In Place of Never (12 page)

In the distance, a pair of officers spoke with members of the Lovell Sideshow cast and crew. The rushing river, gorged by several days’ rainfall, silenced their voices. Scents of earth and ash hung in the air. Small puffs of smoke rose above a ruined stack of boxes and luggage.

Pru angled around the tree for a better position. “What are they saying?”

“I don’t know. Do you see Anton or Cross? Maybe I should text them.”

I squatted beside Pru and peered through the willow’s viney limbs. Several campers jockeyed around the squad cars for good rubbernecking positions. Raging waters had ruined the local night fishing. Gawking at fire victims worked well as an alternate way to pass the time, I guessed. Awful. I turned in a circle, counting the number of other trailers in the campgrounds. Could a fellow camper have set the fire? How many others opposed the Lovells’ presence?

Americana-themed twinkle lights on trailer awnings swayed in the wind. Music droned from distant radios. Only a few trailers stood at the river on my left. The Lovells made up most of the campers on my right. I made one more visual sweep of the area, looking for what, I wasn’t sure. Maybe a man carrying a flamethrower. Something small and red caught my attention at the popup trailer farthest from the Lovells’. Jason’s unmistakable red basketball shoes glowed under swinging awning lights. “Pru?”

She grunted, waddling through pine needles like a giant sandy-haired duck, chewing her nails.

“Did I tell you what Cross said about Jason and his family?”

She rolled her eyes. “Here we go. He’s a player and I’m going to get hurt if I keep seeing him. Skip it. I’ve heard this before.”

“And?”

“And I’m a sophomore in a town hurting for boys in my demographic.”

Right. “Good.”

“Wait. Why?”

Her wide blue eyes narrowed. She twisted at the waist, looking in the direction of the red shoes. Pru shot to her feet. Her head jammed into the prickly limbs, and they tangled into her overdone curls. Her hands fisted at her sides. “I can’t believe him.”

I touched her shoulder and stage whispered over the river’s constant roar. “You can’t make a scene here. Later. Okay?”

Jason’s bleach-blonde make-out partner climbed onto his lap. Oh, for goodness’ sake.

Pru dragged her heated gaze from him to me. “Dick.” She dropped back into a squat and wrapped protective arms over her knees, pulling them to her chest.

“Yeah.”

The willow’s branches rustled behind us. I held my breath as I turned. Not a single decent excuse for why we were out past curfew lurking at a crime scene entered my mind.

Cross ducked his head and folded his body into a seated position beside Pru. “Did you see your boyfriend?”

She pointed an angry finger at Cross’s nose and clamped her mouth shut. Apparently, even Pru knew her limitations “We’re not talking about that.”

His cheek lifted and dropped. Cross bumped his shoulder against hers. “That guy’s a dick.”

She smiled. “I’m going to egg his truck later. I can’t believe I’m on lockdown and he’s out here with some trailer trash. No offense.”

Cross brushed a hand over his lips. His shoulders bounced slightly. “None taken.”

“I hope you came with useful information. I’m feeling cranky.”

I cut in before Pru got any louder. “Is everyone okay? No one was hurt in the fire?”

He nodded. “Everyone’s fine.”

Pru looked over her shoulder and frowned. Her little figure collapsed backward onto the ground, planting her jeans onto wet ground. She yanked up a handful of grass. “I’m glad everyone’s okay. Any idea what happened?” Her eyes slid my way.
Did our Dad do this?

Cross adjusted into a squat. “No. Mouse said she was watching television and smelled smoke. She thought the crew had made a fire. We stay up playing cards or singing most nights. She went to take a look and discovered the flames.”

Pru huffed. “I thought she had a headache or a bedtime or something.”

I cringed. “How’s she doing? A fire is pretty rough.” Considering the marks on her cheeks, she must be terrified.

Cross stared through the dangling willow limbs toward his friends. “You mean because of her scars?”

I nodded. He wasn’t looking, but I hoped he knew.

“Mouse is tougher than she looks. She’s a survivor.”

“What scars?” Pru asked.

Cross focused his attention through the limbs. “She was in a fire when she was younger. She has scars on her face, neck, and hands, probably other places too. It happened a long time before she joined the group. The Lovells found her wandering the streets late at night and took her in. She didn’t speak and she was scarred so they didn’t take her to the police in case she had been abused. They kept her with them and made calls to authorities asking about a missing girl with scars. The police had no reports that matched. They stayed in the city for months before they left.”

