Chapter 10

'Mr Magic Man?' A voice asked.

'What?'

'Can I have some more water please?'

James Stevens grunts irately as he snatched the glass off the child and stomped over to the kitchen, filling the glass up with cold water before returning it to the child.

'Thank you.' She said politely.

'You're welcome, my dear.' Stevens said pleasantly as if the young girl hadn't annoyed him only seconds ago.

The little girl returned to the bedroom she came from, closing the door behind her.

She walked through the room until she reached her bed.

'He gave you water?' Another child asked.

The girl nodded, 'Just ask him, he's not that bad.' After setting her glass on a coaster on the bedside cabinet, she climbed into her bed.

The other 5 children stared at their empty glasses, and one by one they climbed out of their beds and lined up by the bedroom door, glasses clutched tightly in their hands, ready to ask the Magic Man for nice cold water.

'This is Jared Stevens' last known address?' Daphne asked, looking up at a tall building in Lennox Hill.

'Well, he lives close to the most recent victim.' Fred replied.

'Something doesn't sit right with me.' Daphne said, and they entered the building through the huge glass doors.

There was a woman sat at a desk and she smiled at them as they entered, 'Hello. I've not seen you two here before, are you new residents?'

'No,' Fred said as he and Daphne presented their police badges, 'We were hoping to speak to the building manager.'

The woman's eyes widened as she looked at their badged, 'Yes, of course, detective.' She grabbed the phone and dialled a number. She began to explain to someone on the phone that two detectives wanted to speak to the building manager, and then she hung up the phone.

'She'll be done in a minute.' The woman smiled.

'Thank you.' Daphne smiled back and the two stepped away from the desk in case there was anyone else who needed to speak to the woman.

A few minutes later, a woman entered from a door behind the desk, she was tall with curly brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a red t-shirt and black jeans. A named badge is pinned to her t-shirt and it reads Josie Hawthorne – MANAGER

'Can I help you?' She smiled politely.

Daphne and Fred showed her their police badges, she looked a little bit shocked and they began to explain why they were here, 'We're looking for a man by the name of James Stevens. This is his last known address.'

'Yeah, he lived here.' Josie Hawthorne replied, 'But he was evicted.'

'Can I ask why?' Daphne asked, taking notes, 'And when?'

'About a year ago, he was practising all these weird "magic" tricks in his apartment and it was disturbing the other residents. I asked him to stop or at least not make so much noise, but he didn't really listen, so I had him evicted.' Josie Hawthorne explained.

'And this was a year ago?' Daphne asked. The manager nodded, 'I don't know where he went but I never saw him again, I assumed he left the city or this part of it at least.'

'So, you would have no idea where he would go?' Fred asked, 'Do you have any idea of the kind of tricks he was doing?'

'He was doing something with bombs.'

'Bombs?' Daphne asked.

'Yeah, but you know like smoke bombs, the ones that make a noise like he was trying to create a dramatic entrance or something.'

Daphne looked at Fred and she thought about the black powder on the roof of City Hall, but she heard no explosion. Maybe it had made a noise, but she didn't hear it. She thought back to last night and remembered that all she heard was the pounding of her heart as she pursued the Magic Man, James Stevens.

'What did his neighbours think of him?' Fred asked. Josie Hawthorne shrugged, 'Nobody really spoke to him, he kept to himself and didn't talk to anyone else in the building. But some of the residents made comments about him when they passed him in the halls.'

'Comments?' Daphne asked.

'Yeah. They never said these things to his face obviously, but behind his back. They commented on his pale complexion and his scrawny figure, it was rare that he left his apartment. He would go out probably once every two weeks, probably longer than that.'

'Do you know where he would go?' Fred asked.

Josie Hawthorne shook her head, 'No idea, sometimes he would come back with a bag of stuff and other times he would leave empty-handed. As I said, he was scrawny, I think when he returned with stuff, that was his grocery shop, but I don't know where he would have gone.'

'Ok, thank you for your time.' Fred said.

'Woah, Woah, Woah!' Jacobs exclaimed.

'What is it?' Garrett asked, sipping his cola. Henderson was eating a big pink and blue doughnut and sat opposite Jacobs.

'I found something.' Jacobs said he put his sandwich down.

'What is it?' Henderson asked.

'A man is living in an old building in Manhattan Valley. Someone sold it to him in February last year.' Jacobs spoke.

'No way?' Garrett asked.

'Uh-hu.' Jacobs replied, 'I was looking at potential locations for Stevens to hide, and I found this document.'

Henderson and Garrett went over to Jacobs and looked at the screen at his discovery.

'Call the captain.' Garrett said. Jacobs grabbed his phone and pressed Fred's name in his contact list.

'You guys better get back here.' Jacobs said, 'We think we found where Stevens is hiding.'

Fred and Daphne studied the document which read:

"February 10th 2020 – Property on Amsterdam Avenue, New York City, previously owned MR Harry Adams. The new homeowner, as of February 11th 2020 will be MR James Stevens."

'What?' Daphne gasped, 'Adams sold it for only $2000?'

'I know but listen to this.' Jacobs said, and he began reading from an article, 'This article was written a week after Stevens moved in, "wealthy millionaire buys old building for a homeless friend", it says a little bit about how Adams found Stevens wandering around the streets and somehow the ended up talking and became friends, blah, blah, blah, but then I found this article the day after, "wealthy millionaire leaves NYU in favour of the tropical Hawaiian paradise".'

'So, Adams buys a guy he's never met before a house then moves nearly 5000 miles away?' Fred asks.

'Hmm…' Daphne mumbled, 'I remember meeting Adams when I visited my dad at his building.'

'What's he like?' Garrett asked.

'Not the type of man to buy a stranger a house. He's a cold-hearted bastard.' Daphne replied.

'So, not the type to buy a homeless man a house?' Jacobs added and Daphne shook her head, 'I remember him telling my father that he and his wife were planning on taking a vacation to Hawaii, but they didn't want to live there.'

'What about his company? What did he do with his company?' Garrett asked.

Jacobs typed away; it took him a few minutes, but he found the article he was looking for. He sat back in his chair and took a deep breath, 'He sold his company.' He began, 'He sold his company to George Blake.'

'What?' Daphne asked, then she remembered. When she and Fred went looking in her father's office after he was arrested in the summer last year, they found paperwork showing that George Blake was having money troubles, but they never found out where the money had gone or how much was gone, and George Blake didn't say anything about it in court.

'Are you sure?' She asked.

Jacobs nodded, 'It's all there.' He pointed at the screen.

'That still doesn't explain why Adams sold his company and moved away.' Garrett spoke.

'It doesn't.' Fred agreed.

'Unless he was hypnotised.' Henderson spoke, 'We are looking for a magician of course.'

'He's right.' The 5 turned to the door, and Chapman stood leaning on the doorframe, 'I don't believe in magic of course, but I believe that the human mind can be…tricked, shall we say?'

'Tricked?' Garrett asked.

'Hypnotism, it is the only way to explain why a greedy millionaire would buy a house for a man he's never met.' Chapman spoke.

Fred sighed, 'He's definitely living there?'

Jacobs nodded, 'Nobody has taken it over since last year and it's not for rent or sale.'