3 Sin City Hunter (10 page)

When I emerged from the bathroom, Darby was dressed, and I laughed out loud. He was wearing dark navy jeans with a red sweater.

He laughed, too, and said, “It’s Vegas, and anything goes, but let me break up our
matching
color scheme.” He whipped off the red sweater and grabbe
d another soft, cashmere one
from the dresser drawer. It had a crew neck
and the blue-gray color
made his
blue eyes pop. Now we were ready.

We walked down the hall and knocked on Mom and Dad’s door. They were ready, and we all stepped into the elevator together.

I turned to my dad and said, “Tell me again who we’re seeing, Dad. This is just a short magic
show
, right?”

We’re seeing Fitch’s Incredible Feats,” Dad said with flair.

Mom chimed in, “Fitch is Tom and Bitsy’s nephew, and this is his big
break in Vegas. He’s doing a f
orty
-minute magic act in the small theater around the corner from the front desk. It’s free, and this is his first night. If it goes well for him, he might have some opportunities to do a longer act and open for some of the headliners in the hotel.”

We exited the elevator and made our way to the theater. Only the lower section of seating was being used, and Dad
led us
down
the aisle
to a booth in
the front. The theater was
abou
t one third full, but
a steady trickle of people
w
as
coming through the door.

We ordered fun, fruity rum drinks and a couple bowls of popcorn. There was an intimate atmosphere to the theater, and the crowd seemed upbeat and ready for some entertainment. The available seating was nearly full when the curtain went up.

Fitch was good. Really good.

The show was high energy with music to match. He occasionally used two beautiful assistants, but he was definitely the main event. He started with some fun tricks you would expect from a magician
,
to include hat tricks and flashy card tricks
,
where even tiny bits of torn cards blown all over the stage were pieced back together. There was a hilarious bit where Fitch had four people from the audience on stage, and while he was having all of them shackle his hands securely b
ehind his back, he was
taking watches, wallets, and car keys from all of them. He did an amazing trick with items disappearing from a box
on stage
and reappearing in the audience. For his final trick, the two girls wheeled a large, colorful, upright box onto the stage. With a lot of fanfare, Fitch began telling the audience what he was going to do.

I lost my focus for a few m
oments because I noticed
Dudley was sitting
at a table in the front row. Dad
had
blocked him from my view f
or most of the show, but he
shifted in his seat, and when I looked
Dad’s
way again, I saw Dudley.
A
woman
was
at the table with him
. Was this his wife?

Mom
and Darby
broke into my thoughts by
poking me to get up. Dad
was grinning with pride, and
I realized with dismay,
Fitch
was asking for me to come onstage!

Oh my gosh! I wasn’t paying a
ttention because of
Dudley, and I had no idea what he was going to do to me. I knew I didn’t want him swiping my ring. I wanted to beg off, but I
could tell
Dad was so happy
he would be
able to tell Tom and Bitsy
I ha
d been called onstage,
I
had to go with it.

I made my way up the steps and onto the stage. His two assistants promptly helped me into the large, colorful box. The music was so loud and the lighting so bright, I
started to feel
disoriented. One of the girls said something to me under her breath, but I didn’t catch it all. I only heard her
say
“
go through the door
.” Be
fore I could say anything
, Fitch closed the door of the box.

Now what? It was pitch black, and I
was starting to feel
claustrophobic. I
thrust
my hands out to
feel the sides of the
box, but the floor dropped out from under me
.
I let out a startled cry as I fell, but the music was so loud onstage, I was sure no one heard me. I landed on a large airbag and had to take a m
oment
to recover from the fall. It certainly didn’t hurt, but I wasn’t prepared for it ei
ther. Did the girl tell me
I would be falling?

The room was white, well-lit, and fairly large. The ceiling was low, but I could easily st
and up. I couldn’t believe
I had agreed to do this, and I didn’t know what to do next. No one was around to tell me where to go. The girl had told me to go through the door, and the only door I could see was a plain white door set in the middle of the wall behind me. I walked to the door and opened it.

Oh my gosh! My heart stopped beating, the blood drained from my face, and I froze in my tracks. I knew with every fiber of my being that b
y opening the door, I had
put my life in danger.

My arm was wrenched, and I heard a voice say excitedly, “Come with me!”

A cute
girl in jeans and a white t-shirt had just yanked
my arm hard and pulled me
from the doorway and
back
into the white room. The door slammed shut behind me. She was out of breath and talking fast, “Hurry, hurry! We haven’t practiced this enough yet, and I lost my way coming to get you. I hope we’re not too late, and I didn’t ruin the trick.” She was nearly in tears. I was nearly in a panic. She continued to talk fast, “I’m supposed to tell you not to talk to anyone about how the trick is done. I don’t have anything for you to sign. You won’t tell, will you?” I shook my head no. “Good,” she said. “Quick, up this ladder. When you get in the box, step forward and turn around. I’ll close the trap door behind you.”

