Now You See It Read Online Free Page B

that old,” he said. “What, fifty-one?”
    “Fifty-two,” she answered.
    “That’s not old.”
    “His father wasn’t that old either,” said Cassandra.
    That sent a chill right through me, let me tell you. Had Max also suffered a stroke, albeit a mini? Enough to diminish his physical and mental capabilities?
    The thought was shocking to me.

    Cassandra had walked to the picture window and was gazing out. “It’s going to rain,” she murmured. She sighed again and looked toward the desk chair as though Max were sitting there. Another sigh. Moving to the chair, she pushed idly at its high back, making it revolve.
    She then began to pace the room, her expression one of mounting anguish. (I hated the ambivalent emotions she was arousing in me.)
    “I remember every detail of the night I first saw him,” she said. “The Orpheum in London. God, he was magnificent! The most majestic-looking man I ever saw on stage!” Of course, she’d never seen me. “The way he
moved
. The grace—the flow—the total, overpowering magnetism of him! It was awesome! The audience was his slave. And so was I.”
    She was at the fireplace now, staring into its shadowy depths. She shook her head, a smile of bitter self-reproach on her lips. “But I’m living in the past,” she said. “All I see now is a crumbling edifice. A
parody
of what he was.” (This was more in keeping with the Cassandra I knew; or, the Cassandra I thought I knew.)
    Harry moved to her and put his arms around her once again. She leaned against him wearily.
    “He’s going to let you do it, babe,” he said.
    “I don’t know that, Harry,” she responded.
    “Babe, he isn’t going to let the whole act die,” he said. “He’s not a stupid man.” (That much Harry had correct at any rate.)
    “I hope so,” Cassandra murmured.
    She straightened up, a look of grim determination on her face.
    “I can
do
it, Harry,” she declared. “I’ve worked for years! I’m not saying I’m as good as he is.” How modest of her. “But I can
do magic
. I can
do
it.”
    “Shh. Babe. Easy.” Harry was patting her back again. “Am I arguing with you? I want to see you make it too; you know that. I want to see you playing the best clubs and theaters in the country—hell, in the
world!
The first really important female magician!”
    Using the act that I—then Max—developed over the past half-century
, I thought, a bile of angry resentment adding my insides.
    “It’s gonna happen, babe,” Harry told her confidently.
Bastard
, I thought.
    “I can
do
it, Harry!” she said, her tone a fierce one now. Max really had a battle on his hands, I saw.
    “Sure
you can,” said Harry. “That’s why I’m here. To make it happen.”
    Cassandra visibly calmed herself. She looked at him almost pleadingly. “You’re my last hope, Harry,” she said. “If it doesn’t happen today …”
    What was going to happen that day was eons beyond what any of us could have imagined in our wildest flight of fancy.
    “It’ll happen,” Harry said though, unaware. “Take my word for it.”
    She looked hopeful for a moment. “It would be so simple to update the act,” she said.
    Ah-ha
, I thought. So that was it.
    “The basic effects are there, as good as ever. All they need is modernizing; we could do it easily.”
    Poor Max
, I thought.
    “We could be on top again,” she said. “He could be on top again. Where he
belongs.”
Was she, in fact, sincere then? “That’s what I want—for
both
of us.” No way.
    “Come on now, babe,” Harry reassured her. He bussed her lightly on the cheek. “It’s in the bag.”
    She managed a sound of amusement. “If you can manage this, I’ll toast you with the best champagne in town.”
    He ran a hand down her back and across the curve of a buttock; a Kendal move if there ever was one. “Well, I might want just a little more,” he said.
    He had begun to kiss her when she stiffened, looking toward the desk chair. My eyeballs