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“What’s the plan?” Gideon asked as a ray of afternoon sunlight shone through the window of Tempest’s secret turret. “Please don’t tell me you want to confront Milton directly.”

“Of course we do,” said Sanjay. “The element of surprise is effective.”

“Hang on,” said Tempest. “Gideon is right that we can’t simply rush into confronting a possible murderer.”

Sanjay scowled at her. “When have you shied away from that in the past? This is my neck—”

“One I care about very much.” She put her hands on his shoulders. He was understandably tense, and her touch did little to relax him. “We need to think this through first. Didn’t Blackburn tell you the other thing he’d confirmed with forensics?”

“You mean how even if I’m not the intended victim, the detective is going to pin this on me?” Sanjay asked.

Tempest let go of him. “About your steamer trunk.”

“He suggested that Lucas’s body was hidden inside my magic trunk.” Sanjay shrugged. “But he was just trying to get me to confess. Wait… you don’t really think—”

“Lucas was in a secret hiding spot inside the trunk the whole time?” Ivy shivered. “Detective Blackburn didn’t tell me that.”

“Blackburn doesn’t really think that.” Sanjay gaped at them. “Does he? He can’t possibly—”

“He has to be wrong,” said Tempest, “because it’s impossible. We looked in the trunk’s false bottoms.”

“Exactly. He was just playing mind games.”

Tempest hated to break the news to him, but it wouldn’t help to keep it from him. “It sounds like he has forensic evidence.”

Sanjay flung himself down on the beanbag. “His body was really inside my trunk? You see what that means, don’t you?”

“That your steamer trunk really is magic?” Ivy asked.

“I was going to go with the fact that it would be creepy to use it ever again,” Gideon added.

Sanjay didn’t dignify either comment with a response. “Lucas was hiding in the trunk when he was alive, so of course they’d find his DNA.”

“Blood,” said Tempest. “So he was put back into the trunk after he was killed.”

Sanjay took two deep breaths. “Since Lucas was stabbed rather than shot, I’m the only person who was close enough to him to have stabbed him when we changed places.”

“I can’t tell which you dread most,” Ivy said. “Being the intended victim or being the main suspect.”

“I don’t want to be either one!” Sanjay screamed. “This is what I get for my generosity of loaning out my trunk for the murder mystery game.”

“We looked in that trunk,” said Ivy. “Lucas wasn’t there, either living or dead. How did we miss him?”

“Presumably Sanjay knows all the secrets of that trunk,” said Gideon.

Sanjay lowered his hat to his chest and scowled at Gideon. “He wasn’t in there.”

“You think the police planted evidence?” Gideon asked, and it didn’t look as if he was being sarcastic.

“If Blackburn says they found Lucas’s blood or other evidence in the trunk,” said Tempest, “then I’m sure they did. But that doesn’t mean his body was in the trunk the whole time.”

Sanjay groaned. “So we’ve got the joker who trapped you in the escape room moving bodies around the house and using my trunk after we looked inside? I can’t imagine ever climbing inside my dead-body trunk again.”

“You made that custom trunk to your specifications,” said Tempest. “You can build another one.”

“But I can only build a new one if I’m not in prison.”

“That magic trunk can’t possibly have a third fake-out hiding spot, can it?” Ivy asked.

“Actually,” said Sanjay, “it does.”

Ivy gasped.

“But not one that can hide a person!” he added hastily. “The fake-out is that the false bottom opens up into a shallow secret compartment to hold something like a small stack of papers. It’s only two inches high. No room for a body. But big enough that it fools the eye into thinking that if you found the first secret hiding spot that it fills the rest of the space. But if you…” He trailed off.

“You thought of something,” Tempest said.

Sanjay eyed Ivy and Gideon. “No. I can’t reveal any secrets in front of the non-magicians in the room, even if we’re the Abracadabras or whatever we are. I’m not going to reveal my secrets and risk having my fingers cut off.”

That was one of the challenges stage magicians faced. If you didn’t patent your original creations, anyone else could use the same gimmick—if they knew how to create it. But if you did patent your invention, it was public record.

Gideon frowned. “There’s not really a council of illusionists who’d cut your fingers off, is there?”

“How have you survived into adulthood without understanding sarcasm?” Sanjay retorted.

“Ignore him,” Tempest said to Gideon. “He’s got more problems right now than being a murder suspect.”

“Oh!” Sanjay perked up and twirled his hat in his hands. “That’s right. Let’s get back to Milton. If he’s trying to kill me, that’ll get me out of my performances this weekend.”

“Don’t change the subject,” said Ivy, transfixed on the precision with which Sanjay was maneuvering the hat. “Isn’t being suspected of killing someone more important than keeping a magician’s secret?”

“Knowing the secret won’t help us.” Tempest snatched Sanjay’s bowler hat from his hands. “Your hat is distracting everyone. Back to the magic steamer trunk. I can back Sanjay up here that Lucas wasn’t hiding in a two-inch spot.”

Without his hat to fiddle with, Sanjay twirled a coin between his fingers. “Can we get back to Milton already? He was the one in charge of the lights, so it’s yet another reason he’s looking guilty.”

“The lights were out for the ten seconds we agreed on,” Tempest said. “But everyone knew that was the agreed staging.”

Sanjay snatched his hat back from Tempest and headed for the steep stairs leading down. She could have resisted, but let him have his security blanket back.

“It’s time to get me out of my contract.” Sanjay grinned as he started his descent.

“Isn’t catching a killer who’s after you more important?” Ivy asked.

“And why’d you agree to something you’re dreading so much?” Gideon asked.

Sanjay’s face darkened. “I accidentally agreed to perform.”

“How does one accidentally agree to that?”

“Don’t ask,” Tempest said as Sanjay disappeared from view. “Come on. We need to follow him.”

“Hey, where did my patrol car go?” Sanjay asked as they stepped out of the house. He jogged a few paces ahead.

Tempest texted her grandfather, who was bound to know. Sure enough, Grandpa Ash appeared through the gargoyle-knocker door of the tree house twenty-five seconds later, while Sanjay was at the front gate frowning at his lack of protection.

“I’m glad you caught me.” Ash held a lidded wicker basket in his arms. “I’m about to leave to follow up on one more lead.”

“I don’t think you should be investigating on your own,” Tempest said.

“I promise it’s not a dangerous visit. But I’m worried about you. Officer Kwan was called away on an urgent matter.”

“How do you know that?” Ivy asked as Sanjay ran back up the sloping drive.

“Morag and I were chatting with him when he got the call.” Ash handed the basket to Tempest.

“I’m a sitting duck now.” Sanjay scowled at the gate.

Tempest hated to agree with the disturbing thought, but what was the “urgent matter” that the officer had been called away on? Had someone created a distraction so Sanjay would be left exposed—for the killer to strike again?