Big Top Treachery

by CeeCee James

  As if to show me, he lifted an x-shaped piece of wood from the floor. I raised my eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.

  “How do you feel about being a marionette?” he asked.

  I gasped. He couldn’t be serious? My big dance number was going to be as… a puppet? I wanted to cry. And Jerry would see me! Humiliation filled my cheeks with heat.

  “Aww, it’ll be great. You’ll see!” He clapped my shoulder.

  No way was I going to stand for this. I was going to march right up to Mark and….

  And what? Remembering the sneer on his face from my earlier interaction made my bravado wilt. There was nothing I could do.

  I looked at the wooden prop and tried to suck up a good attitude. I’d be the best puppet ever. I kept my head high as I followed HopJack out of the tent.

  Mark was in the center of the rehearsal tent when we arrived. I noticed right away that Sam, one of the clown’s young sons, was dressed as a puppet as well. Great. There were two of us now.

  Daisy, one of the aerialists, waved at me. I was just beginning to get to know her and found her to be very sweet. I walked over.

  “Hi, Trixie.” She flashed a smile.

  “Hi, Daisy. I didn’t know you were a part of the dance.”

  “Yes, and Mark’s in a mood.” She glanced at me. “Why the long face?”

  “I’m not loving this part I have to play. Do you think it would be possible to change Mark’s mind?”

  She glanced in his direction and shook her head. “Women have been trying to change his mind since the beginning of time. I think he’s immune.”

  “Immune to women?” I asked, confused.

  “Yep. I heard he had his heart broken years ago, and now is clouded in bitterness. You say anything to him, Trixie, and he will do the exact opposite of what you’re asking.”

  That made me think of the jewel. Was the whole reason why he kept it simply because I had asked for it back?

  “Who was the woman he was with?” I asked.

  “No one knows.” Daisy said. “It’s one of the Concello secrets.”

  “What do you mean, no one knows? I thought there was no way to keep secrets around here.”

  “Oh, you can’t keep a secret here. Unless it’s deep, sinister, and black. Those kinds of secrets people will kill to keep.” She nodded her head knowingly.

  Her words filled me with dread. All I could think about was Bernie. Had he stumbled onto a secret he shouldn’t have?

  Or had I?

  Chapter 11

  My worries about having two left feet proved to be warranted. Mark spent the entire practice with a scowl on his face while I sweated from the effort and stress to follow his steps. Just as I was about to give up, I caught a couple of the chef’s kids clapping their hands as I skipped by. That really lightened my heart and made the steps easier.

  We had a new person at the calliope. Knuckles, one of the security guys was attempting to play. It wasn’t very good, but not too bad either, and as they say, the show must go on.

  A long time later, after the big top show, with my routine with Prancer, the dance, dinner and the cleaning of the tent, I finally headed to my cabin. I was surprised at how much adding one more routine had exhausted me. I could barely keep my eyes open as I climbed the steps and walked inside. A yawn felt like it nearly split my head in two as I climbed into my pajamas. I was braiding my hair when Sally walked in.

  “What did you think of the dance?” I asked.

  “You were wonderful. Just about as perfect as can be,” she said, yanking off her sweater. She changed and began her one-hundred strokes she gave her hair every night.

  “Guess what I got back,” I said. A huge smile stretched across my face.

  “What’s that?”

  I reached under my pillow and pulled out the ruby. Feeling a little shy, I held it out to her.

  “Oh, my gosh. Trixie! You found it!” She flung the brush on the table and stumbled over as though sleepwalking. Her fingers trembled as she scooped it from my palm. “Trixie! I can’t believe it.”

  “Did I find what I think I found?” I asked.

  She bit her bottom lip. I could see the emotion in her eyes as they welled up. “My son used to be fascinated with this. So many memories.” A tear trickled down the side of her nose. She wiped at her cheek and glanced up at me. “Holly used to take it out of her sword and let Kenny play with it. The kid had it in his head that it was magical and just loved it.”