The ladder was a few feet from t
he airbag, and I scurried up
with the girl
right behind me. It wasn’t
easy to get off of the ladder and into the box, but she helped to steady me. This trick certainly still needed some work. The music was loud again, and I couldn’t hear what she said to me
as she secured the trap door
. I felt disoriented and uncomfortable again. My mind was on overdrive. I wanted to scream as loudly
as I could for what I had
seen outside the door, but some part of my brain was enabling me to stay calm and get through this horrible trick. Maybe I was in shock. That had to be it. I remember being in s
hock once before, and
a certain
,
strange calmness came with it.

Suddenly, there was light, but it was behind me, as was a lot of laughter. Fitch’s trick worked, but I
forgot
to turn around in the box, and it opened to me standing with my back to the audience. When I turned around, the lights were blinding, and I knew I was squinting and probably looked
as if I had
awakened from a long sleep. I could only imagine what my hair looked like after the fall to the airbag.

Fitch
shot
a
provoked
look
at me
which
implied
, “
Really? You couldn’t even handle a few simple directions?
”

No, Fitch. I couldn’t.

But the audience was
applauding and giving him a standing ovation. I suppose my apparent confusion as to where I was added to the trick. The girls helped me out of the box and off the stage.

I was shaking when I sat down next to Darby.

“Susan, honey, that was so great!” Mom was saying excitedly.

Dad was beaming, reached over to clap me on the back, and said, “Where did you go? Were you with all of those animals?”

I
tried to smile a little at both of them.

Only Darby could tell
something was
wrong with me. My teeth were chattering
,
and I was shivering. He put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. “What’s wrong, Susan?” he whispered with concern. “Are you ok? Did something go wrong backstage?”

I couldn’t talk. I
shook
my head
. I couldn’t say anything in front of my mom and dad. I simply couldn
’t bring them into anything where they
could
be hurt
.

Fitch was taking his final bow to a crescendo of applause. I couldn’t wait to get out of the theater. Darby kept his arm around me as we walked up the aisle toward the door. Dudley was standing by the exit, and I could see he was staring intently at me with his brow f
urrowed. I put my head down,
leaned a little more into Darby
,
and let him guide me out the door.

Mom and Dad were overjoyed at the entire experience. I tried to smile and regain some of my composure as we
made
the short walk to Emeril’s.

The restaurant was beautiful with New Orleans style architecture. The predominant colors of gold and red were accented with blue neon lighting. The wrought-iron fish at the doorway and the wave sculptures added to the oceanic atmosphere. We were seated in a booth in a corner of the restaurant. It had a calming effect on me, and I felt as though I was effectively hidden from any present danger.

Mom and Dad ordered cocktails, and Darby ordered a bottle of Riesling for the two of us. I stood up and excused myself to run to the restroom.

“I’m coming with you,” Darby said.

Mom giggled. Now that she knew Darby was gay, she was viewing him as a girlfriend, and of course he would want to go to the restroom with me. He smiled at her. I knew he was having a lot of fun with Mom on this trip, and she made him laugh
often
.

We hustled to the small hallway
of
the two restrooms. Darby stopped me along the wall and turned me to face him. “Ok, Susan,” he said. “I know something happened backstage. What was it?”

I
clenched
his arm and whispered, “Darby, I saw a man being murdered!”

My eyes welled up with tears, but I didn’t allow them to flow. For my parents’ sa
ke, I had to stay calm
. Darby’s mouth was hanging open, an
d a look of fear spread across his
face. He knew what this meant, too.

“Darby, it was horrible,” I told him as I put my head in my hands.

“Susan,” he said softly putting his arm around me and pulling me close. He whispered
into my ear, “You’ll have to give me
the details later, but tell me quickly what you saw.”

I talked low and fast
,
so I could tell him as much as possible right then. “I fell through a trapdoor in the stage and landed on an airbag. No one was around. I thought one of the girls told me to go through a door
, so I opened the only one
I saw. It led outside to a small loading area for the theater.” I paused for a moment, and then said, “It was weird. It was a closed-in area with high hotel walls on three sides and a few dumpsters along the same wall as the door. I could hear traffic, but it was buffered
,
as though there wasn’t a clear path
way
to the road.” I shook my head to clear out th
e superfluous details. “A
man
was
on the ground
,
and he wasn’t moving. A guy was standing over him with a crowbar. And that horrible Carl from right here in the hotel was
there
watching. Darby, I think th
e
poor man on the ground was beaten to death!”

“Damn!” he
said.

Darby never cussed. Ever. I knew he was either
extremely
upset, or he was
overly
afraid for me. He asked the obvious question, “Susan, did they see you?”

Tears slipped out of the corners of my eyes. “How could they not?
” I whispered. “
T
he only thing I can hope is that
it was
dark outside, and there was bright light behind me, so maybe they didn’t recognize me.”

But we both knew in our hearts
they did.