mystic caravan mystery 02 - freaky lies (6 page)

“I believe Mystic Caravan is like any other circus,” Percival said. “It’s a microcosm of society when you really break it down into its base parts.”

See, that right there makes me think there’s something off about this guy. Er, well, other than being a clown, that is. The accent serves as a nice distraction, but Percival seems out of his element. “A microcosm of society?”

Percival didn’t appear concerned with my tone. “Yes,” he said, bobbing his head. “Any small group of people reflects society as a whole if you take the time to break the interaction down. I’m guessing the clowns aren’t the only ones to form their own splinter group. Am I right?”

“Yes,” I replied, seeing no reason to lie. “The midway people tend to make up their own little group, too.” I pointed toward the row of trailers at the east end of the Lincoln fairgrounds. “Whenever we come to a new location we have the same basic setup. The circus is at the center, with the parking lot serving as the open front of the square. Then, on one side you have the row of trailers where I live with most of the other performers. The animal trainers, acrobats, sideshow attractions and other big show mainstays tend to group together there.

“The clowns take up residence along the back,” I said, pointing. “They have their own barbecue pit, and entertain themselves rather than join in with us. On the other side you have the midway performers. They don’t particularly like us and we don’t particularly like them.”

“Do the clowns like them?” Percival asked, seemingly fascinated with the layout lesson.

“No one likes the clowns,” I answered. “People find clowns creepy.”

“Is that so?” Percival looked amused by my honesty. “Why do you think that is?”

“Because grown men shouldn’t wear makeup, make balloon animals, put on floppy shoes and cram themselves into a car with one another.” Kade took me by surprise when he joined us. I hadn’t seen him lurking behind one of the games and couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d been eavesdropping.

“What are you doing?” I asked, glancing around. “I thought you were making sure the animal area was secure.”

“I did that already,” Kade replied, never moving his gaze from Percival’s face. “I left you an hour ago. You probably didn’t realize you’ve been giving our new … friend … a tour for that long.”

If I didn’t know better I’d think he was jealous. Because I regularly found myself jealous of Raven – and subsequently hated myself for it – I couldn’t help but enjoy Kade’s mild reaction. Yes, I know how that makes me sound. I’m shallow. Sue me.

“Ah, no need to worry, old chap,” Percival said. I could swear his accent thickened with Kade’s arrival. “I won’t take up much more of her time.”

“I’m not worried,” Kade said. “I just … thought I would check on you and see how things are going.”

“Quite smashingly,” Percival said. This time I was sure the accent thickened.

“We’re almost done,” I said, narrowing my eyes briefly before shifting my attention to Kade. “I know you’re worried about me spending too much time on tours so it’s nice you showed up when you did. I don’t suppose you could take care of the last leg for me, could you?”

It was a trap. I couldn’t help but wonder whether Kade would figure it out before agreeing.

“I would love to help you,” Kade replied, gracing me with a flirty grin. “That will allow you time to finish up whatever work you have before lunch. I figured we could head to town to pick up supplies.”

I balked. It was a sweet offer but I always made town runs with Luke. If I ditched him now I’d never hear the end of it. “We have to take Luke with us.”

I expected an argument. “I know,” Kade said, unruffled. “Luke and I already talked about it. He’s fine if it’s a threesome today.”

That was surprising … and suspect. “Luke said that?”

“He did,” Kade confirmed. “Go ahead and check with him.”

“I’m sure that’s not necessary.”

“We both know you’re going to do it anyway,” Kade said. “I’ll take over clown duty … er, I mean tour duty … and you can finish up everything else before lunch.”

I was dubious but opted not to dwell on a potential Luke meltdown before it became necessary. “That sounds great,” I said. “I don’t have more than an hour of work left to do.”

“Okay.” Kade was in an agreeable mood. “What do you need me to show Percival?”

Ah, and here came the trap. “You need to show him the free trailer on clown row,” I answered, quickly averting my eyes. “Percival needs a place to stow his gear.”

“That would be lovely,” Percival enthused. “It will also give me a chance to get to know the head of security. That’s always a priority when I start a new job.”

