As if by Magic (3 page)

‘I weren’t nowhere, man.’

‘Well you’ve got a pretty convincing twin then. Come on, just tell me what you were doing and I’ll leave you alone.’

‘You got any fags?’

‘No.’

‘You wanna go get me some?’

‘No, and I’m not giving you money for booze, fags or anything else.’

Tony sighed in annoyance then dug around in his jacket pocket before taking his balled fist out and grinning manically, his crooked yellow teeth clear for her to see. ‘Never mind, I’ve got this.’

Jessica resisted the urge to roll her eyes. ‘What’s in your hand?’

Tony started laughing and then reached into his other pocket and took out a small bottle of vodka, holding it between his knees and unscrewing the cap before swigging heavily from it and then returning it to his pocket. Jessica repeated her question.

‘Which hand?’ Tony replied.

Jessica exhaled noisily in annoyance. ‘I’m losing patience Tony. You can either tell me, or I’ll have you arrested for public drinking, a public order offence for leaving that box or, more importantly, pissing me off on a Friday when I’m supposed to be off work.’

Tony unballed his fist to reveal a scrunched twenty pound note.

‘Who gave you that?’ Jessica asked.

‘Some guy.’

‘
Which
guy?’

Tony shrugged, pocketing the money before reaching into his other pocket for the alcohol. Jessica grabbed his wrist and held it tightly.

‘
Which
guy?’ she repeated.

The man looked at her, eyes glazed and bloodshot. His words were slurred but simple enough to understand. ‘This bloke in a suit said he’d give me twenty quid if I left some box in the station for him.’

THREE

Tony’s rambling story involved theories about secret agents, the government and the President of the United States, but the basic premise was that he had been walking around a street or two away from Piccadilly looking for somewhere to get alcohol, when a young man in a suit had approached him and offered him money to leave the box in the station. According to him, the initial offer had been ten pounds but Tony had negotiated the price.

They left Dave’s car parked on the road and walked quickly through the streets back towards the train station to check the location Tony had told them about. The sun had finally begun to rise in the sky, breaking through the standard greyness and making it feel unseasonably warm.

The spot Tony had mentioned was at a junction where a smaller street led on to the main throughway. Jessica and Dave stood next to each other looking at the surrounding buildings, although it was quickly clear there were no CCTV cameras overlooking the spot.

‘Do you believe him?’ Dave asked.

‘I’m not sure he’s sober enough to make it up.’ Jessica pulled out the “have fun” note from her pocket and looked at the words again, reading them out loud, before adding: ‘He’s a nuisance but I can’t see him running around leaving toys from the 1980s for us to find, along with well-wishes.’

‘But why would someone pay him to leave it?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘You know they’re going to be pissed off we’re not in Wakefield, don’t you? Especially when they find out we’re on a wild goose chase over a Rubik’s cube.’

Jessica ignored him, although she knew he was right. ‘It’s all very strange... We’re probably missing something obvious because we’re too normal – well I am. Instead of training days, we should spend our budget on a weird expert.’

Dave met Jessica’s eyes and they spoke together, grins spreading on both of their faces.

‘Hugo.’

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hugo, real name Francis, was a part-time magician and an old friend of Dave’s from university.
He had helped them solve a case a few years ago
, although Jessica wasn’t entirely keen on letting him know that. Finding him shouldn’t have been too hard – except that he had recently decided to stop carrying a mobile phone as part of something he called an “elaborate piece of performance art”. In essence, he appeared to be trying to prove he could live without electricity, although to whom he was trying to show it and, perhaps more importantly, why, were questions no-one seemed to know the answers to, including Hugo.

Jessica and Dave drove to his flat, which was situated above a bookmakers in Stockport. The weather had quickly taken a turn for the worse, the mid-morning sun now blocked out by a wave of dark clouds which seemed to swirl overhead out of nowhere. Jessica had been dressed for a simple train journey and a weekend stay in a swanky country home – a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt she was relieved to discover still fitted, despite the fact it had been in her wardrobe for as long as she could remember. It would have been perfectly casual for a weekend of trying to subvert the training process but wasn’t ideal for a rapidly cooling Manchester afternoon.

