mystic caravan mystery 02 - freaky lies (24 page)

“Oh … crud.”

22

Twenty-Two

^“
W
hat do we do?” Luke was on his feet, his gaze intense.

“We help,” I said, scurrying in the direction of the panicking guests.

“How?”

“By working together,” Raven interjected, appearing at my side with Nixie and Naida in tow. We hovered on the safe side of the barrier, making sure we didn’t get swept into the mayhem. “I heard the screams.”

“They’re going to trample each other,” I said, cringing as a small child was knocked to his knees. I started to move forward, intent on helping as the boy’s terrified mother tried to protect her son, but Seth swooped in from the other side and lifted the boy off the ground while using his impressive muscle mass to shelter the duo from the crowd. He was in human form, but shirtless, which led me to believe he’d raced over from the main tent when he heard the melee.

“How are we going to work together to stop this?” Luke asked. “It’s too late. It’s already out of control.”

“You’re always such a defeatist,” Raven chided, shaking her head and causing the moonlight to bounce off her silver highlights. “It doesn’t matter, though, because you can’t do anything to help. This is a job only the women can handle.”

I knew what she was talking about without voicing the obvious question. “We need to cast a net.”

“What kind of net?” Luke was getting shrill as the screams from the parking lot multiplied. “If you want to herd them like fish I think you’re going to suffocate them … although, does anyone have any tartar sauce?”

“Your sense of humor rears its ugly head at the worst of times,” Raven snapped. “Go help the others in the parking lot. We’ll handle the rest.”

Luke didn’t look convinced. In fact, his eyes roamed my face and I could see the indecision reflected back at me. He didn’t want to leave because he worried I would die if he wasn’t around to watch my every move. “I’ll help here.”

“Go,” I prodded, offering his wrist a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be fine.”

“You heard her,” Raven barked. “She’ll be fine. We have to do this now.”

“But … .”

“Go, Luke!”

Luke shot me one more worried look before scorching Raven with a hateful glare. I had no doubt those two would be tussling later, but I couldn’t think about that now.

“What are we going to do?” Naida asked, narrowing her eyes. “We don’t have time to gather enough power to cast a calming spell. These people may be freaking out, but someone is bound to see a light show, even if we try to hide it.”

“We don’t need to cast a net,” I replied. “We’ve already cast one.”

“We have?” Nixie wrinkled her ski-slope nose. “When did we do that?”

“The dreamcatcher, you moron,” Raven said, cuffing the back of Nixie’s head and earning twin looks of disgust from both pixies. I had a feeling they would be joining Luke in his vendetta against the surly House of Mirrors maven before the evening ended. “All we need to do is tap into the dreamcatcher and shift the power.”

“Won’t that leave us open to attack?” Naida asked.

She had a point. We also didn’t have a choice. “We can reset the dreamcatcher once everyone is out of here. Even if we can’t … it’s only one night. We’ve survived worse.”

“Let’s hope everyone survives this,” Raven said, reaching for my hand. We aren’t friendly, but we are professionals. “If this goes really badly, it’s going to be a public relations nightmare.”

“Plus people could die,” I said.

“That, too.”

I closed my eyes as Raven tightened her grip on my hand. Naida took the other while Nixie positioned herself on the other side of her sister. We were used to working in tandem, so our magic flowed together relatively quickly.

In truth, I don’t have a lot of power. Everything I have is some form of mental manipulation. Raven and Naida are the true power centers. Nixie adds a little bit of juice, but she’s better with potions and powders. My gift is directing the power the others supply.

Raven usually likes to approach a spell with a little delicacy, but she rammed a surge of magic into the dreamcatcher to spark it to life. Only those magically inclined could see the line, so none of the running guests so much as glanced in our direction as the dreamcatcher flared to life.

Naida pulsed a sense of calm into the dreamcatcher, exhaling heavily as she used her power to ostensibly sing a lullaby that no one could hear but everyone felt. Her temper was notorious, but she’d managed to control emotions before. Once everyone spent an entire day crying after she watched
The Notebook
. It took us hours to figure out what was wrong, and Luke was convinced it was PMS run amok.

“It’s working,” Nixie said, her voice small. “They’re slowing.”

