chloe said firmly.
“No.”
“You’re going to beat them to a pulp?”
“Babe…” I stared at her, aghast. Chloe was a sunshine-and-flowers kind of person. She loved floral dresses, romance novels, and tall, dark, and handsome men with tortured souls. During our last heist, she’d discovered she also had a tough side, but she was still cottage-core inside.
Chloe gave my arm an affectionate squeeze. “Don’t worry. Whatever you want to do—kidnapping, beating, torture, even murder—I’ll be right there with a shovel.”