‘You could offer me your jacket,’ she complained to Dave as they stepped out of his car on to the pavement outside the bookmakers.

‘Why didn’t you bring your own?’ Dave said, pulling his thick-looking green coat tighter around him in a way Jessica thought he was doing deliberately to annoy her.

‘Because I didn’t think we’d be traipsing around Manchester looking for your mental friend.’

‘You’re the one who chose to open that box.’

‘... And you’re the one who chose to cower in the corner close to tears as I did it.’

‘Is that you sweet-talking me into giving you my coat?’

Jessica laughed. ‘Well are you going to give it to me?’

‘Nope.’

Jessica blew into her hands and rubbed them together, hoping for sympathy. They walked around to the rear of the shop to Hugo’s door but, as she went to press the buzzer, Jessica noticed there was a space on the wall where it used to be.

‘Battery-operated,’ Dave said, as if that helped explain Hugo’s actions.

Jessica knocked loudly on the door but there was no response, other than a woman across the road poking her head out of a top window and screeching at them to shut up. Jessica could have pointed out that her shrieking was making far more of a disturbance than they were but the woman had already banged the window closed after a volley of swear words.

‘Lovely woman,’ Jessica said, turning to face Dave.

‘So where do you reckon Hugo is?’ Dave asked with a shrug.

‘He’s your friend.’

‘Yes...’ Dave replied thoughtfully. ‘Somewhere weird.’

‘Or maybe, he’s somewhere completely normal, which would be weirder than him actually being somewhere weird?’

‘A sort of double bluff?’

‘Exactly.’

‘That does sound like the type of thing he would do...’

Jessica turned around to survey the surroundings. The area was fairly run-down, with the betting shop sitting in the middle of what was otherwise a normal housing estate. There was a shopping trolley in the garden of a house opposite, and a collection of something that looked like bicycle wheels on the patio of the property next door. If Jessica had seen a horse in the one next to that, she would have only been half-surprised.

‘See anything?’ she asked.

‘I think there’s a park over the back of those houses,’ Dave said pointing in the opposite direction to where Jessica had been looking. With nothing else in the way of an idea, and the fact there were few places she would be surprised to see Hugo showing up, they set off through an alleyway that fell between two houses.

‘This coat is lovely and warm,’ Dave said, zipping it up as they walked.

‘You’re such a dick.’

‘What’s it worth for me to lend you my jacket?’

‘I won’t physically pin you to the floor, cause you enormous physical harm, and then take it anyway.’

‘Get out of it,’ Dave scoffed, although he didn’t sound quite so confident as his words. ‘What else is it worth?’

‘If you lend me your coat, I will owe you one,’ Jessica said.

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

They reached the end of the alley, where a small metal gate blocked the way. Jessica opened the clasp and held it open for Dave to go through.

‘Thank you very much,’ Dave said exaggeratedly.

Jessica thought about letting it slam while he was halfway through but gritted her teeth and said nothing. On one side was a football pitch, with a group of kids playing in one goal at the far end. On the other was a play park, with the red frame of a slide towering above everything else.

There was no hesitation as they set off across the field towards the kids’ area. Jessica grimaced as her foot sloshed through the surface of the ground, with mud covering the top of her shoe.

‘Oh for...’ she began, before stopping herself.

‘Having a good afternoon?’ Dave asked.

‘Just give me your coat.’

‘What exactly would this “owing me one” entail?’

‘Just that.’

‘So, say for example I thought my flat was a little untidy at three in the morning, I could get on the phone, give you a call and say, “Jess, you remember that ‘one’ you owe me...”?’

Jessica stepped around a puddle she did see, although she could feel water in her shoe and heard a squelching sound each step she took. ‘Yeah, try doing that and see how it goes,’ she replied.

Ahead of them, a dog raced across, while a middle-aged man a few hundred yards away bellowed “Dave!” at the top of his voice.

‘That is a brilliant name for a dog,’ Jessica said with a laugh.

As they reached the gate that separated the main park from the play area, Jessica spotted Hugo sitting by himself on the swings. As they walked towards him, they could see him kicking his legs wildly as he swung higher.

‘Having fun, Hugo?’ Jessica called as they got near to him.

