[Mystic Caravan Mystery 04.0] Freaky Games

by Amanda M. Lee

  “I don’t necessarily disagree with that,” Kade conceded. “The first day we met him I got the distinct impression that he was trying to warn us off without tipping his hand. He wanted us to know that there was something to worry about out here, but he was purposely vague.

  “At first I thought it was because he didn’t trust us and wanted to see how we’d react to the news,” he continued. “I thought there was a fair possibility he believed we’d make things worse rather than serve as bait, if that makes sense.

  “The more I’ve talked to him, the more I believe he doesn’t understand what’s going on. It’s eating him alive because he can’t solve it,” Kade said. “He knows it’s something bad. He also knows it might be above his pay grade. He’s desperately trying to figure out what it is.”

  “So you’re basically saying he came here to see if we could help, and all we did was confuse him further,” I mused.

  “I think we have a lot going on,” Kade countered. “I think we have a dangerous shade monster thingy … a possibly benevolent figment something or other … a cop who may or may not think we’re crazy … and that’s on top of the leg breaker you made wet himself earlier this afternoon. We’re spreading ourselves a bit thin here, honey.”

  “Speaking of the loan shark, I’ve only heard bits and pieces about that,” Nellie said. “Can anyone enlighten me as to exactly how Luke got in so much trouble in such a short amount of time?”

  “He borrowed two grand from a loan shark without reading the fine print,” Kade supplied. “He thought he could pay back the money over a couple of days.”

  “No, he thought he was going to win big and pay back the money right away,” I corrected. “He sank hard and fast, and I’m telling you that there’s something more going on here. You guys might not want to believe me – you’ve got that whole ‘boys will be boys and you’re not his mother’ thing going on – but I’m telling you that something else is happening, and I’m not going to rest until I find out what.”

  “And what do you think that is?” Kade asked, his tone even rather than doubtful.

  “I think that the casino is enchanted.”

  “Enchanted?” Kade’s eyebrow winged up. “Like … in a fairy tale?”

  “An evil fairy tale,” I countered. “I think they’ve got someone extremely powerful enchanting the building. When people enter, they have a bout of luck and get a taste of fun gambling. That enchantment is made to turn, though. It makes the targets happy when they win – and that initial purse is probably small, which explains why it doesn’t hurt the casino if a random few walk off as winners and never return. But for most, the idea of winning, the sheer joy, burrows inside of their heads until all they can think about is winning more.

  “Then all that person can focus on is the casino and going back,” I continued. “The luck is gone after that first visit. All that’s left is losing. The targets still remember winning, they’re fixated on it. They believe the luck will return. It’s circular … and it makes sense.”

  “It does make sense,” Nellie conceded. “I will also admit that I felt an overwhelming urge to go back after that first night. I managed to shake it after the second visit. I really wanted to go the next day, but I had too much work to do. Once I got over that hump I wasn’t interested in returning.”

  “I’ve given that a decent amount of thought and I think your personal fortitude saved you,” I said. “I think the same can be said for Nixie and Naida to some extent – although I think it’s far more likely their pixie heritage mixed with the fact that they’re easily distracted and they merely forgot they were ever interested in gambling.”

  “What does that say about Luke?” Nellie asked.

  “That he has an addictive personality and can’t help himself for jumping into things without seeing the full picture,” I replied. “He loves new things, gets all caught up in them, and then becomes obsessed until he moves on to the next new thing. That’s simply part of his mental makeup. He really didn’t have a chance. It was a perfect storm of events.”

  Kade ran his tongue over his teeth, conflict lurking in the depths of his eyes.

  “Luke throws himself headfirst into whatever endeavor piques his interest,” I said, rolling my fingertips over the roughened tabletop. “He’s five hundred pounds of enthusiasm shoved into a two-hundred-pound package.”

  “One hundred and eighty,” Nellie corrected. “If you assume Luke weighs two hundred pounds he’ll melt down. You know how he feels about his physique.”

  I did indeed. “I need more information on this loan shark, Pardo. I also need more information on the casino.”

  “Oh, I guess that’s my cue,” Raven said, causing me to jump when she popped up behind me. I didn’t sense her coming, but she chuckled as she gauged my reaction. “You’re still a bit slow I see. That’s probably not good if our friend decides to return tonight – and I’m guessing that will take place, just for the record.”

  “Sorry,” I offered. “I guess my senses are a bit dulled. I can usually feel you even when I’m not trying to.”

  “Yeah, well … .” Raven tilted her head to the side as she pressed her hand to my forehead, making a clicking sound with her tongue before walking to the other side of the table and sitting. “You poured a lot of energy into that guy. It was more energy than was really necessary. You could’ve scared him twice as much with half the effort. I’m guessing that your emotions got the better of you?”

  I shrugged. “I was a little angry,” I conceded. “I didn’t give much thought to what I was doing.”

  “You should’ve gotten me to help you.”

  I pursed my lips, considering. “I didn’t need help.”

  “No, but you have an aversion to invading people’s minds that I don’t happen to share,” Raven said. “I could’ve gotten all of the information we needed from that pants-wetting baby and I wouldn’t have needed to force myself into a cathartic nap afterward to do it. As it is, I had to use … alternative … means to track down the information after the fact.”

  “Do I even want to know what that means?” Kade asked, worry oozing out of his pores. “Did you make some poor guy think he was a frog so you could shove him in a blender?”

  “Eww, gross!” Raven made a disgusted face. “I would never put a frog in a blender!”

  Kade held up his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “Humans are another story,” Raven said. “I would totally put a rotten human in a blender.”

  Now it was Kade’s turn to make a face.

