Now You See Me

Detective Dandy sat behind his desk sorting through the pile of mail that had accumulated over his long weekend. He sifted through the envelopes nonchalantly.

“Bill. Bill. Bill. Huh, what’s this?” There was a purple envelope with handwriting on it addressed to the old detective. He retrieved the letter opener from his desk drawer and cut it open. He unfolded the paper and scanned it. It read:

“Dear Detective Dandy,

‘Tis I, your old friend the Great Magnifico! How have you been? I write you because I will be in town very soon. I would love to see you at my act, and then afterwards we can reminisce about the old times and catch up on the new. I’d love to hear what wild adventures you have been on and what crazy things you’ve seen! I, too, have seen my share of wild sites on the road. This time you’ll see something you haven’t before. Or perhaps I’ll say you won’t see it! My show will be Wednesday night at the Rains Theater, starting promptly at 7:30. Hope to see you there.

Your friend,

Magnifico”

“Well, well, well,” Dandy said, tapping the letter against his desk. “Old Magnifico is back in town, eh?” Magnifico was an old magician that Dandy had befriended many years ago during a case. Magnifico had hired the detective to figure out the mystery of the killer rabbit that had derailed his act. Of course, as was the case with many killer rabbits, it was a classic dose of demonic possession, but who couldn’t see that one coming?

Over the years, the two had kept in touch off and on, and Magnifico always invited Dandy to come see his show whenever he was near. Dandy laughed to himself. He’d seen too much to believe in Magnifico’s act, which was standard magic fare. He summoned rabbits from his hat (normal ones, usually), he sawed his assistant in half, and he had doves up his sleeve. It was a harmless old act.

“I do believe I’ll make my way to the show Wednesday night.” Dandy said pleasantly. Even if the magic was all just smoke and mirrors, it would be good to see his old friend and get out of the office for a while. But there was one thing that he didn’t understand.

“What does he mean by ‘won’t see’?” Dandy asked, smoothing his bushy white mustache. He shrugged. Soon enough he would figure it out.

Two days rolled by, and then it was Wednesday. Dandy arrived at the Rains Theater at exactly seven o’clock so that he could get a seat up front. He took a table for one right near the stage and waited for the show to start. Slowly the crowd poured in. It seemed that the Great Magnifico’s reputation had proceeded him. He was happy for his friend, because the last time he had seen him, there were fewer seats being filled. Perhaps this great magic trick that he had been flaunting had drawn them in.

The lights dimmed and smoke began to curl out over the stage.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” boomed a voice over the sound system, “the Great Magnifico!” The spotlight flashed on the stage and the red curtains flew open. There, before the audience, stood Magnifico. His neatly pressed black suit, his pointed goatee, his slicked back silver hair, and his red cape. He was the image of a magician revealed.

“Welcome to the show.” He bellowed, taking a bow. The audience clapped. Magnifico looked out among the crowed, scanning the smiling faces. He stopped upon seeing Dandy, a smile, almost a pleasantly surprised one, crossed the magician’s face.

“It’s good to see you. To see you all. I am the Great Magnifico, and I am here to entertain you!” He said, spreading his cape dramatically to either side, and a pair of doves flew out off stage. There were light oohs and ahs and a smattering of applause. Dandy leaned forward and grinned.

So it began. And so it went. The Great Magnifico pulled out all the stops. His young assistant, a girl with blonde hair, was sawed in half. Then, miraculously, she was put back together again. A multicolored scarf came out of his ear and went on and on and on. He wooed the audience for half an hour, then he stopped and walked to the edge of the stage.

“Now, ladies and gents,” he began, wiping slight perspiration from his forehead, “now for a new trick, for the first time ever, the Great Magnifico shall make himself disappear!” The audience clapped.

Well, this is what he meant, thought Dandy to himself. He leaned forward intently.

Magnifico’s assistant walked out and handed him a vial of purple liquid.

“I shall drink this miraculous potion and before your very eyes, I shall disappear!” Magnifico said, snatching the potion from the young woman beside him. With flair, he uncorked the lid and threw the vial to his lips. Within seconds, the purple liquid was gone. The audience awaited, wondering just what might happen. The Great Magnifico threw up his hands dramatically before him.

Nothing happened.

“Er, perhaps the potion—that is, maybe it takes a little longer than I—” suddenly Magnifico began to cough. At first lightly, and then violently. He threw his hands around his throat and began to gag.

