The Magician Murders (The Art of Murder 3)

Nice way to reduce your customer base. But drug dealers were not geniuses.

“And almost undetectable,” Ward said. “Except, by some stroke of luck, the first officer on the scene had just completed training on the safe handling of it. He saw a few specks of powder on the table and leaped to the conclusion of Carfentanil—and he was right.”

“Why would someone bother rehearsing if they were just going to kill themselves?” Jason asked.

“Rehearsing wouldn’t be a bother to Mateo. In fact, it would probably be a pleasure, a comfort. Maybe a way of saying farewell.”

Maybe.

“Where would Santos get something like Carfentanil?”

“We know where he got it. There’s no mystery there. He got it from his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. She runs the China Creek animal preserve. She’s got an elephant out there and a couple of tigers, so she’s licensed to keep the drug on hand.”

“That’s Elle Diamond?” Talk about a small world. But then magic was a small world.

“Correct. As far as we could ascertain, Diamond took reasonable precautions, but Mateo had access to her files, her keys, her everything. She was able to confirm that a couple of grains—which is more than enough—of the drug were missing. Enough to kill but not enough to notice unless she was looking for it.”

“Was Santos rehearsing on his own?” Jason asked.

“Yes. According to Arturo Sanchez, the bartender, he was alone in the back. He did not have visitors. The only fingerprints on the bottle or glass were Mateo’s.”

“And what would be his motive in taking his life?”

She shook her head. “That’s the part that sticks in my craw. He had some health problems. Nothing immediately life threatening, but at his age, decline is inevitable. I wouldn’t have thought that in itself would be enough to drive him to take his life. But following the health scare, he broke off the relationship with Diamond. According to her, he had decided she was wasting herself on an old man. He wanted her to find someone younger and more…” Ward turned her hands over in a silent voilà.

Jason suggested, “Virile?”

“Exactly.”

“Did Diamond believe Santos killed himself?”

“I don’t think anyone wants to believe

it, but it couldn’t be an accident. He could not have accidentally procured Carfentanil.”

“Who gains by his death?” Dreyfus asked.

“No one. He had no family. He did not own property, he had no money, no worldly possessions to speak of. He shared his magic tricks with anyone who asked. He did not leave a will. If there was a motive, it’s not apparent.”

“People are sometimes killed for no apparent reason,” Jason pointed out.

“Not often. Not in my experience.”

Not in Jason’s experience either. Spending time with the BAU had widened his perspective—most murderers had their reasons, even if their reasons did not make sense to anyone else.

Ward said, “There’s nothing I can put my finger on, but it just doesn’t feel right. Which is why, although the case is officially closed, it…haunts me.”

JDLR. That had been the notation on the police report after the Khan burglary. Just Doesn’t Look Right. There seemed to be a lot of that going around the Magic City of the Plains these days.

The three of them were silent for a moment.

“Was there anything out of the ordinary about that crime scene?” Jason asked finally.

Ward shook her head. “Nothing—beyond the fact that there was a crime scene.”

“What kind of magic was he rehearsing?”

“Cardistry.”