  She gazed at it and chuckled. “I remember one day it went missing. Can you believe, I caught that child carrying it around in his pocket, right along with a frog he’d caught. He said it was going to bring him good luck. Lawd, that boy.” She shook her head. “Good days that ended quickly. Of course, he didn’t want nothing to do with me after that. Years later he came back just to show off his new fancy car that he’d stolen. That boy. I told him not to steal. I guess it was just in his blood from an early age.”

  “Have you heard any more from Kenny recently?” I asked quietly.

  She handed back the stone to me and nodded her head. “This morning.”

  “Oh my gosh. Are you okay?” I felt chilled, remember how the last meeting went with her son went.

  “I’m okay. We actually talked for a few minutes. It went better this time.”

  “You gave him some money, didn’t you?”

  “Just a twenty.” She glanced at me, and her face flushed with guilt. “He’s my son.”

  I waited, to see if she’d add any more. I didn’t have kids, but I knew that bond was strong. Even if I didn’t experience it with my own mom. I saw my grandma make up many excuses for her daughter. That love was strong and not always rational.

  “Anyway, like I said, this was the stone Holly kept clipped to her sword,” Sally continued. “Where did you say you found it, again?”

  “It was lying on the ground near outside the chow tent. Back where we keep the recycle.”

  “Why were you back there?”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell her about the stray dog and how I’d fed it. I shrugged and said, “I thought I heard something.”

  “Really. And you went to go look?” She laughed. “Not such a little mouse anymore, are you?”

  My chest swelled with pride that she was noticing the changes in me.

  “And how did you get it back now?’

  “I asked Mark for it.” Well, it wasn’t a lie. I wasn’t sure I wanted to delve into the whole breaking-and-entering yet. She’d been friends with him a whole lot longer than me.

  She raised her eyebrows in surprise but didn’t press any more. “Now, we need to figure out where this came from.” Her eyes narrowed contemplatively at the jewel. “I haven’t seen that in fifteen years. Why did it suddenly show up now?”

  “You really think she came back?” I rubbed my arms as goosebumps pricked up at the thought.

  Her face was worried when she looked at me. “I have no idea how else it could have come back. I told you.”

  “Yet here it is.” I held the jewel up into the light to see it sparkle. “You know, someone else might have gone and got it back instead.”

  She frowned. “I wonder…”

  “Wonder what?” I asked.

  “Why wasn’t the stone in the sword? It should have been locked into the socket. How did it get separated?”

  “Maybe someone did it on purpose so the sword wouldn’t be identified so easily?” I suggested. It made sense to me.

  She nodded. “You’ve heard the rumor too, huh? Well, I saw it and it’s true. It was her sword that killed Bernie. But that means whoever killed Bernie knew the history.”

  “That seems to be a given since that was the weapon used. I mean, they could have used any old knife.”

  “So if they were trying to send a message, it seems they’d want the sword to be identified. Why leave out the most identifying part?”

  I frowned, trying to come up with a reason. It really didn’t make sense when sh
e worded it that way. “I have no idea.”

  “You need to get rid of that thing. I get the heebie-jeebies just looking at it,” she said, rubbing her arms briskly. “Some things are best forgotten and left in the past.”

  I looked at the stone now, wondering if it was cursed somehow. Momma used to tell me there could be curses. I put it in my basket and lay down. I didn’t like it, not one bit. In fact, I was sorry I’d gone back for it. I felt like I could feel the ruby saying that it wasn’t mine.

  I pushed my face into the pillow and started murmuring the prayer Grandma had taught me all those years ago. “On earth as it is in heaven.”

  Chapter 12

  It was in the safety of the darkness that I thought I could broach a few more questions to Sally. “So who would have wanted to kill Bernie?” I asked. “What enemies did he have?”

  “I don’t know. He was a good guy. You know him.”

  I thought he was gruff and kind of crabby but I accepted her assessment of him since they’d been friends for all of those years.

