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Unless you pour too quickly or tip it out of the side, you can’t empty it as you would a normal one.’
    ‘So there’s a hidden lining?’ Jessica asked.
    ‘Exactly, it’s like a bowl within a jug – or one of those vacuum flasks you get.’
    Hugo crossed to the sink and put the plug in, then tipped the jug vertically upside down, letting the milk cascade into it. Jessica saw a small silvery flash drop into the pool, before Hugo plunged his hands into the liquid and picked out a pair of earrings, holding them in his palm for Jessica to see. In each, there was a large jewel which looked like a diamond and Jessica opened another zip bag for him to drop them in.
    ‘They would have been fixed in between the layers,’ Hugo said. ‘The liquid freed them up.’
    Jessica looked at them closely, although they were likely too small to have been engraved and she couldn’t see anything.
    ‘There are probably other boxes around the city,’ Jessica said. ‘But what links the jug and the cup to the Rubik’s cube?’
    ‘The cube isn’t a magic item,’ Hugo said. ‘But I’ve seen some people completing it really quickly just to be impressive. It all relates to showmanship.’
    Jessica nodded, thinking it certainly had the cry for attention about it. ‘Who’s supposed to be checking these items against NMPR?’ she asked, turning to Dave.
    ‘Just one of the constables.’
    ‘It’s only a five-minute job, let me speak to him.’
    Dave dialled the number and explained that one of his supervisors wanted to talk to the unfortunate officer, and then handed the phone over.
    Jessica put on her politest phone voice and asked what the problem was.
    ‘I’ve not been able to match it against anything specific,’ came the reply.
    ‘Can you check for a pair of diamond earrings? Just search locally around Greater Manchester.’
    After a few moments, the man replied that he had a few matches.
    ‘Okay, can you cross-check that against anything registered with the initials C for Charlie, P for papa engraved on them.’
    ‘P for papa?’
    ‘Yes.’
    There was a short pause before he spoke again. ‘Oh, I thought Dave said “D” as in D for delta.’
    Jessica looked at Dave and shook her head exaggeratedly. ‘No, that’s P for papa, not D for dimwit.’
    There was another pause while the officer checked the system.
    ‘You’re not having a good day today, are you?’ Hugo said, looking towards Dave.
    ‘I’m down about five quid for a start,’ he replied, looking far more annoyed about that than anything else.
    The officer soon returned, giving Jessica a full name, address and contact number for a person who had registered all of the items stolen. When she said the name out loud, it was little surprise to her that Hugo recognised it – and no shock at all when he told her the man’s profession.

FIVE
    Ian Gale was a name Jessica would usually have heard and then instantly forgotten. It didn’t exactly make you think sex, drugs and rock and roll. Well, maybe paracetamol and a gentle jazz band playing in a hotel lobby, or something like that.
    Hugo recognised the name, though, because the Ian Gale to whom the stolen earrings, pocket watch and ring apparently belonged went by a different name. “Balthazar Benvolio” was the man’s stage name and, according to Hugo, he had been working as a magician for the best part of thirty years. Jessica had never heard of him, although Dave had a vague recollection. Hugo told them he was a “magician’s magician”, which Jessica took to mean he was an acquired taste.
    The officer at the station said he would sort the paperwork, while Jessica decided that, due to the strange nature of the discovery and the fact Balthazar lived locally – plus the far more important concern that she didn’t want to head off to the training day – she would visit him in person to say they had found the items. Now there was a definite theft involved, someone at Longsight was going to check with the