Illusions of Evil (9 page)

• • •

“Mmmm, that smells good,” Nancy said as she entered the kitchen the following morning. Carson Drew was cooking breakfast. “Hey—french toast!” she noted happily. “And on a Wednesday. I hope you didn't forget to put some cinnamon in the batter.”

“Of course not,” he said with a smile. “I'm the one who taught you to make french toast, remember?” Carson reached out to give Nancy a hug. “I could see you were a little upset last night, Nancy. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was having dinner with Adriana.”

Nancy stepped back from her father and smiled. “It's okay. But I guess I
was
a little surprised.”

“And worried,” Carson added. He turned back to the stove and flipped two slices of french toast that were cooking in a large frying pan.

Nancy sat down at the kitchen table. “Maybe.” She paused. “Dad, has Adriana mentioned anything
to you about her former partner, Mikhail Grigov?”

Carson frowned. “Only that he's been trying very hard to get her to go back on the road.”

Nancy paused, searching for the right words. “He's in Conklin Falls this week. He actually warned me not to help Adriana get to the bottom of the accidents. He thinks that Riverfront is cursed.”

Carson laughed. “That's putting it a little strongly, I'd say.”

Nancy could tell that her father had no suspicions whatsoever about Adriana and Grigov, and it concerned her.

She proceeded to tell him about the incident on River Bluff Road and the fact that Sheriff Pulaski was going to question Grigov about it.

“Why didn't you mention it to Adriana last night?” Carson asked.

Nancy played with her fork for a minute. “It just didn't seem the right time,” she finally replied. “But I
will
talk to her about it today.”

“Do that,” Carson said, bringing a plate piled high with french toast to the table and sitting down. “Now, dig in before it gets cold.”

As they ate, they chatted about the upcoming hearing. When they finished, Carson pushed his chair back. “I'd better get to the office,” he said. “I've got a busy day.”

“I'll do the dishes,” Nancy replied. “And thanks for breakfast. It was great!”

“Anything for my girl,” he said, kissing her on the forehead as he passed by.

• • •

Half an hour later Nancy and George pulled into the parking lot at Conklin Falls General Hospital. Ned was waiting for them at the front door.

When they were inside the hospital, a nurse directed them to the cafeteria in the children's wing. It had a low, paneled ceiling and a bank of windows that overlooked the parking lot. At the far end was a platform with several hospital room dividers in front of it.

Folding chairs had been set up in front of it. The audience, composed of young patients and their parents, was already seated and waiting.

Nancy and her friends were about to sit when a voice called out. “Hey, George, over here!” They looked around, and George spotted Chris Clarke sitting in a wheelchair parked across the aisle.

“Hi, Chris,” she greeted him. “Considering who's performing, I'm surprised your mom let you come here today.”

“Aw, she doesn't know about the magic show. She just dropped me off for my regular physical therapy session. Why don't you pull a chair over and sit with me?”

George smiled at Nancy and Ned. “How can I resist? See you two after the show.”

Just then Dr. McGill stood up in front of the audience. “I want to thank you all for being
here,” she said. “And now, without further ado, I am proud to present the great Adriana Polidori!”

Two nurses pulled apart the dividers, and Adriana stepped out. She was wearing a classic magician's costume consisting of a top hat, tails, and trousers, but the dressy men's clothes were cut to fit her figure, and she looked strikingly feminine. She smiled warmly at the audience.

“You know,” she said, leaning toward them and winking conspiratorially, “I don't get a chance to work with a small audience much anymore, and that's a shame. All the best magic tricks are done close up. That's part of the—”

She was interrupted when a small girl in the front row sneezed. Adriana reached into her pocket and handed the little girl a red handkerchief. “Bless you,” Adriana said.

“Thank you,” the girl answered as Adriana took a step back.

But there was something surprising about the handkerchief, and both the girl and Adriana watched in amazement as a blue handkerchief, tied to the first, came out of Adriana's pocket. Adriana tugged on it, and a yellow one emerged. A green handkerchief followed, then another red one, and another and another, until a small pile of handkerchiefs lay at the girl's feet.

For the next half hour, Adriana maintained a constant patter of jokes and small talk as she did card tricks, pulled rabbits and doves out of her hat, and juggled. She involved several of the
children in her act, giving them bunnies to hold, pretending to pull coins and eggs from their ears, letting them choose cards from her deck.

The children were delighted.

For her finale she produced a length of rope from her top hat. “Who will help me?” she asked. Then her eyes settled on Nancy. “Aha! A volunteer!”

She explained that she wanted Nancy to tie her to a chair. “And make certain the knots are tight.”

Nancy worked for several minutes, using all her best knots. At last she stepped away. “There,” she said. “You'll never get out of that!”

Nancy returned to her seat, and several audience members stepped up to check the knots. The last was Dr. McGill, who said, “If she escapes from this, I'll eat her top hat!”

The magician nodded to a nurse, who wheeled one of the room dividers in front of her so that the audience couldn't see her. For long moments the audience fidgeted.

Then Dr. McGill called, “Ms. Polidori, are you all right?” There was no answer. “Ms. Polidori?” Now the doctor was concerned, and she told the nurse to move the divider aside.

When she did, the audience gasped!

T
HERE SAT
A
DRIANA
, reading a newspaper, her limbs totally free of the ropes!

The audience broke out in amazed cries and applause.

Adriana grinned like the Cheshire cat. She took off her hat and extended it to Dr. McGill. “Hungry?” she asked.

Everybody laughed.

“How'd she do that?” Ned whispered.

