Investigative Deception

By Camilo Iribarren

Two English brothers decided to perform for the children who are being treated at the Seattle Children’s Hospital, but there’s only one problem. One of the brothers is missing but no one knows where or when he was taken. Meanwhile, a university professor has caught Feste’s eye, and neither of them has felt such attraction in a long time. Then Damon’s past catches up with him, and it puts one of his teammates in danger, which forces the escapologist to face his demons once and for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781640276345

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Investigative Deception

Camilo Iribarren

Copyright © 2017 Camilo Iribarren

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-64027-633-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64027-634-5 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

About the Author

Thank you to everyone that helped me develop this story. You guys are true friends.

Chapter 1

Interesting Attractions

The day was breezy and sunny that it felt like a true spring season. Everyone wore light jackets, and some wore gloves. At the University of Washington, a group of students had been on a class of Introductory to Physics, and their professor had decided to take them to the campus’s courtyard. It was the professor’s way to explain how gravity affected every object and every living being across the world; it was easier for her to give her undergraduates a visual view so that they could experience the forces of the universe. The male students were attracted to the professor because of how beautiful and intelligent she was. Some of the female students dreamed of being as smart and as stunning as the professor because she was considered a rarity to have brains and beauty.

Professor Masaki, is the gravity that affects Earth similar to those of other planets? asked Carla Rodriguez, a nineteen-year-old young Mexican girl. She was one of Professor Masaki’s brightest students, since she was an engineering student.

No, Carla. Actually, the gravity on Earth is heavier than that of the gravity on Mars, 3.71 m/s², and it is the reason why astronauts can jump incredibly high and land very softly on the surface of the Red Planet. While Jupiter, on the other hand, has a gravity of 24.8 m/s² and is heavier than Earth’s 9.8 m/s², explained the physics expert. She had her students write a problem on how long it would take for a ball to fall to the ground if the height was 3 m high.

The professor’s name was Titania Masaki, a Japanese American woman that held a PhD in astrophysics. She was a complete lover of dancing and music. She was thirty-four years old but still looked as if she were twenty-seven. Her hair was a trendy shoulder-length dark-chocolate and colored with auburn highlights. Her face was slightly elongated with very light freckles across her nose. She had pink meaty lips, and her skin was slightly tanned. Her eyes were almond shaped, and her irises were light brown. Titania was slightly taller than an average woman. Her legs were toned because she ran and played soccer with her friends during the weekends. Her arms were stronger than most women’s because of her weight-lifting training at the gym she attended.

Titania was always likeable because of her kind personality and her willingness to help anyone. Her smile would melt any man or woman that was attracted to her, while making other people jealous. She had been asked many times why she did not consider modeling as a profession; to that, her response was that modeling would only work for a short time because she would get bored quickly. Her love for mathematics and numbers was mind-boggling to anyone who didn’t know her because she could do calculations incredibly fast; many considered her a natural-born genius. She knew how to speak three languages: English, Spanish, and Japanese. She was fluent in all three languages because she studied abroad in Spain when she was an undergraduate at New York University twelve years ago, and her father taught her to speak Japanese when she was a little girl. Whenever she had to teach a class, she was always dressed in a bright-colored blouse with black dress pants or pitch-black jeans and a pair of purple flats. Every now and then, she would wear a jacket to protect herself from the wind.

It was Feste’s day off, and he was bored out of his mind, so he decided to take a stroll around town and ended up at the university. When it was noon, he started practicing his magic tricks, using playing cards, and a student had approached him to ask him what a blond man was doing with playing cards. Feste decided that it was time to have fun because he was getting bored since nothing had happened since the DiMarco case a few months ago. The student that approached him was a Guyanese male named Michael; he was studying English literature. Michael had a dark tan, black curly hair, and a beanie hat on loosely. The scholar was wearing a black leather jacket, dark jeans, and construction boots. He was a curious and book-savvy young man.

Feste had asked Michael to shuffle the deck and pick any card. Feste would not look while the young scholar went through the deck. It became a small game of twenty questions. Feste thought of it as a game of five questions to build a profile. It turned out that Michael’s card was the jack of clubs, which Feste had guessed correctly. Michael tried the same on the blond mentalist but failed to get it correctly. Feste had many volunteers, and he was able to read their minds, though he would never admit his secret. This attracted more students. The crowd grew larger gradually until Feste had a large number of people surrounding him, and all of them took videos or participated in his magic acts. He loved being the center of attention.

