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“I think you forgot this,” I say.
The boy looks at my hand. I open it, revealing an empty palm. He deflates and shakes his head.
“What?” I say. “Isn’t it yours?”
“There’s nothing there.”
I frown at my hand. “Oh, it must be invisible. Let me try that again.” I close my fist, wave it, and then, with an awkward sleight of hand, open it to reveal a penny.
“How’d you do that?” he asks.
“Magic.”
He eyes me with suspicion. “What do you want for it?”
My heart sinks a little. The kid is barely old enough to be in school, but he’s already realized nothing comes for free in his world.
“Clever lad,” I say. “I do want something.”
Across the room, his sister tenses.
“If you’d like this penny,” I say, “you need to find it. Now, follow the coin.”
I flip the coin in the air and then catch it and do a quick bit of fast handwork. When I’m done, I hold out my fists.
“All right,” I say. “I’ll give you two chances.”
The boy rolls his eyes. “That’s not a proper game.”
“Should I only give you one instead?”
He shakes his head and points to a hand. I open it to reveal nothing. I close that hand, and he points to the other.
“Are you sure?” I ask. “Remember where you saw it last.”
He meets my gaze, with the appraising look of a much older boy. Then, slowly, he points back to the hand he picked the first time. I open it reveal the coin.
“Trust yourself,” I say. “You knew that you didn’t make a mistake.”
I hand him the coin. He glances at his sister and then takes it. I put his belongings back into the box, and we talk as I do. When I close it up, I walk to McCreadie.
“I saw that,” he murmurs. “Nicely done.”
“I loved magic tricks as a kid.”
He lowers his voice. “What did the boy tell you?”
“Nothing.”
McCreadie’s brow furrows. “You were not lowering his guard so that he might talk?”
“No. I just wanted him to know that what’s happening isn’t as scary as it seems. That we aren’t as scary as we seem.”
He looks at me a moment and then nods approvingly.
“Are we finding anything?” I ask.
He shakes his head and glances at Gray. I head over and ask him the same question, getting the same response.