It was working. I opened my eyes and found the previously scattering guests had slowed their pace and were now shuffling quietly toward the exit, almost as if in a trance. “Good job,” I murmured, continuing to direct the power. “It shouldn’t take long to clear this place out.”

“Then what?” Nixie asked.

“Then we have to find out what happened in the parking lot that set off the screaming in the first place.”

“ANOTHER
one?”

The body on the ground at the south edge of the parking lot was covered in blood and missing both feet. The eyes were gone, too, although I’d come to expect that. The victim was female, her long dark hair fanning out in waves against the pavement. Blood seeped into her hair, and while I couldn’t see the discoloration I knew it was there.

“The guests who were parked here didn’t see the body until they pulled out,” Kade explained, rubbing the back of his neck as he studied the dead woman. “They didn’t stop until someone else caught sight of the body. That woman screamed … and then someone else screamed … .”

“And then everyone bolted for the parking lot,” Luke finished. “It was a nightmare. I barely got out alive.”

I shifted my eyes to the flashing police lights at the parking lot entrance. Detective Brewer said something to two uniformed officers before shifting his attention in our direction. He didn’t look happy.

“That is one pissed-off man.”

“I think he looks hot when he’s angry,” Luke said. “That’s probably a good thing, because I’ve yet to see him smile.”

“Would you smile if you were knee-deep in eyeless bodies?” Raven asked, making a face as she studied the victim. “What’s with the corn husks in the eyes? I don’t get it. That’s an ancient pagan thing, and no one has worshipped those gods in this area for centuries.”

I shrugged. “All three of the victims had the same thing. I didn’t see the second one in person, so I’m only going by what I saw in Brewer’s mind.”

“Shh.” Kade lifted his finger to his lips. “He’s on his way over here. You don’t want him to hear something like that.”

Raven snorted. “It’s not as though it matters,” she said. “We’re going to have to wipe that guy’s memory before leaving town. He’s too suspicious. We won’t have a choice.”

Kade flicked his eyes to me. “Is that true?”

I refused to lie to him, at least not about this. “Probably.”

“You said that was a violation,” Kade argued.

“It also might be a necessity,” I said, shaking my head when he opened his mouth to argue further. “He’s here.”

Kade pressed his lips together as Brewer joined our group. He was unhappy, but he wouldn’t call attention to the problem in front of an audience.

“Well, I’m seeing a lot of you folks these days, aren’t I?” Brewer glanced between the assembled faces before focusing on me. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“She wasn’t out here, so she doesn’t know what happened,” Kade replied, his protective instincts kicking in. “She was in her trailer when the body was discovered.”

“What about when the body was shoved under the truck?” Brewer asked.

“Do you even know when that happened?” Raven challenged. She wasn’t nearly as enamored with the grim detective as Luke, who kept flashing of flirty smiles in Brewer’s direction while preening to make sure the limited light caught his best angles. “Don’t you need to conduct an autopsy to determine that?”

“You’re Raven, right? You run the House of Mirrors?” Brewer met most of the performers during his tour.

Raven nodded.

“When I want your opinion I’ll ask for it,” Brewer said. He clearly meant business tonight. “The body is still warm. That means it hasn’t been here long. Can everyone account for their whereabouts for the past three hours?”

“It’s a circus,” Raven replied dryly. “We’re circus performers. We were working.”

“Can anyone vouch for that?”

“Just the people who saw me in the House of Mirrors,” Raven answered. “There were about a thousand of them who went through there during that period. I didn’t think to get names, though. Shucks.”

Brewer obviously didn’t like her tone. “Thank you for your time, Raven. You can leave. If I have further questions I’ll track you down.”

“You know where to find me,” Raven sang out, adding a little extra swing to her hips as she sashayed away.

“Staring at herself in the mirror,” Luke grumbled under his breath, his anger from earlier returning.

“What about you, Luke?”

“I handled the animals tonight and worked on the trapeze,” Luke replied. “When I was done in front of the crowd I took Tony back to the animal tent and then ran into Max. He asked me to find Kade, so that’s what I did. After tracking him down I had a beer with Poet in front of her trailer, and that’s where we were when the screaming started.”