Pru wrinkled her nose. “I think that’s called kidnapping.”

Cross pressed his lips into a tight white line. “I thought the same thing when I met her. Then again, I left with them too.” He shook his head. “I joined up when I was sixteen. Mouse wasn’t much younger when she came to them.”

The look on Pru’s face spoke volumes. I had no right to say anything about Jason when my new guy friend was a runaway and an accomplice to a kidnapping.

“So they collect kids?”

“No.” Cross grimaced. “Once Mouse trusted them, she talked. She told them about being an orphan and living with other abandoned kids in the poorest section of Cleveland. There was a fire one night and she woke up in the hospital. No one else survived. They moved her from place to place when she was healed, but foster care is a flawed system, and she was traumatized for years.” He rubbed heavy palms up and down his arms. “It’s a cruel world. Being a little girl with scars like hers had to be unthinkable. I don’t blame her for taking off and I don’t blame the Lovells for taking her in. Her parents abandoned her. The system failed her. Hell, no one was even looking for her.”

I bit my lip against the building arguments. Dad would’ve found her a proper home, but that time had passed. Mouse was at least eighteen now, maybe twenty.

I couldn’t reconcile the Lovells’ behavior. There had to be a better answer. What if someone was looking for her? “I’m surprised the Lovells didn’t turn her over to child services.”

Cross shot me a look of exasperation. “Me too, but they didn’t. They do things their way. Mouse never wanted to leave, so I never pushed. Hell, I was a kid when I came on board. Who was I to judge? Besides, back then I worried they’d change their mind about me. Send me back to the system.”

Pru nodded slowly. “How old is Anton?”

Jeez.

“Twenty-one.”

“And Mouse?” I asked.

“Twenty.”

Pru stretched her legs out before her and clasped her knees in her palms. “Anton’s dating a younger woman.”

I groaned. “She’s not that young. She’s older than me.”

Cross smirked. “They aren’t really dating. It’s complicated. Mouse is overinvested because she’s always looking for someone to belong to. We were friends when I came on board, but she was needy and I’m not what she needs. I’m…”

“Damaged?” I asked.

A ghost of a smile passed his lips. “Yeah. She gave up after a year or so and started following Anton instead. He’s too nice to put a stop to it. Honestly, I think he’s glad for the company. Romance never quite works out for him.” He looked my way. Had he asked about all those lost loves? Did Anton know what happened to them? “He’s always looking for what his parents have. I guess it’s hard to meet another Roma traveler when you’re traveling. Meanwhile, he and Mouse are getting to know each other better.”

Pru stiffened. “Shh.” She pointed to Dad and his lackeys leaving the scene. “We need to go.”

I dusted my palms. “She’s right. We’ve got to go. Sheriff Dobbs is one of Dad’s posse members. His oldest son, Brady, was Faith’s boyfriend. I guess her death ruined their family too. We need to get home before they see us here or know we’re gone.”

Cross lifted his hand. His fingers wrapped around mine. “Wait.”

I held my breath.

“Anton’s coming.” He released my hand as the branches of the willow swayed.

Anton swatted the skinny limbs. “What are you doing under here?”

Pru scowled. “We can’t hear anything. What’s happening out there?” She pointed to Dad. “That’s our dad, Pastor Porter. Did he say anything to you?”

Anton leaned against the tree trunk. “I heard him tell the sheriff he’s taking those three guys home.” He turned to Cross. “Sheriff Dobbs will get back with us after the fire department finishes their report. The crew’s on edge. They’re ready to fight anyone getting too close to the trailers. Collin’s setting up night patrol shifts to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The official cause is fireworks.”

I frowned. “Fireworks?”

“Someone set off a bunch of bottle rockets under the trailers and on the luggage racks. The reports won’t say arson, but I don’t see how bottle rockets could cause all that damage. Won’t matter. I bet the verdict will be kids goofing off. Accidental. Some lame cover-up like that.”

Pru moved to Anton’s side.

“Let’s go.” I kicked grass and pebbles. “Dad’s on his way home.” My heart raced.
Accidental. Some lame cover-up like that.
We’d heard that before.

Anton shrugged. “I don’t know where the other guys live, but he has to take them home first. Can we talk a minute?”