“Magnifico!” Yelled Dandy, shooting up from his seat. But the magician was at the same time falling to his knees. He wobbled and fell on his back. Dandy leapt up on the stage and felt the man’s chest. He wasn’t breathing. Then he searched for a pulse. Dandy fell back, sitting down on stage. Then, looking at the audience he spoke.

“He’s dead.”

III

Dandy stood over the body of the Great Magnifico, who was being wheeled away under a white sheet. He hung his head sadly for a moment, and then began to look around the room. The police had not let anyone leave the room, trying to get as much testimony, from as many angles, as they could.

But everyone they interviewed came up with the same story. Magnifico had clearly been handed a vile, drank from it, and then dropped dead. There seemed to be no variations, only constant reinforcement of what had happened.

Sitting on the edge of the stage, dangling her feet off the ground, sat Magnifico’s assistant. She was young, in her mid 20s perhaps. She wore a suit jacket over a one piece bathing suit and fishnets. She bit her lip and looked around nervously. It was her, after all, that had handed the vile to Magnifico.

“Looks pretty open and shut, Lieutenant.” Said one of the policemen to Dale Perkins. Dale shook his head and looked at Dandy.

“I get the feeling,” began Dale, “that you’re going to tell me there’s more than meets the eye here.” Dandy tapped his chin, deep in thought.

“Isn’t there always?” He concluded.

“Why is it whenever there’s a dead body I have to go look at, you’re nearby?” asked Dale.

“Right place at the wrong time.” Dandy said sadly. “Though it is the right time for me to figure out what’s going on, and for you to take notes.” He finished. Perkins gestured to the detective.

“Give this man some time to look around.” The cops scattered, giving Dandy the stage. He walked slowly toward it and sat down next to the assistant.

“My name is Dandy. I’m a detective. I have a few questions for you, if I might get your time.” She looked up at him, she had been crying. She nodded. “What’s your name?” Dandy asked.

“Abigail. Abigail Murphey.” She said. Then she asked quickly, “do they think that I did this? Oh, they do, don’t they? I can see the way they’re eyeing me.” She threw her hands up to her face and began to cry again. Dandy quickly produced a handkerchief from his coat pocket.

“Here, Ms. Murphey, take this and dry your eyes.” He said reassuringly. “Now, can you tell me your version of events. What happened that the audience couldn’t see?” Abigail wiped a tear from her eye and thought for a moment.

“There isn’t much to tell. I had the vial—”

“Yes, the vial,” Dandy began, “what was in that thing, anyway?”

“Well, it’s like he said, he was going to disappear.”

“You mean the liquid was meant to…make him invisible?” Dandy asked. Abigail looked up at him.

“Yes, yes, it was. And it did. When we practiced it. Only this time it…it killed him!”
“You can’t seriously be claiming this liquid actually turned him invisible.”

“It did, I swear! It wore off after twenty minutes though. He was working on that. He was always working on something.” She said sadly.

“Yes, yes he was.” Agreed Dandy. “And this is what you told the police?”

“I didn’t know what else to tell them.” She shrugged. This, Dandy gathered, was the reason for Dale’s “open and shut” theory. To him, and his force, the girl had simply switched the vials and poisoned the old man. But Dandy knew that no murderer would be stupid enough to poison someone in plain view of a room full of witnesses.

He could not believe this theory. There was something amiss here, he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Say now, tell me Ms. Murphey, did Magnifico have any enemies?” The woman thought for a moment.

“Enemies? I don’t know, it seemed like everyone loved him, you know? He was a commanding presence and made friends everywhere he went.”

“So he was. And yet—”

“Yet someone poisoned him.” Abigail finished with a sob.

“It couldn’t have been an accidental mix up?” Dandy asked.

“That was the only vial we had.” Abigail replied. Dandy paused for a moment and thought about his old friend.

Just then, Maxwell Mitchem, the club owner, entered the room. He shook his balding head sadly.

“What a tragedy, the Great Magnifico, my old friend, dying in my very club.” He let out a sigh.

“Mr. Mitchem,” Dandy said, tipping his white Panama hat in Mitchem’s direction, “you just getting in?”
“Well, the police finally let me in. They didn’t want anyone in here who hadn’t been a witness. But I told them it was my club and I’ll go where I please!” he punched his fist into his other, open hand, to emphasize his point. Dandy nodded and, adjusting his pale grey sports coat, began to ask more questions.

“Mr. Mitchem, is there any other way in or out of this room?” Mitchem shook his head.

“Just the one door.”