“And where did you find Kade when you went looking for him?” Brewer asked, jotting something in the small notebook he carried.

“With his lips fused to Poet’s in front of her tent,” Luke replied, annoyed. His crush appeared to be running out of steam. “They were feeling each other up and groping in the dark. I watched them for a minute or so before interrupting. It was like a soap opera without the musical montage.”

“Luke!” I was glad it was dark, because I could feel my cheeks burning.

“I see,” Brewer said, his tone clipped as he glanced between Kade and me. “Were you two together the entire night?”

“I was in the big tent for the show, but left early because I wanted to see Poet,” Kade replied. “Most of my evening was spent walking the midway and watching the big show.”

“And groping Poet,” Luke added.

“That, too,” Kade acknowledged, not missing a beat.

“And you?” Brewer turned to me. “What were you doing when you weren’t groping this guy?”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t like his attitude. I was innocent, but Melissa was part of my alibi. I wasn’t sure I should mention her name. “I did readings until about eight,” I answered. “I usually go until about nine, but my stomach was upset so I headed over to the midway and got a ginger ale.”

“What did you do on the midway?”

“I talked to Mark Lane, who runs that part of our operation, and we discussed how small the crowd was,” I replied, opting for honesty. “He was worried that he would be blamed, but I explained it was the dead bodies cutting down on the crowds.”

“See, it doesn’t make sense for us to kill anyone, because it hurts our business,” Luke interjected.

Brewer ignored him. “What did you do after that?”

I had no idea why he was fixated on me, but it was starting to grate. “I talked to a few people … I gave out a few passes … and then I ran into a young woman who was interested in talking about the fortune teller business.” That wasn’t exactly a lie but it wasn’t the truth either. I didn’t want to mention Mary and Grace in case Brewer decided to question them and that forced their parents to put the kibosh on their day of fun tomorrow. As for Melissa, well … I didn’t know how to explain that, so I opted to avoid it. “That’s when I ran into Kade and … um … we started talking.”

“With their tongues,” Luke said.

“I got it, Luke,” Brewer intoned, rolling his eyes. “How long were you and Mr. Denton groping?”

“Not nearly long enough,” Kade replied, gracing me with a smoldering look before turning back to Brewer. “I’m looking forward to getting back to it as soon as you’re done with us.”

“There’s nothing like a dead body to heat up a romance, huh?” Brewer’s snarky demeanor was disturbing, but when I slipped inside his mind I found no malice there. He was genuinely upset by the deaths, but he was also afraid they signified the end of Lincoln’s relative innocence as a city. The community wasn’t overly large, so it hadn’t been jaded by too much death and destruction yet. He didn’t want it to happen on his watch.

“I didn’t say that,” Kade shot back. “The death is a tragedy and it’s very sad. We didn’t do this, though.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t think you did it either,” Brewer said, taking me by surprise when he flipped his notebook shut and shoved it in his pocket. I already knew he didn’t suspect us, but for him to admit it was a big step.

“If you believe we’re telling the truth, why are you constantly grilling us?” Kade asked.

“You can grill me,” Luke said, winking to signify his crush was back on. “I taste good with barbecue sauce.”

“Okay,” Brewer said, shaking his head. He had no idea what to do with Luke’s unwanted attention, although I managed to catch a glimpse of the fact that he was mildly flattered before he shifted his thoughts to something else. “I don’t think you guys are the killers because it makes no sense from a business standpoint. I do think you’re targets, though. I also think whoever is doing this is using the circus grounds to hunt and the hoopla surrounding your visit to hide.”

“We’ve been vigilant,” Kade said. “If someone is hanging around here, they’re doing it in a way we can’t detect.”

“That’s why I want you to shut down the circus early,” Brewer said.

“What? No way.” The words were out of my mouth before I gave any thought to the wisdom associated with them.

“It would be safer for everyone if you shut down early,” Brewer argued. “You just said that crowds are down. They’ll be down even more tomorrow.”

“I said crowds were down, not that we weren’t making a profit,” I countered. “We’ll make a profit tomorrow, too. We’ve already sold quite a few tickets, and they’re non-refundable.”