Noticing them, Hugo launched himself off the front of the swing. Jessica gasped in surprise as his long dark hair flailed in the breeze but, as he landed, he completed a perfect forward roll, before leaping to his feet. Jessica blinked rapidly as Hugo walked towards them, hands in his pockets as if nothing had happened. He was wearing bright purple trousers, a white T-shirt, brown velvet blazer and a pair of wellington boots.

‘Are you cold?’ he asked Jessica.

‘A bit.’

‘Here, have this,’ he said, removing his jacket and placing it protectively around her.

Jessica slid her arms in and pulled it tight, enjoying the warmth. ‘Are you going to be all right?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I don’t get cold.’

If anyone else had said it, Jessica would have protested but she could believe almost anything Hugo had to say. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘It takes a real gentleman to do something like that.’

Dave rolled his eyes.

‘What’s with the boots?’ Jessica asked, turning back to Hugo.

‘The field’s muddy,’ he said, which Jessica had learned the hard way.

‘And the jump?’

‘I’m working on a new stunts section for the act.’

Jessica didn’t know how to reply, other than changing the subject. ‘It would be easier if you kept your mobile phone with you,’ she said.

Hugo shook his head and then started walking slowly past her. Jessica turned to follow. ‘Life’s so much easier without one.’

‘Not for anyone trying to get hold of you.’

They were walking side by side but Jessica saw him shrug out of the corner of her eye. She should have asked how the performance art project was going but wasn’t convinced she wanted to know the answer.

‘Do you want to go on the roundabout?’ he asked, grasping a faded red metal bar and gently giving it a shove.

Jessica looked around and couldn’t see anyone else in the park, although that wasn’t really the point. ‘Not really.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I’m over thirty.’

‘Bah!’ Hugo said, stopping it rotating and climbing on, before leaning back in the V between two of the bars. ‘Come on Dave,’ he said.

Dave walked past Jessica and sat on the roundabout, two sectors away from Hugo.

‘How old are you?’ Jessica asked him.

‘Not as old as you!’ came the harsh but unfortunately true reply.

Jessica gripped the bar closest to her, shoving it as hard as she could. Hugo leaned back into the centre, smiling with enjoyment but Dave’s head clanged off the bar in surprise at the unexpected start. Jessica thought she heard him call her something but, with the creak of the roundabout turning in front of her, it was largely drowned out.

It wasn’t exactly how she had expected to spend her Friday afternoon but then, where Hugo was involved, there was very little you could take for granted. As the roundabout slowed to a stop, Jessica started to walk towards the gate.

‘I’m going back to yours,’ she called over her shoulder.

She was halfway across the field, making sure she trod carefully this time, when the two men caught up to her. Hugo told them about how he had been teaching yoga once a week at a local leisure centre, which almost seemed normal for him.

Back at his flat, Hugo led them through the door behind the bookies’ and up the stairs, through the door into his apartment. Although she was expecting it, the stuffed tiger’s head which hung over the door directly opposite the entrance was still something of a shock. Jessica had visited Hugo’s flat a couple of times, but each time she felt intimidated as it stared lifelessly through her. As she had come to know him, she had discovered his love of taxidermy was one of his more mainstream interests. The tiger was over fifty years old and Hugo said he had rescued it from a skip outside of someone’s house a few years ago.

Hugo led them into the living room, where the curtains were open for the first time Jessica had known, dousing the room in a greyish, white haze. She saw candles placed strategically around the room, while there was his usual scattered selection of throws, blankets and beanbags. An armchair or sofa wasn’t something he seemed to have a need for. As ever, there was a faint odour of a substance Jessica would give the benefit of the doubt as being incense.

Jessica gave Hugo his jacket back and then lowered herself carefully on to one of the large beanbags. Above her was an elaborate chandelier that she had never seen turned on, even when Hugo had been using electricity. Tall, thick wooden bookcases lined the room, each stuffed with hardbacks. The three titles lying sideways closest to Jessica were:
A veterinarian’s guide to bovine reproduction
,
Why the world will end in 2025 – and what you can do to stop it
, and,
It’s your life, now get out there and live it.
Next to that was a selection of
Mr Men
books, while on top of that was a stuffed mouse, whose eyes seemed to be staring through her. Jessica looked away before becoming too creeped out.