  “But,” she continued. “Here we are back in Florida in the same town where Holly died. It must have triggered him.”

  “You said he had a gambling problem. I didn’t know that.”

  Sally glanced at me with pity. “Honey, we don’t always let our secrets hang out to the new folks.”

  Well, I’d been a part of the circus for several years now, and it kind of stung to still be considered “new folk.”

  I stared up at the ceiling and thought about Sally’s son. Kenny knew about the sword. He loved the jewel. His dad came and got him a few days after Holly died. Was it possible that Sally’s son went back to the pawn shop to get the sword? Would the sword have still been there all these years later?

  I rolled over and sighed.

  “What do you think of Kenny coming back to the circus right now?” I asked.

  The silence between us was prickly. Finally, she said, “I guess it makes sense since he got out of jail. He wanted to see family.”

  “How well did he know Bernie? I mean, is there a reason he’d want to see him?”

  Sally roughly plumped up a pillow and flung it next to her. “Trixie, you’re just going in for the kill, aren’t you?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said and covered my face with my blanket. Why did I ask her that? What did I expect her to say? After all, she was his mom.

  “Kenny did have a friendship with both Bernie and Holly. Remember when I said that my son was fascinated with the ruby in Holly’s sword? Bernie used to babysit him too, at times. In fact, Bernie sometimes had Kenny sit next to him on the bench while he played the calliope, while Holly and I were doing our act. Kenny was devastated when Holly died.”

  “Was he mad at Bernie?” I asked.

  The covers rustled on Sally’s bed. It sounded like she was stuck in twisted blankets. I heard thumping as her feet kicked them free. She gave a heavy sigh.

  Finally, she answered. “Yeah, Kenny was mad. He’d heard the rumor of what Bernie had done. Only five years old, but I caught him pounding on Bernie’s door, trying to get in. It was that day that Kenny’s dad came and got him.”

  I suddenly understood. “You didn’t fight to get Kenny back?”

  “There wasn’t a lot I could do. I mean, what court is going to award custody to a mom who’s always on the move? At the same time, I thought a stable home would help Kenny. Just get out of the circus scene.”

  “And get away from Bernie.”

  “Yes. And get away from Bernie. I didn’t know if Kenny would ever forgive him.”

  I sat up and pulled the red jewel from the basket. It was heavy and cool to touch. I held it up to the window and peered at the moon through it. The white disk appeared dipped in blood. It made me shiver, and I jammed the ruby back in a hurry.

  “Did you tell Kenny what happened to Bernie?” I asked.

  She sucked in her breath. “Girl, you’re out to kill me.”

  I didn’t understand why she said that, until she added, “He already knew.”

  “He did? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. He said he was awful sorry to hear what had happened to Bernie. And that Bernie was a good guy after all.”

  “So it sounds like Kenny wasn’t mad at him anymore.”

  “I guess he’s moved on. Jail will do that to a person,” Sally said.

  I squished the pillow under my head and thought about that. I’d always assumed that jail gave you plenty of time to think of revenge.

  “You think Kenny knew who Holly was seeing on the side?” I asked.

  “My goodness, girl, what made you ask that?”

  I press on, “You think it was Mark?”

  Sally groaned. “How on earth did you come to that conclusion?”

  Well, now I’d painted myself in a corner. How was I going to answer that question without coming clean?

  “Mmm. Just a guess,” I said, trying to sound casual.

  “Trixie, you can’t lie worth a hill of beans. At least if you’re going to tell a falsehood, make yourself believe it’s true. That way you’ll have a little more punch to your lie. Plus you have a tell.”

  “What do you mean, a tell?”

  “It’s something I’ve caught you doing every time you lie. You kind of hum just before you say it.”

  I rolled over to look at her. She hadn’t pulled her bed curtain closed and she raised her head to smile at me. Her teeth shone white in the moonlight.

  “Fine. I saw a picture of her with him. He had it by his bed,” I admitted.

