by Kat Cotton
Akira arrived, still in his crew t-shirt. I wanted to ask him about Lilly but that would be totally inappropriate. I’d be all business. Keep things safe.
We ordered and waited for our drinks to arrive before talking. Letting the staff overhear us would just be stupid.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
“That guy, the old one?”
“Earnest,” I said.
My heart raced. Of course this was about Earnest. I hoped Akira had some evidence that could put him away.
“I overheard him on the phone today after your rehearsal. It might be nothing but he made a deal with someone.”
This is information he could’ve sent through Larry rather than in person but I didn’t mention that. Having coffee with Akira beat the hell out of hanging out with Earnest.
“What did he say?”
“He confirmed that the merchandise would be ready tonight.”
“The merchandise?”
I screwed up my mouth. That could mean anything but it wasn’t really a term you used in a legitimate deal. What could he be dealing in? Drugs? Guns? Something more paranormal? He did have those potions in his bathroom.
Akira toyed with a napkin then looked up with a grin that hit me right in the heart. Damn that grin. Lilly’s words echoed in my head, that he’d only had eyes for me the other night. But this was a thing that would never be. Even if Akira liked me, he didn’t know the real me. He only cared about a front that I’d put up for the public.
“Are you safe there, Jayne?” he asked. “Don’t do anything foolhardy. If you are in any danger at all, call me. Or get out. No case is worth your life.”
That worried me. I had enough concerns about my safety without anyone else reinforcing them.
I forced myself to grin back. “You know me. By the book. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“You did at that last performance.”
I’d never been sure how much of that Akira had seen.
“I did what I had to ensure the safety of people around me,” I said. “That wasn’t foolhardiness. And you know in this job, you’re never assured of your safety. Especially undercover.”
Akira still watched me. My face reddened and I couldn’t look at him. At least back at headquarters, we had the protection of being in the workplace but here, all the ground rules changed.
“Did you get any more of that conversation?” I asked him, wanting to get this back on track.
“Not a lot. Mostly pleasantries. I didn’t know what Earnest agreed to pay for this merchandise. He said a favor. Nothing more.”
Not chuckling after everything he said would be the favor I most wanted from Earnest but I’d bet it was a lot more ominous than that.
“Seriously, be careful, Jayne,” Akira said again.
“I am, you know that.”
“You were but I don’t know.” He shook his head. “You’ve changed lately. You’re not nearly so uptight, and that worries me.”
Chapter 10
WHEN I GOT BACK TO the town house, no one else was home. Perfect. I looked for a note or some other explanation of where they’d gone but there was nothing around. I didn’t want anyone coming back and catching me snooping but I might not get another chance to have the place to myself.
I started with Earnest’s room.
First, I put on gloves then got some small containers out of my bag and decanted those potions. I wiped the bottles, not knowing how safe the potion was, then wrapped them in a towel.
I’d already searched the rest of Earnest’s bathroom so I went into his bedroom. My stomach churned at his lingering smell. After my vision last night, I just wanted to stay away from Earnest and anything Earnest related.
I checked the obvious hiding places. Under the mattress, behind the wardrobe and under the bed. The only thing I found was that the cleaners didn’t do a very thorough job. There were dust bunnies everywhere.
The wardrobe only contained a bunch of pompous clothing. Shirts and waistcoats and bow ties. I’d never been so annoyed by clothing as I was by those waistcoats hanging there. Stupid Earnest and his stupid waistcoats. They even smelled pompous.
He had a worn Gladstone bag in the bottom of the wardrobe. Exactly the sort of bag you’d expect from a guy like him. When I looked inside, it was completely empty. I didn’t even have the random things you leave in the bottom of a bag and never unpack. That mean something, I was sure, but I had no idea what.
I wandered around his room, not looking for anything in particular. It wasn’t like he’d have anything obviously suspicious but people reveal in themselves in lots of ways.
Not Earnest.
He seemed to be almost purposely boring. I flicked through the books beside his bed. The type of bestselling thrillers that anyone would read. There could be a clue concealed within their pages but didn’t find anything.
Beside the bed, his shoes were lined up in a neat row. I gingerly picked them up, checking under the inner soles and the heels.
I had to accept that Earnest had nothing of interest except his weird potions. I’d covered all his room and I had limited time but, before I left, I noticed the ironing board leaning against the wall. Strange place for it but then Earnest would be very particular about making sure his clothes were pressed. Still, I checked under the ironing board cover.
Bingo. A folder of papers.
I flicked through the papers then almost dropped them.
Those papers had details of a local school including blueprints of the buildings.
Why did Earnest have those papers? There was only one reason I could think of, and I didn’t like it one bit.
I’d thought all Earnest’s evil had been directed at me but this went way beyond that. I’d never thought of him as the kind of creeper who’d hang around little kids. Well, hopefully just hang around. It could be much, much worse. That hit me like a punch in the guts.
I took photos then put the papers back where I found them. I’d be keeping a close eye on Earnest but that wouldn’t be enough. With evidence like that, the local cops would need to watch him as well.