“You'll just have to ask her,” Nancy teased.

After the show, as Adriana mingled with the audience, Nancy, George, and Ned approached her.

“Hello,” the magician called to them. “Did you like my performance?”

“It was wonderful,” George said sincerely.

“Just how did you manage to get out of Nancy's knots?” Ned asked.

“It's an old Houdini trick,” Adriana explained. “The secret is to grab a bit of slack while the knots are being tied. Nancy thought she had tied the bonds tight, but they were really loose from the start. As she tied them, I breathed in, expanding my chest, so that the loop you put around my body slipped when I relaxed. Then I wiggled until I could get my hands on a knot and started untying.”

“Now that's the sort of secret you can't find in books,” Ned said appreciatively.

Dr. McGill came over then and asked Adriana to sign autographs for the children.

“Would you mind if I came around to their ward in a few minutes?” she asked. “I want to get out this costume.”

Then she fixed her deep green eyes on Nancy. “And, I think that Nancy and I need to have a little talk—”

Nancy raised her brows.

When the doctor wandered away, Adriana touched her arm. “There's a little lounge down the hall. Can you spare a few minutes?”

“Of course,” she replied, smiling at Ned.

“George and I will meet you in the front waiting area,” he said smoothly.

Nancy nodded, then followed Adriana to an exit at the far end of the cafeteria. When they
reached the lounge, Adriana gestured for her to sit down, then collapsed onto the sofa across from her.

“Whew,” she said, taking a handkerchief out of her pocket and running it across her brow. “It was hot in there.”

Despite the magician's air of casualness, all of Nancy's sense were on alert. Of course, she'd wanted to talk to her, but somehow she hadn't expected Adriana to take the lead.

Adriana twisted the handkerchief in her hand. Nancy could tell that she was having a hard time choosing her words. “What a surprise it was to see you at the restaurant last night,” she finally said.

Nancy smiled. “Yes, it was.”

“Your father is a wonderful man,” she went on quietly. “I've never met anyone quite like him.”

Nancy's expression softened. “He
is
wonderful. I'm very lucky to have him for a dad.”

Then Adriana frowned. “This morning I had breakfast with another man,” she began. “Misha.”

The two of them remained silent for a moment.

“To be honest,” Nancy said, “I was wondering about that. You know, he threatened me in the parking lot at Riverfront yesterday. He really wants you to leave Conklin Falls.”

Adriana sighed deeply. “Please forgive him.
He has a volatile nature. And he's quite  . . . attached to me.”

“So I gathered,” Nancy commented dryly. She crossed her legs and put her hands on one thigh. “I really don't mean to pry,” she went on carefully, “but I need to know about the two of you—for the sake of the case.”

Adriana shrugged. “What can I say? Misha loves me. He's asked me to marry him more than once.” The magician began removing bobby pins from her hair and shaking it loose. “But to me, he is a dear friend, nothing more. Unfortunately, he won't take no for an answer, and he is very possessive sometimes.”

Relief flooded through Nancy. She was overjoyed to learn that Adriana wasn't really involved with Grigov. But she kept her face impassive. “Can you imagine him feeling so strongly about getting you away from Riverfront that he'd sabotage the place?”

“Oh,” Adriana half-cried out, shaking her head energetically, “absolutely not! He'd never do anything like that! First of all because he'd never hurt me, and second, because it would be illegal.”

“But, Adriana,” Nancy said, “yesterday around six a man driving a black sports car very much like his just about ran me over the cliff on River Bluff Road. It was definitely intentional.”

The magician gasped. “Thank heaven you're all right. But it couldn't have been Misha! He was with me at about that time, I think—and this morning he told me about something strange that happened to him last night—” She looked at Nancy. “Only now, it doesn't seem so strange.”

“What?” Nancy asked.

“When he left his room at the motel to go for his supper, his car wasn't in the lot where he'd left it,” Adriana explained.

Nancy's eyes widened with astonishment.

“He got very upset, as you can imagine, went to the police, and filed a report,” she went on a little breathlessly. “But when he got back to the motel later, the car was there!”

“Amazing,” Nancy said.

However, it did occur to her that the car-theft business could have been an elaborate ploy to give Grigov an alibi. He could have tried to run her off the road around six, then ditched his car and reported it stolen. It would have been easy enough to pick up the car later and let the police know that it had miraculously reappeared.

“So, you see,” the magician said happily, as if positive that she'd proven her point, “it couldn't have been Misha who tried to hurt you yesterday.”

“Uh-huh,” Nancy replied, only half listening to Adriana. She said, “I still want to talk to your friend.”

“That's easy enough,” the magician replied. “He's staying at the Conklin Falls Motel, just across from the golf course on the north side of town.”

“Okay.” Nancy focused on Adriana and smiled slightly. “And thank you for being so open with me. It was a great help.”

• • •

After her talk with Adriana, Nancy met Ned and George again. They decided to get some lunch before launching into the day's investigations and stopped at a deli. The guy who made their sandwiches told them about a small park where they could eat.

They found the park easily. While they ate, Nancy told George and Ned everything that Adriana had said.

“Do you believe her?” Ned asked.

“Frankly, I do—or else she's the best liar I ever ran into.” She took a bite of her pastrami hero. “It's Grigov I doubt,” she said, then went on to explain her theory about how the knife thrower could have staged the disappearance of his car. “I wonder if Sheriff Pulaski ever questioned him.”

“You'd think he would have, since Grigov must have run into Pulaski when he reported that his car had been stolen,” George speculated.