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The magician was now wearing dark pants, either navy blue or black, a brown jacket, and a turtle neck.
Chu’s face grew quite stern. “Officer Bailey, please join your partner in securing the scene.”
The officer saw the looks in the detectives’ eyes and didn’t need to be told twice. He bolted from the back room.
“What the hell,” Pro yelled, and with a glance back at the retreating Bailey immediately lowered her voice, “are you doing here?”
“It was like I was trying to tell you this morning—”
“I’d rather not go into what happened this morning,” Pro interrupted.
“But that’s just it,” Max continued, undaunted, “this was what I thought would be the next step in the chain. Lou Tanner was trying to purchase Prism from Al Floss—”
Chu held up his hand to stop Max from talking. “Mister Martin, do you realized that this is the second murder scene where you were discovered alone with a dead body?”
Max considered this. “Yes.”
Chu’s mouth was a firm line. “Do you know what that means?”
“Sure,” Max replied airily. “It means I’m on to something!”
“No,” Chu stated emphatically. “It means you are under arrest. Please turn around.”
Max exhaled heavily. “You can’t believe I had anything to do with—”
Pro stepped up to her father, and in a quick movement, turned him and bent him over a nearby table that had a chipped coffee cup atop it. She took out a pair of plastic restraints and began to fasten his arms behind him. Her fury was obvious. “When my partner tells you to do something, I’d advise you to do it!”
“Ow! Pro you’re hurting me!” Max objected.
“Not as much as I want to, old man,” Pro seethed as she finished restraining him. “There! And these are plastic double-cuff restra
ints—they don’t use a key. Let’s see you pick those, Max.”
Chu stepped from the room, but they could hear him talking to the uniformed officers. “Did you call this into forensics?”
“Yes, detective,” the woman replied. “And the medical examiner.”
“Good work,” Chu encouraged. “Detective Thompson and I are taking this suspect into custody.”
“Roger that,” Bailey replied.
Pro pulled her father upright and pushed him toward the doorway.
“You’re making a mistake. I can help,” Max whined.
“You have the right to remain silent, Max,” Pro said, pushing him along. “So shut the hell up.”
888
“Go over it again, Mister Martin,” Chu said an hour later as he rubbed his forehead and took another sip of bad coffee from a cardboard cup.
“I told you the story, twice,” Max said, his hands still behind his back as he sat in the same interrogation room as yesterday. “And I even did it without my lawyer present. That has to show good faith.”
“Let’s be clear, Mister Martin, you are spending tonight in a cell. If you behave, I’ll take those restraints off.”
“Oh these?” Max brought his hands in front of his body and deposited the closed restraints onto the table. “I only stayed in them so that Pro—um—Detective Thompson wouldn’t get upset. Does she always act like this, or is it just me?”
“It’s definitely you,” Chu affirmed, and found he couldn’t help himself. He picked up the interlocking plastic loops to examine them. “We have to cut these to release a prisoner. We have a special tool…” he muttered as he turned them over in his hands. They weren’t cut or damaged in any way that he could find.