Still feeling sick to my stomach, I had to check out the other members. I might not get another opportunity to have the town house to myself.
Lilly or Nuno? Which one had the most to hide?
Lilly. Of course, Lilly.
When I opened the door, the smell of perfume and cosmetics hit me. A heap of clothes hung in the wardrobe, their vibrant colors reminding me of a flock of exotic birds. I flicked through them but they were just dresses.
I looked through the rest of the room. She really had a lot of clothes. I didn’t want to look through her underwear drawer but I had to be thorough. So many lacy things, some just tiny scraps of fabric. They didn’t look comfortable. But no clues.
Then I went looked in her bags. Still nothing. Then, in the pocket, I found a small book. A photo album? I got it out, making sure I remembered exactly how it’d been sitting in there.
I hated doing this. It seemed like I’d really crossed the line more than once with Lilly today — but I had to stop thinking like that. There was no line. We weren’t friends. I needed to get my job done even if that job infringed on her privacy.
The album had folded newspaper clippings inside, not stuck to the pages, as though she’d intended putting them away properly but had never gotten around to it. Typical Lilly.
I began unfolding the papers. Most of them weren’t anything interesting. Reviews from shows they’d performed. That definitely seemed very Lilly-like. She’d keep all her press clippings.
One of them had “Rannoduk” scribbled across it.
Rannoduk? It meant nothing to me.
It could mean anything. A clothes designer or a hairdresser. The name of some guy she’d dated.
It could also be the name of a demon. It had a demonic ring to it.
I took a photo of that too but I wouldn’t send it to Larry until I’d checked it out. If it was a demon, it’d be better
to keep that information to myself.
None of the other papers had writing on them. At the bottom of the pile, though, in amongst the folded pages of a newspaper clipping — a review of the show — I found a photo of Duke and Lilly. It looked like it was taken in one of those olden days photo places, the ones where you dress up in period costumes and they make the photo look all aged.
It mustn’t have been taken long ago since they both looked exactly the same as they did now but that feeling of it being an old photo was real.
Damn. A noise in the hallway.
I slipped the photo back inside the pages of the album and then put it back in Lilly’s bag. As I left Lilly’s room, a key twisted in the lock downstairs.
I rushed into the kitchen and put on the kettle. Nothing to see here, just me making a cup of tea.
Soon the yaps of the little dogs filled the place. Earnest. Earnest and Nuno by the sounds of it.
The guys came into the kitchen just as the kettle boiled.
“What have you been up to?” I asked.
I thought it’d be something going something mundane but the look exchanged between them suggested otherwise. God, I hoped Earnest hadn’t been near that school. I needed to put a tracker on his car. Those trackers meant a ton of paperwork but it’d be worth it.
Having blueprints and other information about a school was nowhere near hard evidence but, when kids were involved, the paper pushers didn’t tie things up in nearly as much red tape.
“We just took the dogs for a run,” Earnest said.
But he didn’t chuckle after saying that. He didn’t chuckle one bit. I didn’t know Earnest well enough to judge if that meant he was lying but it seemed very likely.
The dogs raced through the kitchen. Those dogs had not just been for a walk. No way. Not with all that excess energy.
I forced a smile but when he grabbed a teacup out of the cupboard near me, I jumped. I didn’t want to be anywhere near that guy.
“Tea?” I asked Nuno.
“I’ll make it,” Earnest said.
For all his faults, Earnest certainly loved making tea. He was good at it too. My cups of tea never tasted as good as when he made them.
Nuno shook his head. No tea for him, but as he moved, the sleeve of his tee-shirt inched up enough that I could see a bruise on his arm. He hadn’t had a bruise at dress rehearsal. I’d have noticed it. He quickly tugged his sleeve down, looking sheepish.
He and Earnest had been doing something strange. Strange and wrong.
This whole thing reeked of lies.
Chapter 11
WE HEADED BACK TO THE venue for the show. At least we didn’t have to share a dressing room with anyone else but it was a squeeze for the three of us, well four but Earnest seemed to always be in costume. No changing for him. It did mean we had the dogs in their carriers taking up one corner of the space and Lilly’s costumes and props taking but the other.
“I think those dogs need to go to the bathroom,” Lilly said. “They are making a horrible mess. Can you tell Earnest?”
“You told me not to annoy him.”
She powdered her face with one of those huge power puffs. “Well, considering he’s already annoyed with you and not with me, it’s better if you tell him. I hate animal acts. Animals should be pets not performers. It’s just not—”
Lilly stopped talking as Earnest walked in. She smiled up at him.
“I hope the dogs aren’t annoying you,” he said.
“Not at all,” she replied.
Liar, I thought. If Lilly wouldn’t say anything to Earnest’s face, she could at least stop complaining to me.
I wiggled into my costume as Earnest took the dogs of their cages and clipped on their harnesses. I hated getting changing in front of other people but I didn’t have much choice. At least Earnest was too busy with his dogs to take much notice.
“How are sales for the show tonight?” Lilly asked as Earnest was walking out.
“Not great,” he said. “Only about the half the room sold.”
“It’s not even a big room.” Lilly sighed. “I hope we do well on door sales then.”
