CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Paige rushed for Stephen, but he was already ducking behind the box that held Antoinette, using her as a human shield. Paige kept her distance then because Stephen was still armed. If she rushed around the box to grab him, then she might find herself running into a saw coming the other way.
She worked to get an angle instead, gun held out ready to use. At this point, Paige was ready to fire. Stephen Booth was leaving her with no other choice now. She could see him trying to work the saw into position in a groove in the box.
“The show must go on!” he called out.
“Stephen, you need to give this up,” Paige said. She was still working to get an angle, but he was rotating with her, making it hard to see enough of him to get a clean shot.
“A show needs its grand climax,” the killer replied. “A build to the finish, followed by rapturous applause from the audience!”
“What audience?” Paige asked. The seats out in front of the stage were completely empty. “Do you think anyone cares about what you’re doing?”
If he was doing this for the attention, then maybe that would be enough to taunt him into showing himself. Maybe Paige would be able to end this and save the woman who would otherwise be his last victim.
“There’s no reason for you to do this, Stephen!” Antoinette said.
“There’s every reason. If you hadn’t been there, if it had just been me and my father, things would have been different. You made my life hell, then you took the inheritance that should have been mine.”
Stephen started to work the saw back and forth, obviously determined to find a way to kill Antoinette even with Paige closing in on him. She heard Antoinette scream, and Paige knew in that moment that there was no time in which to look for the perfect shot anymore. She had to move in and stop this, or the woman was going to die.
Paige rushed forward, heading for the spot where Stephen was hiding. He reared up as Paige did so, swinging the saw he held at Paige as if he might try to cut her in half. Paige barely dodged back in time, her shot going wide as she did it.
Stephen took another swing at her, and Paige managed to step inside the swing, getting a grip on Stephen’s forearm with her free hand while she tried to bring her gun to bear. He grabbed her wrist, though, the two of them standing inches from each other, struggling with all their might.
The problem was that Stephen was bigger than her, and obviously stronger. Paige felt him slowly turning her gun away from him, wrenching her arm hard enough that the Glock fell from her fingers, clattering to the floor of the stage. Stephen took hold of his saw with both hands, and now his strength meant that it descended slowly towards Paige’s throat.
Paige snapped her head forward, slamming her forehead into the bridge of Stephen Booth’s nose. He staggered back, and Paige lunged for her gun, managing to get her hand to it. She spun towards Stephen, but he kicked her, his foot cracking into Paige’s skull. She managed to keep her grip on the weapon, but even so went spinning to the floor of the stage.
Paige rolled to her back, raising the weapon. If Stephen had been rearing over her, Paige would have fired then without hesitation, knowing that it was the only way to save her own life.
He hadn’t advanced on her, though. Instead, he was making another lunge for the box.
“Stop!” Paige called out, her head still swimming with the impact of the kick she’d taken. The world around her seemed blurry, so that two Stephens advanced on the helpless form of Antoinette.
Paige fired again, and saw Stephen jerk back, but he didn’t fall. He’d been grazed at best. Paige had missed again, unable to focus on her target enough to hit him. She could barely concentrate; she’d been hit that hard. She felt sick, felt like just curling up and giving in, but Paige forced herself to her knees, and then to her feet.
She heard Stephen curse, and then run back from the box that held Antoinette. Paige tried to focus, tried to get a clean shot, but her head was swimming so much that it felt almost impossible. She saw Stephen walk back towards one of the door frames set there on the stage, and Paige forced herself into a shooting stance, the way she’d been taught in the academy. This time, she wouldn’t miss.
There was a flash, and for a second or two, it appeared that Stephen was standing in middle of the other doorway on the stage, having suddenly gone from one to the other like it was nothing. It meant that Paige had to try to readjust her aim, taking a second or two to get back on target while her head still swam with dizziness.
There was another burst of smoke then, filling the doorway even as Paige tried to fire. She didn’t see her bullet hit anything. Instead, the smoke cleared, and suddenly the doorway was empty. Stephen was gone, vanished as if he had genuinely teleported out of there.
Paige had no idea where he’d gone. A part of her simply didn’t have any idea what was going on with the magic trick, and another part of her was still trying to get her head straight after being kicked. That one felt as if it had concussed her badly, leaving Paige to stagger over to the box that held Antoinette, struggling to open it.
There were catches on the side, and each one had been fastened in place by a simple metal pin, designed to allow the magician to let an assistant out quickly. It also meant that there was no way for Antoinette to let herself out from the inside. Paige pulled those pins out of the way, letting her open the box to help pull Antoinette from it.
The former magician’s assistant had a long, ragged cut across her stomach, but it seemed shallow, and wasn’t bleeding heavily. Paige helped her to her feet.
“Oh God, he was going to kill me,” Antoinette said. She sounded as though she was panicking. “He cut me! I’m bleeding!”
Paige knew that she had to try to calm Antoinette down. Panicking would only make things worse, making her go into shock faster and making it harder for Paige to get her out of there safely. She needed to get Antoinette to focus on something else.
“Do you have any idea where he went?” Paige asked. “How does that effect work?”
“There are a couple of versions,” Antoinette said. “But the one Henry always did involved a mechanism that triggered a trapdoor, letting him drop down beneath the stage. We always enjoyed doing it here because there are some old tunnels running underneath the park. It meant that we could do reappearances out in the audience, or up in one of the trees in the park.”
Paige went over to the door frame that Stephen had vanished from, but then she saw the mirror there near the door.