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She headed into the kitchen. Max sighed and looked from the kitchen to the bathroom. “The two most important women in my life are insane,” he muttered to himself.
Pro stepped out of the bathroom dry-eyed and stiff-backed.
“I have to go to work,” Pro announced. “I am pulling Saturday shift.”
“Oh, Pro, before you go,” Max said, “I just wanted to discuss a few things about our case.”
Pro stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned to her father. “Our case?”
“Yes, I have a few ideas where we can go from here,” Max said just as Elisha returned with a cup of coffee, prepared the way Max liked. He took a sip. “Oh that is good, Elisha.”
“Now you know why I switched,” Elisha replied.
Pro put her hands on her hips. “Max, you have nothing to do with the case—”
“I know, but I think the way to go is to try to track down those illusion plans that were made of my trick. If we can locate the people interested in buying them—”
Pro held up a hand. “Max, we will go through Mister Floss’s emails and follow up on everyone he had business dealings with. That is standard procedure.”
“Pro, you don’t get it. You are dealing with magicians! Whoever killed Floss knew when I was coming and set me up to take the fall!”
“I find that hard to believe—”
“Oh yeah? How did the police know to come to the shop?”
Pro leaned with one hand on her hip. “They got a call from one of the neighbors who said they heard noises in the shop.”
“Which neighbor?”
“They didn’t identify themselves, but we triangulated the signal of the cellphone and they were in the same building.”
“Or in the hallway of the same building. I’m telling you, Pro, this was done by someone who understands the art of misdirection. You need my help.”
“Max,” Pro warned. “You need to stay out of this case, stay out of my office, and while you’re at it, stay the hell out of my life!”
She looked at the plate of cut fruit and suddenly looked as if she would cry again. “You and your damn fancy fruit!”
She stormed out of the apartment as her parents watched her leave.
“Look what you did to our baby,” Elisha said as she shook her head.
“What I did?” Max sputtered and indicated the plate. “I made fruit the way she liked it when she was a kid.”
“After you left, I made Prophecy a plate of fruit. I never learned how you did that fancy cutting—”
“Oh it’s easy—”
Elisha held her hand up. “When I cut up the fruit, it wasn’t like Daddy’s. She cried for hours that night, because that’s when she knew you were really gone.”
Max looked at the closed door his daughter had just left through.
“I never knew…” he mumbled sadly.
She took his face and turned him to look at her. “And that’s the problem. I think you’d better get going.” She stood up and began to clear the table.
“So soon?” Max said with a smile. “Now that we’re alone, I thought we could find out if last night was just a fluke.”
“I don’t think so,” Elisha said pleasantly as she took the plate of fruit back into the kitchen and put it in the fridge.
