Even as a boy, Jett had loved being back stage at the theater. There was something soothing about the ordered chaos. As a teenager, when he had done his first show as a stagehand, he had walked in the dim shadows of the set pieces. The various actors and actresses had gradually become background noise as he daydreamed about the day he might show his face on stage. Even when his moment of truth came, intoxicating as it was, he never forgot the peace and solitude he felt as he walked through the clutter behind the scenes.

It was no different as an adult, when he had become the star of the show, his show. A smile curled the corners of his mouth as he thought about what his younger self would say, seeing him as he was now. As a gangly, awkward teenager, he would have never believed his dreams would come true. His younger self had dreamed of being a big name in the theater, never thinking he would one day find his passion in illusion and sleight of hand. Yet, as he walked past the shadowy form of the conveyer belt, Jett couldn’t help but feel as if he had found exactly where he needed to be.

“I know you’re back, Jett, where are you lurking?” Riley’s bright voice asked from somewhere stage right.

Jett chuckled, raising his voice to shout, “Marco!”

There was a rustling and Riley’s face appeared from behind a curtain. “Polo.”

“Don’t you have something to do? I mean besides trying to hunt me down in my peace and quiet?” Jett asked with a grin.

A bang of something being moved brought Riley’s brow up in a wry arch. “Yeah, it’s so peaceful. I will never understand what’s got you fascinated about being back here when they’re getting things together. Isn’t your room actually quiet?”

“Yeah, but quiet is not the same as peaceful.”

Riley shook her head, but she was smiling. “I’ve known you for how long now? And I don’t think I’ll ever understand the thoughts going through your head.”

Jett returned the smile. “I think I prefer it that way.”

“Alright, Mystery Man, feel like telling me why the cops showed up to haul you away for questioning earlier?”

Jett sighed. “You remember Oliver Trentwood?”

“The asshole trying to ruin every decent magician in the city? Yeah, what about him?” she asked.

“Apparently the jackass went and got himself killed,” Jett shrugged.

Riley frowned. “And you have something to do with it?”

“Well, the big bad police detective who questioned me certainly seems to think so. He didn’t come right out and say it, but if he doesn’t think I did it, I’d be surprised,” Jett said as he bent to check the door in the conveyer belt.

“It gets checked several times a day, Jett. I promise, none of us are going to let you go out on stage with a faulty machine,” Riley told him in a bored voice.

Jett ran his fingers over the seam with a chuckle. “If you were the one out there risking your life every time you hopped in a cramped box, you’d be a little paranoid too.”

“So, was the detective worth looking at while he grilled you?” Riley asked, and Jett could hear the grin in her voice.

Jett snorted. “Well, if he didn’t look like he had a stick permanently lodged in his ass, he would have been pretty hot.”

“Not your type, huh?”

“Let me put it this way, the guy was big, strong, and could probably do all sorts of fun stuff if he wanted to. The problem is, I don’t think he’d know a good time if it stared him in the face. The guy was as interesting as a cinderblock, built like one too. If there was ever a poster boy for ‘all work and no play’, it would be Detective Hernandez.”

Riley leaned against one of the plain boxes used as a display during the trick. “Can’t say I would object to a man who was all business, not if he looked as good as you’re making this guy sound.”

“By all means, help yourself. I don’t think you could get a reaction out of him but I’m sure you’ll enjoy trying,” Jett said with a laugh.

Riley laid her head against the wood. “So I take it, despite this detective’s suspicions, he doesn’t have enough to arrest you?”

“If he did, I imagine I would have been in a different pair of handcuffs than the ones he found me in,” Jett said with a low chuckle.

Riley’s brow shot up again. “He found you in a pair of handcuffs? Oh God, you played with him, didn’t you?”

Jett couldn’t help but laugh. “How could I resist? I had Stephanie check the cuffs and everything. Had her put them on me, too, with my hands behind my back before she brought him into the room. You should have seen the look on his face when he walked in and there I was, trussed up and displayed like a present.”

Riley snorted. “You’d think a detective in Vegas would be used to people doing all sorts of shit.”

“Hey, I’ll give him this much, he barely showed any surprise when he found me. Took a moment and immediately launched into his questions. Didn’t even notice when I did the ol’ switcheroo,” Jett explained with a laugh.

“What’d you take?”

Jett patted his chest where the bifold had been tucked away. “The little wallet he uses to flash his big, important badge at people so they know who he is. Had it in my back pocket, he didn’t realize it was gone until I asked him for some ID. The look on his face was absolutely priceless.”

