“Okay, so let me get this straight: you saw someone almost die and that makes you think there’s something magical going on?” Levi asked back at the restaurant. The place was quiet, between mealtime rushes, and Levi busied himself with cleaning up and restocking silverware and condiments.
“It was a very close call.” Frankie had just finished telling Levi what he had seen at the bank.
“People get lucky all the time like that.”
Frankie shook his head. “You didn’t see it. If he had been even an inch closer—in either direction—he would’ve been hit. It’s too big of a coincidence.”
Levi still looked skeptical.
“Let’s see what Evelyn says, then,” Frankie told him. “She’ll agree with me.”
“She’s still downstairs, trying to get a reading on Charles Bennett. There’s someone else who had had a string of good luck before he killed himself. You think the two are connected? If what you say is anything to sneeze at, of course. Still doesn’t sound like much to me, but I’m not the witch here.”
“I guess they could be related. None of it sits quite right with me.”
“What doesn’t sit right with you?” Evelyn emerged from the back room where the staircase to the speakeasy was hidden.
“Frankie saw a guy walk into traffic and survive and he thinks it’s supernatural.”
The witch shot him a look. “That’s not exactly what happened. He almost got hit by a streetcar and a passing car at exactly the same moment, but somehow managed to miss them both.”
“Lucky.” She took the seat beside him.
“Too lucky. And before that, he was in the bank crying to some woman—who looked familiar somehow—about how he needed her help with something. I would guess something to do with money, based on the location.” He shook his head. “I wish I could remember where I know that woman from.”
“From this time period or your own?” Levi asked.
“I’m not sure. I feel like it’s this one, though.”
“So what happened with this guy?” Evelyn asked.
“I mean, not much, I guess. He was crying to this woman in the bank, then by the time I was done, he had a stack of cash and seemed pretty happy. Total turnaround in his mood. That’s when he walked into the street and almost died.”
“But he didn’t,” Evelyn said. “What did he do after that? Was he surprised?”
“Sure he was, but then he just walked off. Like the cash he had won was more important.”
“If he was so worried about money that he was crying in public, then yeah, getting some money would distract him from anything else,” Levi said.
“But where did the cash come from?” Frankie asked. “It all happened in a matter of minutes.”
“I think we need to focus more on this woman he was talking to,” Evelyn said. “She may be the key.”
“How do you figure?”
“From what I saw in my readings, Charles Bennett’s good luck was supernatural,” she explained. “I’m just not sure how, exactly. But one thing that I did see was that he had had contact with a beautiful blonde woman. That could be the same woman that Frankie saw today.”
“So we need to figure out what happened,” Frankie said. “Because we can’t let anyone else have anymore close calls like I saw today. Especially if luck isn’t on their side.”
Levi looked between the two of them. “What are you going to do? March down to the police station and ask for information on Charles Bennett’s suicide? They wouldn’t give you the time of day.”
Frankie looked down and smirked. Sometimes it really was that easy for him, back in 1984. He could usually pump his friend Gary for information casually over lunch. It would help Frankie solve whatever magical mystery he had on his hands at the time and it wouldn’t tip off Gary to his probing.
Those days were over, though.
“Of course we’re not going to the police,” Evelyn said. “But we could talk to Bennett’s widow.”
“I don’t know,” Levi said hesitantly. “Wouldn’t that look odd if a couple of strangers start asking about the guy’s sudden suicide? I mean, they might even be looking at the wife as a suspect, if they suspect it was murder.”
“No, it’s actually a great idea,” Frankie chimed in. “She’ll be able to account for his actions over the last year, when he had good luck. Maybe she can even note any changes to his behavior that showed that his luck had turned.”
“This is one of those things you two are going to do no matter what I say, isn’t it?” Levi asked.
Evelyn waved it off as she got to her feet. “Don’t you worry about us. We’ll be fine. Let’s go, Frankie.”