Deadly Magic (32 page)

“
But wait a minute,” Belle said, “if Daniel returned the money—”

“
Valerie took it back out right before Ethan killed him. They knew Daniel would be blamed for it. He had already admitted to Louisa his affair and the embezzlement.”

“
We were also hoping it would force Straker into closing the company. We left just enough so the toy store could continue to operate and Val would have a job. I thought for sure if the money was gone Belle would leave, but no such luck.”

“
That’s why you had to get rid of her. That’s why you attacked her in the stairwell. You saw her walking up the stairs, and never one to let an opportunity to slip by, you snatched a hood from the Magic Shoppe, followed her to the stairs, saw you both were alone and tried to push her down. You didn’t mistake her for me.”

“We were never after you, Grace. We just wanted to scare you off.” Valerie said.

“But you wouldn’t stop investigating. Well, Grace,” Ethan leveled the gun at her. “It has been fun.”

Thinking fast, Grace blurt
ed out, “I was a bit confused why you insisted I be part of the crystal chest act.”

“
It didn’t have to be you. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t Valerie.” He glared down at Val. “She backed out at the last moment. She threatened to tell everyone. I couldn’t take the chance that she wouldn’t panic and say something stupid or warn Dragovich, so I tried to get Tabitha to take you instead. Stupid girl. She saw me waving at her and still went to Val. I’m betting Lily told her to do it. Everyone knew Val had a fear of enclosed spaces. Luckily, Straker spoke up when he did.”

“
If you didn’t want to be involved then why didn’t you say something right then, Val?”

“
Yeah, Val, why didn’t you?” Ethan mocked.

“
He convinced me that he had changed his mind. We were going back to our original plan. Trying to convince Straker that Lily was cheating. He showed me Lily’s pendant and underwear. He said he was going to plant them under the couch in Dragovich’s dressing room. Once the show was over and we were in the back celebrating his birthday, I was supposed to drag them out from underneath the couch and show them to Straker. I had no idea that he was actually going to go through with killing Lily.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “You two,” he said, gesturing at Kyle and Grace, “move.”

Grace lifted her hands. “Wait. Just one more question. Why did you destroy the dolls in Allen’s office?”

Ethan and Valerie exchanged confused glances.
Ethan gave a low chuckle. “What?”

“Allen told me that someone broke into his office and destroyed my dolls.”

Kyle made a noise in his throat. All eyes turned to him. He looked sheepishly at Grace. “It was an accident. I was searching his office and accidently knocked against his bookcase.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Grace asked.

Kyle shrugged. “I told Straker, but he said not to worry about it.”

Ethan aimed the gun at Kyle’s chest. “Time to say bye-bye, you two.”

“Do you really expect to get away with this?” Belle asked. “You can’t kill us all. The police are going to figure it out.”

“And you can forget about trying to pin this on our father. No one’s going to believe that my father kill
ed either one of us,” Kyle said, gesturing between him and Belle.

“Well,” Belle said, “Definitely, not me.”

“That’s right,” Kyle agreed. “They’ll never believe it.”

“
Oh, I’m not going to try to frame Dragovich again. I thought about it, but I decided it would make more sense to frame one of you. Like you, Belle.” Ethan turned the gun on Belle. “So, you see I’m not going to kill all of you. Just you. After I caught you killing them. The police will believe it. They’ll find your pendant in Tabitha’s hand, too. I’ll let them know, that I found you here, with three dead bodies. You tried to kill me and I shot you in self-defense.” He inclined his head towards Valerie. “Grace’s best friend will back me up. Won’t you sweetheart?”

Valerie look
ed down at the floor.

“
Won’t you sweetheart?” he asked a little more forcefully.

“
We don’t have to kill them.”

“
Valerie. We already talked about this.”

“
I bet Belle and Kyle will keep their mouths shut if we cut them in on the deal.”

Kyle and Belle both began talking over each other in their haste to agree.

“Absolutely.”

“
Not a word.”

“
You can count on us.”

“
Shut up!” Ethan snapped.

Valerie persisted.
“We’ll lock Grace up in our apartment. Once Belle is married to Straker, she can get access to his account. We’ll move the money over to a Swiss bank account just as we discussed. We’ll split it four ways.”

“
No. I’m not splitting anything.”

“
Really,” Kyle said, pointing to Belle, “we’re brother and sister. I don’t mind sharing one share with her.”

Belle quickly agre
ed with her brother.

“
Shut up!”

“And what happens to me, while you two are hightailing it to the islands?”
Grace asked.

“
We’ll call the police and let them know where you are when we’re safe,” Valerie said.

