"The Magician's Code of Murder"
**This story immediately follows "Point of Ignition"**
"Someone creates a trick, many people perfect it,
but its final success in front of an audience depends
on the person who presents it." - Rene Lavand
CHAPTER 1
"I'm tellin' you Lamar – I seen it on the TV. We can make a ton of money doin' it." Bo Harper leaned on the tamp bar that he was supposed to be using to tamp in a new fence post on his boss' ranch. He and his friend Lamar Pettybone had worked for Matt Houston for quite a few years and were replacing a section of fence that had been torn up by a falling tree on Houston's sprawling ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains.
"You ain't gonna have a paycheck much less a ton of money if you don't get yer work done. Now quit ratchetin' yer jaws and get done. We've still got five more to get done – plus we gotta get the wire up." Lamar, the older of the two wasn't really interested in more money. He had a string of ex-wives back in Texas and didn't need them coming to him for more money.
"You just ain't got no gumption…no vision." Bo began tamping in the post while Lamar climbed up on the tractor.
"I got plenty of vision. What I ain't got plenty of is you gettin' yer work done." The old cowboy fired up the tractor and moved it down to the next spot where a new post was needed.
Later on that evening as the two cowboys sat watching TV in the bunkhouse, Bo pointed out the show that had gotten him interested in buying storage lockers. Lamar sat up and paid attention. "See? Look how easy that is! And your ex-wives don't hafta know a darn thing about it." Bo crossed his arms and looked at Lamar. "Whatcha say: wanta go in halves?"
"Well…I dunno…where would we put all the stuff before we sold it?"
"Heck, we've got all kinds of room in the barn!"
"Well…" The old cowboy pondered it. "Do you really think we could get rich?"
"Sure – just look at them folks on the TV. Why they're just rollin' in the dough. Look at that wad of bills that feller's got on him."
"Oh alright, I guess we can try it." The two cowboys toasted their new business with a couple of bottles of beer.
The pair set out early on Saturday morning to go to their very first auction. A handful of other hopeful buyers were on hand. As they made their way around the facility getting a couple of minutes to look over the abandoned units the two got excited. When the bidding began on the first unit that was filled so full of items that no one could even walk into it, the two cowboys began bidding.
Bo raised his hand when the auctioneer started the bidding at $200. A few others started bidding and before too long both of the cowboys were bidding – even against each other. Lamar finally noticed what had happened after he heard a few chuckles and giggles from the other people in attendance. "SOLD - to the gentleman in the cowboy hat!" The auctioneer broke down and laughed as Bo danced a jig in celebration.
They moved on down through the units until they reached another one that they were interested in and Bo began bidding against the others. After winning the unit, the pair was digging through their wallets and Lamar even removed his secret stash from inside his boot to pay for the prize. With their money spent, the two cowboys began sorting through their newly acquired treasures.
Starting with the first unit that they had bought, they quickly learned that not every unit was a big winner. After wading through old broken down, dusty furniture and a mattress that looked like it had been around since the gold rush days, they made it back to the boxes that were stacked to the roof at the back of the unit.
"Are ya ready to see what we won?" Bo was standing atop of a chair that was perched precariously on top of a rickety table.
"Yeah, grab one of them boxes." Lamar couldn't wait to see what was inside.
"Alright, here we go!" Bo snagged one of the top boxes and turned to set it on the table but lost his balance and fell on top of the neighboring stacks. The old cardboard boxes collapsed, sending bottles and packages of makeup and lotion cascading to the floor.
"What in the tarnation is all that stuff?!" Lamar moved over to help Bo to his feet.
"Makeup?" Bo picked up a bottle of tan-looking liquid. "It don't matter, Lamar. Doncha see? We can make a lotta money off this stuff. Then we can get more storage units and…what is that smell?" Both men started fanning the air.
"Stinks worse than a San Antonio house of iniquity!" Lamar staggered out of the unit coughing and gagging.
"Here it is: there's some fancy French stuff in here. Says 'Parfum de Lilly de la Vallée."
"Smells more like skunk in the alley to me." The old cowboy continued to gag.
