Free Hot Trick (A Detective Shelley Caldwell Novel) by Patricia Rosemoor

do with the murder?”
    “We never said that.”
    I quickly switched directions yet again. “Do you have any enemies?”
    “Detectives,” Tanya said, in her best PR voice, “Sebastian is a well-loved performer—”
    “Everyone has enemies,” Sebastian cut her off.
    “One who would want to frame you for murder?” I asked. “What about Edmund Fox?”
    “Edmund Fox is a charlatan,” Tanya said, leaping to her feet. “You can’t trust a word that bastard says. He could be guilty of anything.”
    My, Tanya had some hate-fest going on with Fox, making me wonder if the derision was personal. What had the debunked magician done to Tanya to get such a heated response?
    “Fox does have reason to hate me,” Sebastian said. “I stopped him from bilking little old widows who wanted to be reconnected with their dead husbands.”
    “And took away his living.”
    “A dishonest one. I have no regrets.”
    “Do you think he might have reason enough to murder someone and make you look guilty?” I asked.
    “I wouldn’t have any idea. How would be the question, considering I don’t broadcast what I’m going to do or when until mere hours before the event when we send out word over the internet. I have my permits. I make arrangements for whatever I need in secret. The only people who knew what escape I would perform last night didn’t get much of a head’s up. Less than a day…and two of them are sitting right here with us. My assistants—including your sister—would be the other two.”
    I knew he was trying to get to me by mentioning Silke. He stared at me again and I got a weird, skin-crawling reaction, sort of like I did when Silke was trying to communicate with me twin-style. I recognized the flash as one I’d had earlier after I’d stopped Snake Eyes from running off with the donations.
    “Well, then,” Norelli said, “that gives us more suspects, doesn’t it?”
    “How dare you,” DeGroot thundered, rising from the couch. “We don’t need to stay here to be insulted, Tanya. Let’s get out of here.”
    The manager motioned to the publicist, who seemed more than happy to do his bidding. She rushed to the door ahead of him.
    DeGroot cleared his throat. “Sebastian, if I were you, I wouldn’t say another word until we get you that lawyer.”
    “Thanks for the advice, Conrad, but I’ll handle this myself.”
    As the door slammed behind his employees, Sebastian focused on me, his expression intent. My neck tingled and my head throbbed. He was trying to get inside my mind! To what end? An expert at keeping Silke out, I did the same with him.
    His eyebrows arched and he smiled at me before turning his attention back to Norelli. “Detective, I want to find this murderer as much as you do.” Tension flowed from his features into a gaze that seemed to pin Norelli in place. Sebastian’s voice lowered, became mesmerizing. “But you can’t think I’m a murderer. Surely not,” he emphasized. “Surely you’ll keep an open mind.”
    Norelli blinked and snapped his head as if he’d been asleep, bringing himself to attention. “We have to keep an open mind, of course.”
    “So you’ll look harder into the copycat idea.”
    “Copycat. Right.”
    “Edmund Fox would be a good place to start.”
    “Fox,” Norelli echoed, getting to his feet. “I’ll track him down, see what he has to say. Cheating widows…” He shook his head.
    And I shook mine.
    What was the deal here? What had happened to Norelli’s let’s-nail-the-bastard attitude? Had Sebastian gone Dumpster-diving in Norelli’s mind when he couldn’t get into mine?
    Norelli was already heading for the door.
    “I’ll be right down,” I called to him. “Don’t leave without me.”
    “No hurry. I’ll be in the car.”
    My turn to give Sebastian an intense look. I wondered if I tried…could I get into his head?
    “You wanted some alone time with me,” he said.
    “Don’t be flattered. Really.”
    He moved closer, stopped at the edge