The Juniper Key: A Losers Club Murder Mystery (Book 5) by Yvonne Vincent

Author:Yvonne Vincent [Vincent, Yvonne]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: WHB
Published: 2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

The magicians’ convention was in full swing. A noticeboard by the hotel reception desk read:

Day 2 – The Modern Magician

The hat is no place for a rabbit

Sawing women, men and other gender identities in half

Lunch

Assistants – other body shapes can be glamorous too

Improve your hex life - using your wand responsibly

Jim was supposed to be meeting Penny for a swim but was instead poking about backstage, doing some excellent multi-tasking. He was successfully combining his curiosity as to how the magic tricks worked with his desire to avoid his girlfriend.

He wished he could magic up some answers about Thermacorp. He’d called a few of the farms owned by the company and discovered that they were still operational. “Business as usual,” the farmers had assured him, yet they were strangely unwilling to answer any further questions. So far, he had resisted Penny’s attempts to get in the car and go visit the farms in person, but he was starting to think that she was right. Not that he’d tell her, of course. He’d rather be locked in one of them there fancy boxes and run through with a sword.

Snooping through magic tricks was even better than getting a bravery award, he decided, if a little freaky. All these mysterious gadgets and piles of silk handkerchiefs and sharp objects and…ooh, what do we have here? He opened the door of a tall cabinet and immediately felt his sphincter give an involuntary spasm.

‘Fuck! Oh, fuck.’

Gordon sat on the floor of the cabinet, his knees drawn up as far as his belly allowed. Jim gave him an experimental poke, just to check he wasn’t an illusion, then jumped back and shut the door.

He gave his heart a moment to sink back down from his throat to his chest, before opening the door again.

There was nobody there.

‘Bugger me with a Three-card Monte! I think I’m hallucinating Gordons. This must be what happens when you have toast for breakfast instead of sausages.’

He opened the door again, and Gordon was back.

‘Fuck!’ Jim exclaimed. ‘How did you do that?’

Gordon looked up at him, misery etched across his face.

‘Do what?’

‘Never mind. Why are you in here?’

‘There’s been a wee snafu with Sergeant Wilson’s jodhpurs, and I’m facing certain death, so I thought the best thing to do was hide. What are you doing here?’

‘I was trying to think of ways to say that Penny was right without actually saying she was right.’

‘Is there any chance you could sneak me into Inverurie to get new trousers? I was supposed to go shopping with Fiona, but she’s all upset about Fergus, so I didn’t like to remind her. And I can’t tell her I’ve burst another pair.’

‘That’s not a bad idea,’ said Jim. ‘We can get trousers, and we can visit the farms.’

He checked his watch and gave Gordon a thumbs up.

‘When we get back, I’ll tell Penny that we went shopping and thought we may as well visit the farms while we were out anyway.’

‘Why are we visiting farms?’ Gordon asked.

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