"Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present the magician of the hour… the marvelous, the wonderful, the Great Rootini!"
Rootini? Are you kidding me? Is that supposed to be a play on pasta?
A dazzling spotlight shimmied its way through the crowd as the curtains opened.
"Our new number is a magician, Finch?" Came the growl.
Applause sprung into the air as a brunette stepped forth, walking out the shadows and into the limelight.
And amidst the applause came a groan as a head crashed onto a table.
"Yes, Miss Shaw. Were you not paying attention to our earlier meeting?" Her silent rolling of her eyes answer that question.
"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen," A sweet voice rang from the stage and Shaw resisted the urge to groan out of frustration again. Magicians were one things, but bubbly magicians were another thing altogether.
"Something wrong, Shaw? Don't tell me you can't handle a few magic tricks?"
"Don't even start, Mr. Bunny." Oh, yes, Fusco eventually shared all of those photos from that incident with her. And when she heard dead silence at that remark, well, that brought a chuckle from her.
Fortunately, all of the chatter caused her to miss the first trick of the night. Unfortunately, the problem was that this was most likely where something would happen - if this Samantha Groves character was the victim.
Either way, she definitely would not-
"And, now, can I have a volunteer from the crowd?" Don't you dare-
"Young lady, would you like to disappear?" She almost growled again, except now the spotlight was fixed on her. But, either way, she was fuming. Not only did she not raise her hand, but nobody ever called her "young lady".
Finch only made that mistake once, and it was a mistake she made sure would never happen again.
But, now she found herself unwillingly walking up to the stage. She resisted the urge to glare at the "magician of the hour" as she approached her. The woman in question merely beamed at her, holding a thick blindfold in her hand. She turned back to the crowd.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, watch as I make this young lady disappear!" A glare almost cracked through the fake smile Sameen had plastered on her face, but she'd be damned if Mr. Bunny would be getting any blackmail material on her.
Cue appropriate gasps from the audience, and a mild applause. Samantha slinked around Sameen, and delicately placed the blindfold over her eyes.
"You can call me Root." It wasn't so much of a whisper as it was a breathe of silky air that definitely did not caress or run down Sameen's spine.
She was definitely not working any magician cases after this one, Numbers be damned.