That was an odd revelation but I decided to let it go. “So … have fun!” I mustered as much faux enthusiasm as I could and slapped Kade’s arm. “I’ll meet you at your truck in an hour.”

“Oh, you might see me before then,” Kade gritted out, although he flashed a tight smile at Percival to ease the tension. The one place Kade avoided whenever possible was clown row. I couldn’t say I blamed him. There was a lot of honking … and flying buckets of water … and, well, drinking ... along that part of camp. “I can’t wait to thank you for this chore.”

“I look forward to that,” I said, grinning. “I … .” I didn’t get a chance to finish my statement because an ear-splitting scream pierced the morning air, causing everyone to cease what they were doing and scan the surrounding area.

“Where?” Kade asked, instantly alert.

That was a good question. I was fairly certain the scream didn’t originate from inside the fairgrounds. The dreamcatcher would’ve alerted if something bad happened on our turf. I tilted my head to the side and reached out with my mind, brushing against something terrified almost instantaneously. I pointed toward the cornfield on the far side of clown row. “There.”

“Of course,” Kade muttered, breaking into a run when another scream rocked the Mystic Caravan brethren. “That does not sound good. Hurry!”

5

Five

^“
W
here?” Kade’s face was a mask of concentration when we hit the back of clown row.

“I’m not sure,” I said, biting my lip and closing my eyes. After the second scream we hadn’t heard a sound other than our own beating hearts as our blood pressure ramped up. I opened my mind, looking for the source of terror from a few moments earlier, but this time I was met with a loud buzzing sound.

“Oh, is this my trailer?” Percival stood behind us and stared at the white home on wheels in question. “It looks quite posh.”

I ignored him and forced my mind to stretch, searching for a way around the buzzing. It was as if a hive of angry bees cut me off from the destination I sought. I was flummoxed but determined to focus before worrying about the mental barrier.

“Perhaps I should check out my trailer,” Percival suggested. “You two seem to have this … thing … in hand. You’re security, after all. No one wants a clown reacting to an emergency. I would probably only get in the way.”

“That sounds great,” Kade spat, grabbing my hand and jerking me toward the cornfield. “You stay here and we’ll handle the screaming.”

“Right,” Percival said, bobbing his head. If he detected Kade’s sarcasm he didn’t acknowledge it. “Good luck.”

“What a stupid ponce,” Kade muttered as he tugged me behind him. “I can’t believe you find that accent hot. He’s a complete and total tool.”

“Yeah, and I don’t know how posh he’s going to find that trailer once he finds out that the former resident sucked souls to stay alive and created a mutant army to do his bidding,” I added, narrowing my eyes as I scanned the cornfield. “It has to be this way. The dreamcatcher would’ve alerted if something happened on our side of the line.”

“Then let’s go to the other side of the line,” Kade said grimly, squeezing my hand once before releasing it. “You stay close to me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Cute,” Kade said. “Come on.”

I followed Kade over the dreamcatcher’s barrier, a magical line he couldn’t see but which sparkled brightly for me. The moment we touched ground on the other side, another scream assailed my ears. This time I could pinpoint the location. It was directly in front of us.

“There.” I pointed, but Kade was already moving. He was in good shape, years in the military transforming his body into a mass of muscle. I struggled to keep up, worried something paranormal would await for us as we cut through the corn. Briefly I wondered whether Kade’s fear of cornfields – and the ensuing murderous children – was a legitimate worry, but I shoved the thought out of my mind the moment it entered. Someone was in trouble. Now wasn’t the time to let my imagination run wild.

The fourth scream, this one seemingly shriller than the previous three, was close, and when we pushed through a final row of corn we found two blond girls standing in the middle of a small clearing, their faces white as one of them covered her eyes and the other stared with grotesque fascination at a lump on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Kade barked, causing the girl covering her eyes to jerk her head up. She jumped back when she saw us, her eyes darting to her left as if contemplating bolting.

“It’s okay,” I said, holding up my hands in a placating manner. “We’re here to help. What’s going on?”

“There’s something over there,” the girl replied, lifting a shaking hand and pointing toward the lump.