  “My goodness! So that’s how you got your ruby back. You sure know how to get the cheese out of the cracks.”

  “They do call me mouse, after all.” I laughed.

  “Not a scared mouse, for sure. I see you getting braver every day.”

  I decided to push the brave envelope. “So do you think Kenny knew about Mark and Holly.”

  “I sure hope not. They were pretty closed-mouthed about it. Really, no one knew they were together.”

  “Did Bernie? You said that was the cause of the fight right before he pawned her sword.”

  “No. I don’t think Bernie knew it was Mark. He might have been suspicious at one point, but after she died all the wind left his sails. I wasn’t one hundred percent certain until you just said so.”

  “Do you think Mark did it? Killed Bernie?”

  “Now, why would he do that?”

  “Because we are back where it happened. Because it’s Bernie’s fault to some degree that she died.” I waited a moment before adding, “Because Mark was still in love with her.”

  “You sure have a lot of questions, Trixie. Don’t you know that curiosity ain’t so good for the cat? Or a mouse either. I’m just saying.”

  My luck had run out. “Yeah. I know,” I mumbled.

  “Good night, then. Let this all go, and let’s get some sleep.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said. I rolled back over and stared at the ceiling where I’d hung a rainbow I’d cut from wrapping paper. I blew upwards and it lightly fluttered and spun. Just like how the thoughts were going in my head.

  Chapter 13

  It was a funny thing to travel from place to place on a train. We’d leave one climate and spend a week in a whole new one. Being here in Florida for Christmas was a whole new experience for me. Gone was the sleet and snow I was used to from up north, replaced with sunshine, tans, and sweat. The people around here wore Santa hats with bikinis and tank tops. I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it.

  The Chow tent was serving up breakfast of pancakes and sausage. I breathed in deep as I entered the tent. Who could help it? The spicy sweet smells just about screamed good morning.

  Sally was already sitting at one of the long tables. As usual, she was surrounded by a group of people—her cronies as she referred to them. Sally was friends with everyone, and I counted myself lucky that she’d taken such a shine to me.

  She caught sight of me and yelled, “Trixie! Over he
re!” She scooted down a bit and patted the small space next to her on the bench. I carried my tray of food over and sat down.

  On the one side of her was Daisy, the aerialist. Her catcher was also her boyfriend, and he sat on the other side. My stomach always felt a little squirrely watching them fly around up there. I sure wouldn’t want to do it.

  Across from us were a couple of gaffers who set up the tents, and Harry, one of the clowns. Harry was demonstrating how many sausages he could stuff in his mouth, the ends poking out like brown teeth.

  “Well, now. Harry, that’s just lovely,” Sally drawled sarcastically and then turned to me. “And how’d you sleep last night?”

  “Good,” I answered.

  Her brow wrinkled. “You were tossing and turning like a wet towel twisted in the dryer.”

  I hadn’t remembered that, but I did know I had a nightmare. It was about the dog, the one I’d fed a couple days earlier. He’d followed me into a corner and stood over me, his big teeth flashing under his trembling lip as he growled.

  I passed it off. “No, I was fine. Must have just needed to stretch.”

  At that, Harry guffawed. “You need some stretching, that’s for sure.”

  “You stop that,” Sally snapped. “God makes people in all sizes. She’s just fine.”

  I blushed at being defended, but it felt good.

  As I left, I thought about the dog. I peeked around the tent to the recycle bins, but again, he was nowhere to be seen. He really must have wandered off.

  Ah well, I had other things I was thinking about. An idea had been growing in the back of my mind. Could I find the receipt for the pawned sword? I knew it had to be one in a million, but I also knew carnies were sentimental folks and didn’t get rid of much. I chewed on my thumbnail, considering, and then walked down the edge of the path. I’d learned early on that if I got out of a person’s natural line of sight, I became invisible.

  People scurried about, oblivious to me as they started the day. The closer I got to the cabins, the fewer people there were.