After packing up the remaining boxes and loading the furniture into the back of the pickup, the two ranch hands moved on to their second purchase.
"Now see, Bo – these folks knew how to pack." Everything was packed into large wooden crates. Lamar looked at his watch. "We better get a move on. Houston wants to work on shoeing the horses this afternoon."
"Yeah…" Bo surveyed the unit. "Let's just load this stuff up and we can look at it later."
An hour later they headed back to the ranch, parking the truck and trailer behind the bunkhouse. "You still stink, Bo." Lamar wrinkled up his nose as they headed down to the barn where Houston was already gathering the supplies that they needed to shoe the horses.
As they got nearer, Matt looked up and saw them. "Where were y'all?" Just as they started to answer, the boss got a whiff of the perfume that had gotten on Bo. "What in the hell is that smell?" Matt began sneezing. He looked at the two cowboys. "Did y'all get into another poker game with the girl bikers?"
"No…and you promised you wouldn't bring that back up no more, Houston." Bo gave his boss a hurt look as the younger man began chuckling.
"Well if you're done with the ladies I'd like to get started on shoeing these horses." Matt turned and went back to the tack room to get the last of the tools that he needed.
"When we get done here we need to get the trailer unloaded." Lamar was whispering to Bo.
"Yeah, then we'll go through the rest of the stuff." They went and got the horses that Matt would be working on and the three men worked together to get the job done.
Later on that evening, Matt and CJ were in the pool with their daughter, Catey Rose who was now seven and a half months old. As they splashed and played, Matt heard something and looked down toward the barn, as did CJ. "What are they doing? I thought you boys were done for the day." She looked at Matt.
"We are. I don't have a clue what they're doing." He pushed himself up on the side of the pool for a minute and then came back into the water. "Looks like they're moving some crates." Shrugging his shoulders, he went back to playing with Catey.
Sunday morning, Matt headed down to the barn to saddle up a couple of horses. He and CJ had planned on riding up to the lake on their property and having a picnic with Catey. When he got there, he could hear his two helpers arguing. "Uh huh, and just what in the heck are we supposed to do with this stuff? Go from door to door peddling it?" Lamar was standing at the doorway of the last stall in the barn.
"What are you boys up to?" Matt could see that they had the trailer backed into the back end of the barn and there were several crates and boxes on it – and the smell that had him sneezing the afternoon before was even stronger. He walked up to the stall and stopped: inside, Bo was standing with a garbage bag, removing broken bottles from a box that looked like an elephant had sat on it. "Good Lord – what is that stuff, Bo?" Matt put his arm over his nose and walked inside. "What did you boys do – hold up a cosmetics counter?" He started laughing.
"No sir, we didn't. We've gone into business together." Bo looked like his feelings were hurt.
"Ohhhh boy." Matt's smile faded. "What have you two done?"
"Well Mr. Smarty Pants here decided we needed to do like them folks on the TV and buy up storage lockers and sell what's in 'em." The older cowboy was giving Bo a dirty look.
"Uh huh. Y'all do realize that they just show the good stuff that they find on that show doncha? Most of the time it's just junk in the lockers – that's why people quit paying the rent on them."
"But this ain't junk – it's makeup, and jewelry, and fancy French perfume!" Bo held out a bottle to Matt who covered his nose back up again.
"No thanks, I don't think it likes me too much." He backed back out of the stall. "Fellas, can I give you some advice?" Both men nodded. "Just chalk that perfume and stuff up as a loss and get rid of it. Maybe the stuff in the crates will be something good – after all, look how they packed it up. It might be something valuable."
"He's got a point, Bo. That makeup and stuff might be outta date or somethin'."
"Oh alright. Let's move this out into the hallway and then we can open the crates and see what's in 'em." Bo began picking up the boxes and moving them back outside as Matt headed toward the tack room and got ready to saddle Cricket and Lucy, sneezing several times in the process.
An hour later, Matt and CJ along with Catey and Tilly, were headed up the trail to the lake when his phone began ringing. Sighing, he pulled it out of his shirt pocket. "Yeah Lamar?"
The old cowboy sounded upset. "Houston, you need to get back down to the barn. There's a dead lady in some of the crates."