Ethan
laughed bitterly. “You are such a stupid—” He swallowed whatever he was going to say. He roughly pushed her away from him. “Go stand with them.”

Valerie wheel
ed around. “You need me, remember? You can’t get to Straker’s money without me.”

Grace felt Kyle wrap his fingers around her arm.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Belle take a side step away from her.

Ethan was s
o focused on Valerie that he didn’t notice. “There are a million of women just like you,” he spat out. “I can find someone else. Someone Straker would prefer. Or maybe now that that lush of a daughter of his is a widow, she’ll be more agreeable. Go stand with them!” he barked, pushing her in front of Grace.

“
Then you’ll just kill off father and daughter.” Valerie’s voice began to rise. “You don’t think that would look a bit suspicious, sweetie. Especially with all that’s been going on around here? You can’t do this without me. I’ve got news for you lover, if anything happens to me; a letter is going to be mailed to the district attorney’s office. I don’t think you’re going to like what it says. Oh by the way, I still have Daniel’s letter, too. I didn’t destroy it.”

“
Shut up,” he shouted, turning the gun on Valerie. “I don’t need you.”

Grace watch
ed out of the side of her eye as Belle inched closer to the elevator. Kyle gripped her arm tighter, as he and his sister exchanged a look. Hands trembling, Belle reached for the side of the elevator.

Suddenly,
Ethan swung his gun around. Pointing it at Belle, he snarled, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Grace felt her heart drop. Whatever escape Belle had plann
ed, was obviously not going to work. Belle dropped her hand and shrugged. She caught her brother’s eye, a small smile playing around her lips.

There was a rumbling sound as the elevator rose.
Ethan looked at Valerie in confusion. “I thought you said the elevator wouldn’t come up to the attic.”

Valerie shook her head.
“It’s not supposed to. The power’s off. It shouldn’t be moving at all.”

They watch
ed intently as the doors slowly opened. Ethan trained his gun on the interior. His gaze fell to the elevator floor. He took a surprised step back as Valerie screamed.

Lily was sitting on the floor of the elevator, smiling up at them.
Ethan fired his gun, but Lily didn’t move—didn’t even flinch. Kyle stepped around her. He rushed Ethan before he had a chance to swing the gun around. They struggled briefly before Kyle was able to push Ethan into the elevator. Ethan screamed as he fell through the floor of the elevator.

E
PILOGUE

“
How’s Tabitha?” Grace
asked, lounging on her sofa, a cold washcloth over her eyes.

Belle laid the phone back into its cradle.
“She’s awake and talking to the police right now. She’s going to be fine.”

“
Good,” Kyle said from somewhere nearby. “What about Ethan?”

“
Two broken legs,” Belle called out from the vicinity of her bedroom.

“
Good thing the elevator was just on the next floor.” Grace lifted the edge of the washcloth. Kyle was leaning back in the armchair with his feet propped up on the coffee table. Abry was curled up on his lap. A happy grin spreading across his face. “I still don’t understand how you two pulled it off.”

He shook his head.
“A magician never reveals his secrets.”

“
A holograph?”

She watch
ed as the grin fell from his face. “It’s not fun if you try to guess.”

“
What was your plan, exactly?”

“
We were going to lure Ethan up to the attic and force a confession.” He screwed up his face. “We weren’t ready yet. He actually wasn’t supposed to fall through the floor. We were going to set up a nice little cage for him.”

“
How long have you known that Ethan was the killer?”

“
All along.”

Outrag
ed, she sat up and glared at him. “You knowingly let me date a murderer.”

He shook his head.
“I didn’t really know until Tabitha called us from your office. Until then, I just suspected him.”

“
Why?”

He shrugg
ed. “He had shifty eyes. Besides, we didn’t know if you were involved or not.” When she continued to glare at him, he said defensively, “You suspected him too and you didn’t say anything to us. Besides, I was watching out for you.”

Slightly mollifi
ed she laid back down.

He gently pett
ed the bunny’s ears. “I just wished we had more time.”

“
Why? It worked.” Grace laid the washcloth back over her eyes before lifting the corner back up again. “How did you get the elevator working without the power?”

“
It wasn’t.” His eyes went wide as he wiggled his fingers at her. “It was just an illusion. We set up a small generator to run the hologram and open the doors. While Belle was distracting Ethan, I was reaching for the remote control lying on one of the boxes.”

Grace dropp
ed the washcloth and faced the window. The rain from the night before had turned to snow and was now blanketing the city. She smiled at the winter wonderland outside of her window.

Belle walk
ed out of her bedroom, dragging a suitcase. “Are you sure I can keep this?” Belle asked, holding up a green sleeveless sundress.