“I’ll bet you weren’t nice enough to stop there.”

Jett grinned wider. “Nope! I got his wristwatch too.”

Riley’s eyes widened. “You got it off of his wrist without him noticing?”

“Oh, come on, the guy wasn’t looking at me the entire time. All it takes is a bit of opportunity and the right prep, and you can make just about anything happen,” Jett told her sagely.

Riley stared at him for a long moment before bursting into laughter. She looked as amused by the idea of Hernandez’s reaction as Jett had been in the moment. It was only now, after the moment had passed, that Jett remembered the uneasy fear he had seen flit across the detective’s face.

It hadn’t felt like the normal kind of unease Jett saw in his line of work. Most people, when presented with a trick which seemed impossible to their minds, reacted with surprise and then laughter. There was the occasional person who reacted with fear, reminding Jett of the days of old, when a person might have been killed as a witch for the sort of tricks he did. The very same paranoia and fear of the unknown would show itself on the faces of those who witnessed some of the magic Jett performed. Detective Hernandez hadn’t shown the kind of fear Jett had come to expect—there was none of the slight edge of offense or anger that usually came with the fear.

The look on the detective’s face had been fear tinged with a hint of panic.

“Well, I bet he won’t forget his meeting with you anytime soon,” Riley said as she wiped at her eyes.

True to form, Jett’s face never lost his grin. “No, but I bet you he won’t look forward to the next one either. You should have seen him, you would have thought my very existence somehow offended him.”

“Well, when you start pulling things off him when he’s not paying attention, can you blame the guy? God, he probably didn’t know what was happening and probably thought Stephanie was in on some prank you were pulling on him,” Riley said with another chuckle.

In the decision to have a bit of fun with the detective, he hadn’t considered how it might come back on Stephanie. While Jett wasn’t necessarily friends with the owner of the hotel, he was supposed to stay on good terms with her. Whether or not she would have him there simply because he brought business into her hotel and casino, it would make his job difficult if he made an enemy of the owner.

Jett winced. “I should probably give her a head’s up in case he comes after her for it, shouldn’t I?”

“You really think he’d do that?”

Jett shrugged. “I have no idea, but the guy was pretty pissy looking by the time he left. I’ll shoot her a message later just in case. I think it’ll be better to have her annoyed with me but prepared for anything he might throw at her, than have to deal with her being jumped and not knowing what’s going on.”

“Will the interesting detective come talk to you again?” Riley asked, glancing over her shoulder at the sound of a conversation approaching from the shadows.

“Well, I offered to help him with his investigation. Wasn’t really surprised when he turned me down. The guy seems to think I was the one who did it, so why bring me in?” Jett said, keeping his annoyance out of his tone.

“Do you really want to help him?”

Jett waved a hand toward her. “You’re totally ignoring how entertaining it was to see him grumpy because I dared to offer in the first place.”

“Do you have an alibi for when it happened?” Riley asked, switching tracks.

Jett straightened. “Oh, right, I’m going to need you to compile a list of people for him to talk to. People I would have been around from the beginning of rehearsal until I left for my room.”

“That’s one hell of a list, Jett,” Riley complained.

“Yeah, but you know if I do it, it’ll just be a big mess of names and numbers all over the page. If you do it, it’ll probably end up being in chronological order and someone will actually be able to read it,” Jett told her, complimenting her and speaking honestly.

Riley sighed, rolling her eyes. “You know, when I agreed to do this, I was supposed to be your assistant on stage. There was nothing in the agreement about having to play your personal secretary.”

Jett watched her walk away, still grumbling to herself as she disappeared around a row of colorful set pieces. She had come to him as a doe eyed woman, eager to have a place on the stage and be a part of the magic. Over time, Jett had realized Riley was more than a pretty face and a handy distraction on stage. She was a sensible woman who was far more organized when it came to the boring details than he ever would be.

As the background noise in the backstage shadows took prominence, Jett mused over Riley’s question about his willingness to help. True, he wasn’t going to mourn Trentwood’s death, but the idea of helping in the investigation had its appeal. If anything, it would help him clear his own name, but it also meant catching whoever had been stupid enough to kill over something as petty as trying to keep a few magic tricks secret.

But Jett knew he would never be able to work with Hernandez. It wasn’t even because the detective was boring and stiff. In Jett’s line of work, he had to trust the people he worked with. Hernandez was obvious in his suspicion and Jett couldn’t work with someone who wouldn’t trust him first. Until the detective finally cleared Jett of all suspicion, Jett was willing to keep his mouth shut and his nose clean.