“Okay,” I said, giving the child a wide berth as I circled behind Kade and approached the unmoving object. Instinctively I knew what it was before I even got a gander at the horror on the ground. “Oh, my … .”

“What is it?” Kade asked, moving up behind me. “Is it an animal?”

I shook my head, horrified by the tableau in front of me. “It’s not an animal.”

“It’s a man.” The other girl finally spoke, her voice solemn as her blue eyes latched onto mine. “He has corn for eyes.”

“Okay,” Kade said, letting out a pent-up breath. “Okay, I … holy hell! I think we need to call the police. Everybody stand back and … don’t look at the dead guy!”

“AND
you just found him like this?” Detective Lance Brewer flipped open his notebook and fixed Kade and me with an expectant look. “How did you even know to look out here?”

“We heard the girls screaming,” I replied, watching with grim fascination as the coroner zipped closed the body bag and gave the okay for two paramedics to transport the body out of the cornfield. Kade had placed a call to law enforcement right away. They kept us on the outskirts of the crime scene for what felt like forever before approaching. In real time it was probably only about an hour, but it was still a painful wait given the upset children. “Speaking of that, where are the girls?”

“One of the uniformed officers contacted a social worker and arranged for them to be taken home,” Brewer replied. “This isn’t their land. It belongs to a neighbor. Someone needed to explain the situation to their parents.”

“I don’t envy the person having that conversation,” Kade said, his hand landing on my hip as he moved closer to me. “Do we know who the dead man is?”

“I don’t know who you are,” Brewer replied. “Let’s start with that.”

“I’m Poet Parker,” I volunteered. “This is Kade Denton. We’re with the circus.”

“I figured that to be the case,” Brewer said, jotting something in his notebook. “And … what? You heard the kids screaming and ran out here?”

“Pretty much,” Kade confirmed. “We were watching them put the midway together when we heard the first scream. It took us a moment to get our bearings. They kept screaming, though, and we followed the sound.”

“I didn’t realize what they were looking at right away,” I offered. “At first I thought it was just a … lump … of something. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized the body had no arms or legs … or that the eyes were gone and the sockets filled with corn husks.” It was gruesome to think about, but there was no sense glossing over what I saw. It would revisit me in my nightmares when I tried to drift off this evening as it was. Getting this part of the conversation out of the way now would be a benefit later.

“Yeah, the body looks to be in rough shape,” Brewer said. “We’ll conduct an autopsy to nail down a time of death, but just so I have all of my ducks in a row, when did you guys arrive?”

“Yesterday afternoon,” I answered automatically. “Wait a second … you don’t think we’re suspects, do you?”

“Probably not,” Brewer replied, his tone clipped and serious. “We have to ask, though. It’s part of the job, ma’am.”

He said “ma’am” like I said “asshat.”

“That guy has been out here for at least two days,” Kade said. “He died long before we came to town.”

“Perhaps,” Brewer said, narrowing his eyes. “How do you know when he died?”

“I served in the military. This is hardly the first dead body I’ve seen,” Kade replied, not missing a beat. “I know a body couldn’t have gotten in that kind of shape in less than twenty-four hours.”

“I would tend to agree with you,” Brewer conceded. “I’m not an expert on these things, though. I’ll let the medical examiner do his job and we’ll take it from there. Until then, you two should plan on staying in town. We’ll talk to the girls’ parents … .”

“Mary and Grace,” I interjected. I’d managed to get that much out of the girls before they clammed up. They were obviously traumatized. “Did they say what they were doing out here?”

“Just that they like playing in the corn,” Brewer replied. “I’m hoping our people can get some information out of their parents … or at least force them to get some answers from the kids. I’m not sure how that will go.”

“Do you know who he is?” Kade asked. “Do you know why his body would’ve been dumped out here?”

“We don’t know anything yet,” Brewer said. “That’s why we conduct investigations. Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”

And just like that we were dismissed.

“YOU
poor dear! I just heard. Do you need a hug?” Percival didn’t wait for me to respond as we approached the midway, instead dragging me in for an unwanted embrace and causing Kade to scowl. “It’s okay if you want to cry.” Percival petted the back of my head. “I’m here for you.”