I bit my tongue against a building tirade. If Dad caught us, I’d never see Cross or Anton again. Not to mention I wouldn’t get any more answers about Faith’s last days here. I’d be grounded much longer than the Lovells were in town. I wouldn’t get to question Nadya.

Anton’s jaw twitched. He cracked his knuckles and toed the dirt. “I wasn’t completely honest about Faith and me.”

The river grew quiet. Crickets quit chirping. My ears rang. “What do you mean?”

“I met Faith the day we came into town. She’d just broken up with her boyfriend, and I was hanging signs on telephone poles for our show. She let me buy her a coffee and we talked about your town. I was eighteen and lived on the road. She was seventeen and had never left St. Mary’s. She fascinated me.” He swallowed. “I ran into her again the next day, and we took a walk by the river. We kept running into one another and talking. She met the family. She snuck out a lot that week.” He smiled. “Then I saw her at the River Festival, and she was upset. She’d had a run-in with her ex-boyfriend. She wanted to get away, so I invited her back here with me. I knew the crew had a bonfire going. She agreed and we shared some wine. Traded broken-heart stories.” He chuckled without humor. “I really liked her.”

I pulled in a sudden breath. My eyes stung from the intake. I’d stopped breathing while he spoke. “What happened?” I croaked the words.

“She and Rose made friends. She let Mom read her palm. She watched the cast practicing for our big show in Cincinnati the next weekend. She seemed fine. Happy.” His head dropped forward. “I misread the signals. Too much wine. Not enough life experience. I tried to kiss her and she bolted. I blew it. She spilled her heart out to me about the way her ex pressured her for sex and then I tried to touch her too. It was a stupid move, and I regretted it for a long time after we left here. I’ve thought of her often, but I’d forgotten exactly what she looked like until you showed up with that picture.

“When I heard about the songwriting contest in St. Mary’s this year, I pushed hard to get here. I figured she’d be home from college and we might meet again. I planned to apologize, maybe catch up on the past three years.” A sad smile tugged the corners of his mouth. “Some people come into your life for a minute and leave a long-term mark. You know what I mean? News that she died…was a lot to take in. I needed time to process.”

Pru squeaked. “You kissed my sister?”

My lips burned where my teeth sank too far into the flesh. Was this happening?
“
We’ve got to go.”

I waved my palms at Anton and Cross. “I need time to digest all that. Plus, I really don’t want to be grounded until eternity. Let’s go.” I kicked Pru’s shoe.

Cross stood and stepped into my path. His soulful brown eyes said things I didn’t have words for, like how I shouldn’t worry and how it mattered to him that I did. “Can I text you later?”

I nodded. My stubborn tongue weighed a ton. Memories of Cross’s breath on my face at Red’s rushed through me. Images of Faith crying wrecked my heart.

He touched my shoulder with long, confident fingers that burned a path down my arm to my elbow. The thin fabric of my shirt did nothing to stop the snap of my skin under his touch.

I sucked in a small, shuddered breath. “I’ll talk to you later, Cross.”

He held my elbow another long beat before he stepped away.

Pru shoved free of the willow with me behind her.

I stopped short outside the limbs. “Anton?”

A low rumble came through the branches.

“Thank you for your honesty.”

I grabbed Pru’s arm and we ran full speed until our feet hit my bedroom floor.

She collapsed on my bed and knocked her shoes onto the rug. “Anton knew Faith.”

I leaned against my bedroom door. “Yeah and he was the last one to see her alive.”

Resolution

Pru snapped my iPod into the speaker and looked through my playlists. “Do you have something against current titles?”

I ignored her and tapped my fingertips over the keys on my laptop. Taste in music was one of many things we didn’t have in common.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m bringing up Faith’s blog.”

Pru bounced to my side. “Shut up. She kept a blog? Why didn’t I ever find it?”

I turned in shock. “You looked for her online?”

“Well, yeah. If it wasn’t for the Internet and local gossip, I’d never learn anything around here. How do you think I learned about sex?”

I slapped a hand over my mouth and shut my eyes. “You didn’t type that into a search engine.”

Pru cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah. I did, and it was disgusting. Luckily, I hung in there long enough to revise my search a few times. Eventually, I found an educational site for fact gathering, but I got the gist of how sex looks from all the popups.”