“
Merry Christmas.” Grace patted her velvet couch. “Or better yet, consider it an early wedding present.”

Kyle, sitting next to her
, crossed his arms, and shook his head disapprovingly. “He’s going to be furious. You know he doesn’t like Michael.”

“
That’s just because Papa doesn’t know him. Once he gets to know Michael, he’ll love him as much as I do.”

Kyle roll
ed his eyes.

“
Well, surely, he’ll be happier having Michael as a son-in-law than Straker,” Grace pointed out.

“
Oh, Papa never believed I was really going to marry Franklin. He knew it was just a trick to lure out Lily’s killer.”

“
How did you two know that the killer was after anyone who was with Straker?”

“
We didn’t really,” Kyle admitted. “It just seemed strange how determined they were to either kill Lily or try to break up her marriage. We knew that Preston was going to die soon and leave Franklin a small fortune. So, we figured someone wanted Lily out of the way, so they could inherit instead.”

“We thought it was Louisa at first—with
Daniel’s help—Then we thought it was Harcourt. He was the only one around who could have pulled off the spectral illusion in the elevator. But we also thought someone might try to seduce Straker in the hopes of inheriting his money,” Belle said walking back through the living room. “We just didn’t know who.”

“Why didn’t you just wait?” Grace asked. “Valerie was trying her best to seduce him. You would have known it was her if you had just waited.”

Kyle shook his head. “Do you know how many women are after Straker?”

Belle smiled. “I went out with him one night before I started work at the company, women were flocking to him in droves. You
should have seen them after Lily died. Women were hitting on him at the funeral home.”

“Jackie made a pass at him too,” Kyle said.

Grace closed her mouth. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Franklin is very charming,” Belle said simply.

“When?” Grace asked in shock.

Belle
didn’t answer, instead, she said, “We decided to force the killer’s hand.”

“They
figured that if Belle stepped in, the killer would have to strike again,” Kyle said.

“So, you used your sister for bait,” Grace asked horrified.

“It wasn’t my idea,” Kyle said a tad bit defensively. “Straker and Belle came up with the idea. I was just as surprised as everyone else when they announced their engagement. She was going to go through with it whether I wanted her to or not. I told her it was a bad idea.”

“
No, it wasn’t. It worked. Besides, like I told Kyle, we had no choice,” Belle said. “We knew the killer had tried to frame our father in case the cops didn’t buy that Lily committed suicide. Not only that, but Lily was our friend. We loved her. We couldn’t let her killer get away with it. Anyway, the day Straker announced his engagement and I was attacked on the staircase, we knew we were on the right track.”

“
Have you and Michael set the date, yet?” Grace asked.

Belle shook her head.
“It won’t be until after we return from Europe. We’re doing a six-month tour overseas. I’ve convinced Papa to let Michael perform with us. You know, give them a chance to get to know each other.”

“
Before or after you break the news of your engagement to the old man?”

“
I’m going to tell him soon. I’m just waiting for the best time.”

Kyle made a noise in his throat. His sister threw him a dirty look as she walk
ed back into her bedroom. He flashed Grace a smile. “They could have a double wedding with Allen and Louisa.”

Grace groan
ed. “Don’t remind me. I’ve been sick all morning.”

“Oh. I think it’ll be nice having
Allen as a boss,” Kyle said teasingly. “Just think of all of the changes that are coming. Straker retiring in four months; Allen and Louisa getting married; Allen’s sudden promotion—”

“I’m going to have to find a new job.”
Grace looked over at Kyle. “What about you? Are you going to join your dad’s show too?”

Kyle laugh
ed bitterly. “Sure, if I want to sit quietly in the audience and not make a sound.” He looked at her shyly. “I kind of like working here with you. Franklin said I could stay if it was okay with you?”

Grace smil
ed. “It’s only four months until Straker retires, after that we’ll be lucky if we don’t get demoted to the toy store. Speaking of the toy store, I still need to have a little talk with Jackie.”

“I think there’s been enough
ugliness around here, don’t you?” Kyle asked.

“Speak
ing of ugliness, Ethan received a mug shot of Aleksis Dragovich. Whose mug shot—”

“Oh. That was my
cellmate. Nice guy. Well, for a convicted murderer. I figured Ethan would eventually start trying to check me out, so I talked one of the Columbian cops into sending in his photo instead of mine if anyone called.”

“How did you manage that?”

Kyle shrugged. “I have a way with people.”

“Good,” she said hopefully, “maybe you can convince Allen not to fire us on the spot
four months from now.”

“Don’t worry. I think Allen likes me.
By the time I’m through, we’ll be running the toy company.”