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"Not yet."
"I may vomit," I threatened.
"We'll get a bucket," Lopez said.
"I think I should go home." I stood up.
"Sit down." His voice was clipped and hard.
"But "
"Sit."
I sat.
He propped himself on Magnus's desk, folded his arms over his chest and stared
at me. I stared back. It would never do to tell him so, of course, but the
stern, don't-mess-with-me attitude was kind of sexy on him.
"What happened last night?" he asked.
Still sticking close to the truth, I said, "My whole worldview changed."
He frowned. "Go on."
I said, "Look, I
told you I thought something was wrong. I
told you I was anxious about getting into the cage without knowing what
happened to Golly."
Magnus muttered, "Women are always saying 'I told you so.'"
"So you ran out on a performance?" Lopez asked, looking like he might be
willing to believe me.
"I can't answer that in front of him
." I pointed at Magnus. "He knows Matilda."
Lopez glanced at Magnus. Magnus blinked and said to me, "I won't tell Matilda
what you say now if you don't tell her the crystal cage has been sitting in my
truck all day."
Lopez looked back at me, a faint sparkle entering his long-lashed blue eyes.
"Deal?"
I sighed. "Okay."
"Well?"
I explained that Joe had been such a wreck during rehearsal, as had I, that I
wound up preparing to go onstage last night, in Golly's place, without having
done a complete run-through of the show. And without having practiced the
vanishing act since her disappearance. I just couldn't do it, I told Lopez. I
was too scared of what might happen in the crystal cage. "I wasn't entirely
faking, I did feel ready to toss my cookies.
Again
. And, well& " I shrugged. "I freaked out and, yes, ran out on the performance.
Which," I
added defensively, "is the only time in my life I've ever done that.
Ever
. I even went on as Little Red
Riding Hood in the third grade when I had stomach flu and kept throwing up
backstage."
Lopez startled me by asking, "Who was the doctor?"
"The doctor?"
"You know," he prodded. "The doctor who made a house call to your dressing
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room last night? The one who told your producer you were too ill to go on?
That your condition was highly contagious?"
"It is?" Magnus blurted.
We both looked at him.
"Never mind," Magnus said.
"Well, Esther?"
"Just a performer," I said.
"Where'd he come from?"
"The street," I said. "He was a street act. I offered him twenty bucks to help
me."
"His name?"
I wondered if Matilda had told Lopez the name. I wondered if she had reported
or would report Max's visit to her today, now that she and Lopez were on such
chatty terms. Could I risk pretending I didn't know Max's name, or would Lopez
just catch me in the lie?
I said, "I told him to call himself Dr. Zadok."
"Why?"
"Just came into my head." I couldn't tell if Lopez believed me.
He switched the subject on me again. "How'd the crystal cage get destroyed?"
"Is it really destroyed?" I asked, feigning dismay rather well. "Matilda
wasn't exaggerating?"
Lopez unfolded his arms and lowered his hands to his sides, bracing them
against the desk. He had nice hands. Nice wrists, too, smooth and
golden-skinned. Not hairy like some guys.
"Why were you looking for the cage here?" He couldn't stop his lips from
twitching when he added, "In disguise."
"Matilda called me this morning making all sorts of threats and accusations. I
don't know what happened to the crystal cage, but I know she's blaming me for
it."
Lopez seemed to be trying to keep a straight face as he said, "And the obvious
solution to the problem was to behave as suspiciously as possible?"
"I wanted to find out what happened to the cage. I couldn't call Matilda back
and ask her, she was so vicious to me. I had to see Magnus. But I couldn't
risk bumping into Matilda if she happened to come here this afternoon to nag
Magnus."
"Which would be just like her," Magnus said wearily.
"So I had to make sure Matilda wouldn't recognize me."
"I didn't recognize you," Magnus admitted.
"But you did?" I asked Lopez curiously.
He smiled a little. "No. The high heels, the makeup, the wig, the sunglasses,
the voice, the accent, the posture& It was all good. Very good."
I beamed. "Thanks!"
"But I wondered why you were still wearing sunglasses while you were looking
at clothes."
"Ah." I'd thought so.
His gaze lingered on my face. "And even skilful makeup and a wig can't hide
those cheekbones."
Our eyes locked, and I suddenly felt warm.
"I didn't know it was you, but I'd have figured it out if I'd had another
couple of minutes. Something clicked."
"That's why I turned my back."
"Of course." He lowered his gaze. "But even from the back& "
"Yes?"
"Well, there's something about you in tight clothes that sticks in my mind,"
he admitted. "So you still looked familiar. I just didn't know why."
"Tight?" I said indignantly.
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"That raincoat's tight, Esther." He glanced up and added, his eyes glinting,
"In a good way."
"Well& I guess it is a bit tight," I said, flustered. "I get stuff like this
at church sales and thrift stores to wear as rehearsal costumes. It's a lot
easier to start getting into a role if you dress for it."
"That makes sense."
"Anyhow, yeah, I guess that coat is a little small for me." I was babbling.
"But it only cost me seven dollars, and "
"It looks good on you."
I blinked. "Really?"
"Excuse me," said Magnus. "Are we done here?"
Lopez cleared his throat and resumed questioning me. "So you come into the
shop, and Matilda's not here. Why not take off the dark glasses and be
straight with us?"
Thinking it best to avoid explaining that I was spying on him so I could
report back to the Magnum
Collegium's local representative, I said, "Because it was obvious Matilda had
reported the attack on the crystal cage to you."
He pounced. "Attack? What makes you think it wasn't an accident?"
"Because she'd reported it to a cop. And since I knew she was blaming me, I
thought you were probably blaming me, too. Which," I added sourly, "seems to
be the case."
"Finding you sneaking around here in disguise has contributed a lot to my
blaming you," he shot back.
"I was just trying to avoid exactly what we're doing right now!"
"What are we doing right now?" Magnus asked plaintively.
"I was going to come downstairs and talk to Magnus as soon as you'd left," I
told Lopez. Looking at
Magnus, I added, "I was going to ask you what had happened to the crystal cage
and how long it would take to repair it."
Lopez said, "So now you're suddenly eager to do the act?"
"Not really," I said. "But with Golly missing, whatever happens with the cage
affects my career. So I am interested."
"What made you start screaming?" Lopez asked, in yet another deliberately
sudden change of topic.
"Up on the third floor?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Magnus suddenly
shaking his head at me, behind Lopez's back. I said, "It's dark upstairs.
There are shadows, weird magic props, creepy replicas.
Something up there moved& "
Magnus shook his head a little more frantically.
Still looking at me, Lopez said, "What moved?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]