The Magician's Assistant

23

The man motioned to a sofa close to the door.

"Why don't you make yourselves at home, ladies?" he said.

Rachael and Erika reluctantly sat down.

"Now then, what do I stand accused of?"

"Nothing, yet. We just thought you might know something," Rachael replied.

"What kind of 'something'?"

"Anything that seems important,"

The man fell silent for a moment. He put his hand to his chin.

"What's your name, by the way?" Erika asked.

"You can call me Crowe," The man answered.

"Crowe? Really?" Rachael asked.

Crowe didn't reply. He seemed to be lost in thought.

"Well, Crowe, did you see anyone besides you and that fisherman? You must have seen something you remember," Erika said.

"Every once in awhile there'd be someone else out there with us. I only ran into most of them once or twice, but..."

Rachael gave Crowe and expectant look.

"But?" Erika asked.

"There was one person who caught my attention,"

"Tell us everything you saw," Erika said.

"There was a woman there two nights in a row. She was a volitant, like yours truly,"

"Right..." Erika said, skepticism dripping from her voice.

"She had long black hair, red eyes, and black wings,"

"So she looked a lot like you?"

"Yes, actually. She was good looking, too. Just like me!" he said with a laugh.

Rachael gave a forced laugh, while Erika stayed silent.

"She had this sort of intensity and purpose about her. She definitely wasn't out on a stroll,"

"Did she seem interested in any of the boats?" Erika asked.

"Yes. She was hanging around that big yellow one that's been there for awhile. It was like she was inspecting it or something,"

"Inspecting it?" Rachael asked.

"She just sort of looked it over a few times. It didn't seem too suspicious at the time,"

"Who wouldn't want to look at a ship like that? It's a pretty impressive boat," Erika said.

"I guess that's what I thought at the time, but looking back, I think she was planning a robbery,"

"Did you find out anything about her besides her appearance?"

"I think she may have been armed. I saw a sheath on her hip,"

"So a sword, or?"

"A big knife, I think. It wasn't out in the open,"

"I guess you only got a peek at it," Rachael said.

"I'm sure she was trying to hide it," Crowe said.

Erika glanced at Rachael.

"That's about all I know. I can't think of anything else," Crowe said.

"Would it be okay if we looked around your apartment a bit?" Rachael asked.

"I'll show you around, but I'm not going to let you dig through any of my drawers or anything,"