Read Online The Magician's Bird by Emily Fairlie - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t good. She looked deadly serious, even with her sequins reflecting light onto her face. It made her look like she had disco chicken pox and didn’t find it amusing.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œSomebody’s been here.” Misti’s voice was hushed. Bud and Laurie looked around nervously. “Are you sure?” Laurie whispered. “How can you tell?”
    Misti pointed at the desk in the corner. “Did you put the ledger I was looking at away? Because it’s gone.”
    Laurie hurried over to the desk and looked. Misti was right. The ledger was now propped neatly, with some folders, at the back of the desk.
    â€œOh, man,” Laurie breathed, scanning the room. “The lion. The lion bookend. Look.”
    The last time Laurie had seen the lion bookend was when she put it down on the coffee table. Now it was back on the shelf. Right where it had been when she first found it.
    â€œWhat’s that about?” Laurie hugged her arms around herself. She didn’t want to touch anything.
    â€œWell, that’s super creepy,” Bud whispered. “What does that mean? Somebody comes in here?”
    â€œOr it’s a ghost,” Misti said slowly. “This is an old house. A ghost could live here. Maybe it likes its room just so.”
    â€œWell, whatever it is, I’m done. Let’s get out of here,” Bud said, zipping his book bag shut.
    Laurie shook her head. She wasn’t going to let herself get scared away at the first sign of something weird. It was way too late for that. This whole thing was weird. “No way. And go where? It was hard enough getting permission to come out tonight. I don’t want to waste it.”
    Bud stared at his book bag. She had a point. All he had waiting for him at home was that Swedish movie. If he went home now, he’d be expected to join in the familymovie time and post-movie discussion. Miss Downey loved to discuss.
    â€œAll right. But don’t touch anything. And it goes without saying, we ditch the exploring idea.” Bud hesitated. “And at the first sign of trouble, we get the heck out. Agreed?”
    â€œAgreed.” Laurie perched on one of the chairs. Her neck felt all prickly. She didn’t think Misti was right about it being a ghost, but she didn’t know what else it could be. She really didn’t get the sense that Principal Winkle was spending his off hours in the secret room.
    â€œI don’t think the ghost would mind if we used it,” Misti said, sitting down on the footstool and pulling her bedazzled sweatshirt over her head. “Especially if it’s Maria Tutweiler! Do you think it’s her? Maybe we could get a Ouija board and she could help us!”
    Unless she’s really a murderer, Bud thought. But he didn’t say it out loud. Instead he just shook his head. “It’s not Maria Tutweiler, okay? And it’s not a ghost. It’s just some weird thing. A person. Or a scientific phenomenon. Or we’re wrong, and we just forgot moving things. But it doesn’t matter, we’ll just share our info and leave. Please, Misti?” His voice cracked. He wasn’t going to be able to do this if she kept talking about ghosts all night.He was creeped out enough as it was.
    â€œFine,” Misti said. “What did you find out?”
    â€œIt’s pretty gross,” Bud said, pulling his papers out. “Apparently Marchetti was this really famous magician a gazillion years ago, right? He did illusions, plus a lot of things with some bird prop. And he was supposedly involved in all this bad stuff, like organized crime. And the feds were going to arrest him, but the crime bosses, they wanted to get him first. And he just laughed it all off. Then the night that the police were planning to arrest him, he did a show downtown at the Celestial Theatre, and one of the things in his act was a disappearing act, where he makes his assistant disappear.