After I got into costume, Lilly helped with my makeup.
“I knew we’d do badly here. Most of the other shows in this festival are a bit more highbrow. It’s not really our kind of crowd.”
I’d thought that myself when we’d seen the posters this morning. Not that our act wasn’t great but this was more of a theater crowd not burlesque. Even the clowns had been those existential types.
“Why do it then?” I asked her. “It’s strange to book a show when you know you don’t fit in with the other festival acts.”
“Ask Duke. Well, you can’t, but when he gets back, ask him then. Now stop talking and hold your face still or people will think you’re one of the clowns.”
She tilted my head toward the light and swept a brush across my face.
When she was done, she held me by the chin and appraised my face. I appraised her right back. She really did look like that photo on the grave. The resemblance was uncanny but then it’d been an old photo, now cracked and discolored. I could be reading more into this than I needed.
It was time for us to go out. Lilly and I peeked through the curtain at the crowd.
“We didn’t do much with door sales either by the looks of it,” she said.
She wasn’t wrong. The room was only half full. A low-key crowd made performing difficult. There was no energy in the room, no excitement.
Nuno gave a thumbs up to let us know that he’d done all the pre-performance checks then joined us warming up. Earnest joined us too but he didn’t warm up. He just walked his dogs around in a circle.
Once I’d finished stretching, I paced the small backstage area, going through my routine in my head. Even though I could do the entire routine perfectly in rehearsal, I’d only done one live performance and that hadn’t exactly gone well. Logically, I knew once I got out there and my music started, I’d fly through the act but that logic wasn’t exactly reassuring.
I chalked up my sweaty hands.
“You’re done that three times already,” Lilly said.
“It’s important,” I replied.
“Not for the teaser, it isn’t. You’ll be fine, Jayne. You’re got this. And just think, even if you fail miserably, there’s only about five people who’ll see you do it.”
I guess that was being reassuring in her own Lilly way.
I forced myself to smile while my gaze swept the room for potential dangers. I might be a performer out here but I was still a cop inside. The crowd, if you could call it that, were sedate, almost bored.
When Earnest came out with his dogs, he did get an “awww” out of people, especially when one of the pups ran up to a woman in the first row and put his paw on her knee.
Then I went out and did my flips around the stage, getting a small cheer. The words Lilly had said to me at the dress rehearsal had really hit home so I tried to give my all. Nuno didn’t fare much better.
When Lilly shimmied onstage, someone wolf-whistled and she threw kisses at them.
After the intro, I went off stage and put on my jacket, taking deep breaths. This show would go fine. There’d been no sign of demonic activity since we’d arrived, nothing at all to worry about. Still, I paced.
Of course, the nerves disappeared when I got back out. I swung up on the hoop and my natural reflexes kicked in. I went through all the motions without even thinking too much. I wasn’t like Lilly. She ate up the admiration of the crowd, feed on it even. For me, it wasn’t about that at all. Whether we were performing or rehearsing, I loved the physicality of the act, the sensation of twirling through air. If I performed to a huge crowd or no one, it’d be the same. It was me and the hoop and that space I filled, pushing my body to the limits. Applause and cheers were things I was only vaguely aware of. Of course, the energy made a difference but the actual audience didn’t influence me. Before this, I’d only ever performed on
my own or with other acrobats around. It’d been play for me as a child.
Maybe, if things had gone differently, I’d have stayed with the circus and become a performer with them. It’d been discussed before I’d run away but had never happened. My parents had other plans for me. Plans I never wanted.
I finished up my act and, as always, Nuno helped me off stage, orientating me when I got back to the ground. I grabbed a towel and patted at my face, careful not to smudge my makeup, then took a big chug of water.
Before I headed to the dressing room to change for my second act, I caught sight of Akira moving through the crowd in his crew t-shirt. He worked as an usher which gave him the perfect opportunity to watch everything while remaining in the background. Really, he shouldn’t stand out at all but that hadn’t stopped Lilly from noticing him. He should do something about his damn good looks instead of flaunting them all over the place.
Still, it was reassuring to know he was around.
I quickly got changed and headed back out to see the end of Lilly’s number. Even this cold crowd warmed to her. The way she combined raw sexuality with old time movie star glamour never failed to win people over.
The rest of the show went without incident. We went out for our final bows to much more enthusiastic applause. Lilly smiled at that.
“Hopefully that’ll mean a better crowd tomorrow,” she whispered to me.
I hoped so too. Even if it didn’t annoy me like it did Lilly, the more people who came to see us, the better the act went.
We sauntered offstage like we had all the time in the world but rushed to the dressing room once we were out of sight. We had to clear the room ready for the next performance which gave us about half hour tops.
I peeled off my leotard and grabbed my underwear. I’d just put my undies back on when Nuno rushed in.
“What have you been up to?” Lilly said. “Quick, get your street clothes on. We’ll have the next act bashing on the door and you’ll still be in your stage clothes.”
Nuno frantically gestured.
“Not now,” Lilly said. “Check the clock, Nuno. We don’t have time for this.”