Titania noticed a small crowd of students huddling over the fountain in the middle of the campus ground. The students were all finishing on the problem she had assigned them, went over the answer, and finally dismissed her students for their next course. The mass of students called her attention, and she decided to investigate what the big deal was. She excused her way in until she got to the center of the crowd, only to see a blond, spiky-haired man with a black sports jacket on.

All right, I think I got your three-digit number. Now, be honest. For the first time out loud, what was your number, Diana? asked Feste while he typed a three-digit number on the female student’s smart phone, locked it, and passed it back to the owner. He was smiling and had everyone’s attention.

The young girl said her number was 783, and then Feste asked her to unlock her phone and show everyone the number. Diana followed through with his instruction and gasped as soon as she saw the correct number typed in her phone. She showed everyone around, and every person that saw the number was flabbergasted. Titania saw the number and smiled slightly because she was impressed, but she wanted to see more magic effects from the guy in front of her.

By the time Titania saw Feste, it was already 1:30 p.m., and she had decided to watch as the blond mentalist asked for another volunteer. Feste noticed the physics professor standing at his right with her arms crossed and paying very close attention to his movements. It was hinted to him that this Asian woman reading him seemed interested in magic but was not going to jump in so quickly. He chose to call her up to the center, though she tried to find a way to avoid that situation; it was all in vain, and he pulled her to the center gently. When she looked at him, she noticed that her head reached the tip of his nose.

What’s your name, miss? asked the blond mentalist, as he always did with his volunteers as his way to have people recognize the person who was part of the act. Don’t be shy. I don’t bite.

My name is Titania. I’m Titania, said the young Japanese professor, introducing herself. She was slightly trembling, and Feste noticed that, so he whispered to her that the act was all under control and no one was going to laugh at her. Hearing this calmed her down, and she breathed deeply. She was shaking—not because of shyness, but because she was not expecting to be called to the center. She loved dancing, but it was her first time to be in the center of a magic show.

Everyone, welcome Professor Titania! said Feste, speaking loudly and hearing many students clapping and whistling.

Some of the students were saying, Go, Professor! Titania was surprised that the blond mentalist had said the word professor even though she never mentioned she was a teacher at the university. This begged the question of how this man knew what her profession was. She figured it was nothing more than a good guess.

All right, Titania, I want you to think of your first kiss when you were in high school. Concentrate on the age, the place, and the person whose lips touched yours, said Feste, guessing most girls would blush and say it was a boy at the age of sixteen. This professor was not giving the vibe of a boy kissing her, and she was not blushing a lot. He had Titania be two steps away from him and had her look at him directly. I’m getting the feeling that you kissed a girl at the age of seventeen at your prom, is that right?

Yes, I was a wild child in high school. That prom was really fun, said Titania as if she was conversing with a friend. She stopped herself when she noticed how much she had said and saw how the student body looked at her. No one was bothered by this revelation; they were curious and impressed instead. Can you guess the name, Mister Mind Reader?

I’ll call out the alphabet. You don’t have to say anything—just look at me directly. A, B, C—oh, C! Carly, Carolina, Charlie … Charlie was her name, wasn’t it? said Feste when he saw Titania swallow subtly at the mention of the letter C and her eyes dilate when the name Charlie was mentioned. She was a girl crush you had when you two took music class together.

This surprised Titania more because she tried really hard to not show any signs, but then again, she barely used psychology. It was amazing how a total stranger could figure her out so fast, and she was still interested in this man. OK, read my mind again!

This caught Feste off guard because most people tended to walk off the center after one act; very few stayed for more than one. This professor was very attractive, and he was mesmerized by her looks and her demand of being read again. Not a problem. This one is called The Guessing Kiss! The way this works is, you pick a card from this deck, shuffle it if you want, pick the card, and concentrate on it. For me to call your card correctly, I’ll need you to give me a kiss on the cheek, said Feste, pointing at his right cheek. In the back of his mind, he actually hoped that Titania would kiss him even if it was just once.

Not so fast, mister. You’ll have to buy me dinner first,