Two for the Show (28 page)

TWENTY-FOUR

That is the trick
I’m offering to Wallace the Amazing.

That is the escape.

That is the compromise.

And I will convince the white-haired, withered, real Archer Wallace to drop off this document at the Las Vegas police station—which he will do gladly, eagerly, since it will expose and reveal Wallace the Amazing at last. Archer Wallace, who a landscaping crew heard screaming for help, finding him chained to a radiator in an unoccupied house whose yard they maintain.

He will be dropping it off, of course, without this final chapter.

And without the previous chapter.

Which I will deliver separately, at the same time, to Wallace the Amazing. The chapter you just read, the chapter that erases my existence, the one that imputes all powers to him, the one that proposes it is all merely one more ingeniously disguised, well-executed performance of his own.

I will deliver it to him, as I deliver him everything. Once more doing the work for him, behind the scenes, delivering the materials he needs to maintain the illusion, to “do the show.”

Is it blackmail? Yes, since the document—except for that last chapter—will already be at the police station. Hopefully, he’ll have little choice but to add that chapter to it, to go with my proposed version of events. And why not—that chapter will solve the “problem” of my confession. Will erase it. The police will easily believe that the document was stolen from his desk in Shangri-la. That it was one more “trick” he was working on.

(After all, didn’t you? For a moment, anyway? Magic needs to be magical only for an instant. It’s the opposite of a “trick”—it’s the brief moment when you think it’s
not
a trick. When you experience the impossible, the irrational, and momentarily believe it.)

The truth as blackmail. An odd concept, in a way—the truth as a lever of criminality. But a long, illustrious history, after all.
Do what I want, or I’ll reveal the truth.
Since time immemorial, the truth has been unwelcome.

Simply blackmail? One final instance of blackmail in a story filled with it? The longest blackmail note in the world?

But I hope he doesn’t see it as blackmail.

I hope he sees it for what it really is: A plea.

To let me go.

To release me.

To let me start my own life, out of the shadows.

To release me from my servitude, by erasing my existence the rest of the way, leaving his magic and his myth intact.

Will he let me? Will he do it?

Or is this effort too little, too late?

Is it too transparent? Too Vegas? Too much of a trick?

Will he do it for his son?

Knowing in his heart, I am certain, why I want it, why I need it:

To search for Amanda. My sister. His daughter.

And to find Debbie.

Debbie, who is outside all of this mess. Debbie, who represents the future. Who is my chance to go forward. To connect truly, authentically, to rejoin the wider world, and no longer be tied only to the weighty, twisted bonds of the past.

I’ll find them. I’ll find them both.

Because I am—because I can finally
be
—a detective.

Will he do it?

Will it work?

One more trick from him?

One last trick from me?

One last moment of our strange dance of antagonism and collaboration, of love and hate?

Will he accept this solution?

Will he let me go?

We shall see.

Yours truly,

Charles “Chas” Stanton

About the Author

Photograph courtesy of the author

Jonathan Stone writes his books on the commuter train between his home in Connecticut an
d his advertising job in midtown Manhattan, where he has honed his writing skills by creating smart and classic campaigns for high-level brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and Mitsubishi. Stone’s first mystery-thriller series, the Julian Palmer books, won critical acclaim and was hailed as “stunning” and “risk-taking” in starred reviews by
Publishers Weekly
. He earned glowing praise for his novel
The Cold Truth
from the
New York Times
, who called it “bone-chilling.” He is also the recipient of a Claymore Award for best unpublished crime novel and a graduate of Yale University, where he was a Scholar of the House in fiction writing. He is also the author of
The Teller
,
Moving Day
,
The Heat of Lies
,
Breakthrough
, and
Parting Shot
.