“So anybody coming or going would have been seen leaving thorough the door?” Mitchem nodded his head.

“Yes, that’s right, detective.”

“Well, yes, but—” Abigail began, but she cut herself off.

“That is to say, yes, but,” Dandy began slowly, “perhaps the killer got ahead of us, perhaps he pulled Magnifico’s very own trick.”

“His trick?” asked Mitchem.

“Perhaps what we’re looking for, we can’t even see at all.”

Outside the club, despite the snow and the biting wind, Dale Perkins laughed.

“You think the invisible serum stuff worked? And you think someone killed the Great Magnifico for it?”

“I think that whoever killed Magnifico—”

“Which we believe was Abigail Murphey.” Dale cut in.

“I know you think that, but you’re wrong there.” Said Dandy. He smoothed his pants as he began again. “Whoever killed Magnifico switched the vials, took the real stuff for themselves, and then slipped out among the crowd.”

“Yes, that’s a very interesting theory, Dandy, but this isn’t like your normal case. I’m afraid this isn’t even your case at all. No one’s hired you.”

“Well, my dear Lt. Perkins, that may be, but Magnifico was a friend of mine. And thus, I do this work for him. I will find his murderer. That will be my great trick.” Dale rubbed his eyes.

“Be that as it may, and I know your record speaks for itself, we’ll be keeping the girl as a prime suspect. You must admit, she looks plenty guilty.” At this Dandy sighed.

“Looks can be deceiving, my friend.” The two men pated, Dale back to his police car, and Dandy toward his own grey Ford. Which sat next to the building, rather than out front. He pulled the collar of his black peacoat up to protect him from the cold. He was rubbing his hands together when he saw the van of the Great Magnifico still parked where it had sat all night. He rubbed his chin in curiosity.

Approaching the van, he looked down. There appeared, going from the van to the building, two sets of footprints in the snow. A woman’s and a man’s. This, he believed, must have been Abigail’s and Magnifico’s.

Suddenly there came a great thumping noise, as if someone was running. Dandy’s eyes opened wide. There, in the snow, a third set of tracks appeared out of nowhere, moving toward the van. They were coming into view the louder the running noise became. Whatever it was, it was coming his way.

There was a huffing noise as whatever he was looking at but not seeing closed in on the detective. Dandy examined the prints, startled. It was, he concluded, an invisible person. The footfall stopped right before it got to the detective. He felt the invisible person lay a hand on his shoulder and begin to push. Dandy grabbed at the hand blindly, but only for a moment as he was shoved down a second later.

The footsteps continued once again, heading toward the driver’s seat of the van. The door flew open, and the ignition roared to life. Before Dandy knew it, the van was off, flying in any direction away from the club.

It was twenty minutes later, back in his own office, that Dandy wore a grin. For, in their scuffle, Dandy had managed to grab something small and round from the invisible person’s hand. It slid into his in the confusion. What it was, he couldn’t tell until the invisibility had worn off.

In the palm of his hand sat a great golden ring with the letter M on it.

The next day, as Dandy played with the ring, wondering exactly what it meant, he received a phone call from the police. It was about Mitchem.

“Mitchem?” Dandy asked, sitting up in his seat.

“Yes sir,” came the voice on the other end of the line. “He’s dead.” Dandy went rigid. Another death.

“Any signs of foul play?”

“Yes sir, we believe he was murdered, but we haven’t found any clues or anything of the like. Lt. Perkins wanted to keep you in the loop.”
“Well, tell old Dale I appreciate that.” Dandy said, hanging up the phone. He had not foreseen anything happening to Mitchem. If anything, he was a suspect. Dandy smacked his forehead. How stupid he had been. How careless. And now another man had lost his life. Two in the span of two days. He studied the ring hard. It was his only clue, and things were beginning to look grim.

Days later, there came a knock on the door. Dandy stood up and opened the door and, to his surprise, saw Abigail Murphey standing there. She tucked her hair behind her ear nervously as she waited for the detective to invite her in. After he did so, she took a seat across from where he sat.

“Abigail, what can I do for you?” he asked. But before she could answer he cut back in. “You know, I’m fascinated by your sudden appearance, I’m investigating this thing from all angles.” Abigail cleared her throat.

“Mitchem is dead.” She said.

“So I heard.”

“It’s just—” She cut off, looking down at the ground.

“Go on, you can tell me.”

“Magnifico owed him a lot of money. So he lured him to the club to poison him.” She concluded.

“Perhaps that is what you believe.” Said Dandy.

“But…you don’t?” asked Abigail. Dandy shook his head slowly.

“ No, I do not. And I don’t think you really do either.” He leaned in, fishing something out of his pocket. After a moment he threw the ring down on the table.

“It’s…it’s a ring.” Said Abigail. She swallowed hard. Slowly, she picked I tup and examined it. “It’s got an M on it. Was it Mitchem’s?”

“Let’s stop playing games here.” Dandy said. “That M must belong to the Great Magnifico.” Abigail’s eyes shot open wide.

“But—”

“See,” cut in Dandy, “it could have been yours, but it was too big. It could have been Mitchem’s, but he wore no ring the night we met. And in the snow, those footprints were too large to be yours as well. The strength of the hand that pushed me, it was someone taller than you too.”

“Detective, I—”

“Let me tell you how I figure it went.” Dandy said, placing his hands behind his head leisurely. “The Great Magnifico comes to town saying that he will achieve a marvelous feat of magic. Of course, turning invisible is quite a feat in itself. But that wasn’t enough for Magnifico, was it?” He wanted something more, he wanted to rise from the dead.”

Abigail sat in silence. Dandy continued.

“So, you slip him a little something to stop his heart for a bit, something that will make him look quite dead. Then, once he’s carted off, he takes the real invisibility potion, which, like any good magician, he has hidden up his sleeve.”

Abigail sat back in her chair and looked down at the ground.

“Of course, in a couple days he’ll come back from the dead and everyone will fork over loads of cash to see the Great Magnifico, back from the grave. But why stop there? Why not cut off the source of his debts right away? That’s where he got a little overzealous. The death of Mitchem ruled out his owning the ring, and with the motive of owing the club owner money, I figured somehow it was all smoke and mirrors. Isn’t that right, Magnifico?” For a moment, there was silence.

“Well done, John, Well done.” Came a deep voice from across the room. “That’s right, old friend, I came in with Abigail, slipped in like a Trojan horse.” He said. He was still invisible.

“There’s only one thing I don’t understand.” Said Dandy. “If you were planning on all of this, to commit murder, why invite me to the show.”

“Invite you to the show?” replied Magnifico. “I never did such a thing. That would be stupid.”

“But then, who sent me this letter?” He tapped on the purple envelope on his desk.

“Abigail!” cried Magnifico. Abigail threw her hands up over her face.

“It’s true, I faked your sending him the letter. I—I couldn’t go through with the plan, and I knew that Dandy would solve it!” She began to sob.

“Just tell me this, Magnifico,” said Dandy, “why? You were such a good man.”

“Mitchem was a leech, he had all that talent come to his club and what could he do? Nothing. Why should I owe a bottom feeder money. So, I dealt with him. Just like I’ll deal with you, then Abigail over here.”

“So, come to tie up loose ends, eh old friend? Dandy said. Slowly, he reached behind his back as he asked this question.

“I’m afraid so.” With this answer, he made a grunting noise and Dandy, though he could not see him, believed he was lunging in his direction.

Quickly, Dandy withdrew his hand form his back and threw a bowl full of baby power into the air. It came down all over the place, coating the area in powder. Around the head and shoulders of the Great Magnifico there was an outline of the stuff as well. Thus, Dandy could see where the old magician stood.

“Why, John, you always were prepared for everything. No fair.”

“Sorry, old friend,” Dandy shrugged. He balled up his fist. “Abracadabra!” he landed a fierce blow on Magnifico’s face with a meaty thud. Magnifico spun around and fell over, unmoving.

VII

Twenty minutes later, Dale Perkins showed up with several squad cars and the Great Magnifico was once again visible, his left eye swollen shut. He sat in the back of a cruiser, hands cuffed behind his back. Abigail beside him.

“She’ll get off light.” Dale said, sensing Dandy’s concern for the young woman. “Say, how did you know to have the baby powder ready, how did you know he would come to find your?” Asked Dale. Dandy smoothed his white mustache.

“I had that bowl ready for days. After running into the invisible man in the alley, I knew it was a matter of time before he came after me.”

“So, paranoia saves the day.” Said Dale with a chuckle.

“I’m a cautious man. Now you watch those cuffs on him, he’s a magician after all.”

“No need to worry about that. Where he’s going, there’s no chance of escape. No smoke and mirrors, no sleight of hand, no hope of getting out.” The cars rolled off into the darkness of the January evening, leaving Dandy standing in the falling snow. Hiking up his collar once more, he walked away into the night.

END