  Nellie made a slurping sound as he extended his tongue. “They’re delicious.”

  “You people are sick,” Kade muttered, shaking his head.

  “We’re also off track,” Raven said. “I did some research while Poet was sleeping away the afternoon. I know quite a bit about David Pardo and the owner of the casino.”

  “You did research?” I couldn’t help but be impressed. “How did you do research?”

  “I would like to pretend I toiled at the library or over the internet, but that’s simply not true,” Raven replied. “There was a guy in the House of Mirrors. He was there a long time … and he talked on his cell phone quite often. I heard him asking about what happened in the animal tent. That was enough to make me curious.”

  “You read his mind,” I deduced.

  Raven nodded. “It wasn’t hard. There wasn’t a lot in there. I was going to warn you, but Dolph stopped by and told me what happened. He thought it was funny that you managed to make a grown man piss his pants without putting a mark on him. I knew you didn’t immediately need me, so I decided to leave the House of Mirrors in Percival’s capable hands while I took my new friend into my office for a little chat.”

  “I’m sure that was a lovely chat,” Kade noted. “What did he tell you?”

  “That Pardo has four men on the premises and they’ve been watching us all day,” Raven answered, her disdain evident. “They’re e
xtremely interested in the circus and how it runs … including how the money comes in and where it’s stored.”

  Oh, well, that was definitely interesting. “I knew they couldn’t be this keen on going after Luke simply for two grand,” I muttered, my temper flaring. “It didn’t make any sense. They know Luke has ties to the circus, and they’re watching us to see how we operate.”

  “To what end?” Nellie asked.

  “They want to rob us,” Kade answered for me. “It makes sense. Luke doesn’t owe them enough money to warrant the full treatment. When they picture the circus they probably imagine a business that runs mostly on cash. That’s rare these days.”

  I bobbed my head. “Indeed.”

  “That’s the basic gist of it,” Raven said. “There’s more.”

  I didn’t like the tilt of her head. “How bad?”

  “I don’t think it’s bad,” Raven replied. “I think it’s more … interesting … than anything else.”

  “Meaning?”

  “That guy didn’t have a lot in his mind – and he’s still in my office, in case you’re interested – but he had two main highways of thought that intersected in a very interesting place.”

  I got to the point before she did. “The casino.”

  “Exactly,” Raven confirmed. “It was very clear. Pardo works in conjunction with the casino owner, who just happens to be married to Pardo’s sister. Pardo’s sister is a former showgirl. While I don’t know a lot about her, I can guess that she’s a witch because the guy in my office was convinced she tried to hex him with black magic when he called her a bitch one day.”

  “So what does that mean?” Nellie asked before answering his own question. “The witch enchanted the casino. The witch’s brother slides in when people are desperate for money and makes it so those people might never be able to dig out of the trouble they’re in. It’s a vicious little cycle.”

  “It is,” I agreed. “We need to head off the trouble before we face off with the even bigger danger barreling down on us. As bad as these casino creeps are, they’re nowhere near as dangerous as that thing in the desert.” I flicked my eyes to Raven. “I don’t suppose you’ve figured out what it is, have you?”

  Raven shook her head. “I wish I had easy answers for you. I don’t know what it is. I do know it’s not going to be something we can fight unless we get a better handle on what we’re dealing with. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m not sure that magic is the answer this go around.”

  “What is the answer?” I challenged. “It doesn’t have form. Sending Nellie after it with his ax is a losing proposition.”

  “We don’t know that until we try,” Nellie argued. “I should at least get a chance to try.”

  I ignored him. “We need to handle the loan shark first,” I decided. “We need to get him out here – and I’m talking about the big guy himself – so we can scare the crap out of him. We need to put the fear of the clown in him.”

  Raven snorted, genuinely amused. “We haven’t done that since we ran across that rapist in Pennsylvania three years ago. We made him think that clowns were licking his face whenever he even considered going after a fresh victim.”

  “I thought you handled human criminals another way,” Kade prodded.

  Raven shrugged. “We couldn’t get to this one because he was already in a jail cell. We took a bottle of whiskey and cast the spell from outside the police station before we left town. Then we sat outside and amused ourselves with the whiskey until we were sure it worked. We had a good time.”

  “We did,” I confirmed. “We need to do something similar with the loan shark.”

  “Well, if Raven has one of his soldiers in her office, it shouldn’t be hard to get the information we need to contact the guy in charge,” Kade said, getting to his feet. “I’ll talk to him and arrange for Pardo to make a visit when we close tonight.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Nellie questioned. “If the shadow is going to attack, most likely it will happen at the same time.”

  “We can’t risk the guests,” Kade replied. “We need privacy to do what we need to do. Quite frankly, if this shadow creature shows up at the same time I’m not going to cry any tears if it focuses on the bad guys.”

  Now that was an interesting idea. “I’m going to talk to Nixie and Naida,” I offered. “We need to be on alert as soon as the sun starts setting. We have to keep Luke close to us, too. I don’t want to risk him being isolated.”

  “Are you still angry at him?” Raven asked.

  I nodded. “Yes, but I love him. Not all of this is his fault. Granted, it wouldn’t have happened if he had listened to me that first night, but his enthusiasm is one of the things I love most about him.”

  “What are you going to tell him?” Kade asked.

  “The truth. He has to be a part of the big finale with these guys. He has to see what he did. I also want him to see that he’s safe. That’s important to me. Once I talk to Nixie, Naida and Luke, I’ll join you in the House of Mirrors. I kind of want to talk to this guy myself … just to be on the safe side.”

  “Then let’s do it,” Raven said, dusting off the seat of her skirt. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a busy night.”

  I had a feeling she was right.

  26

  Twenty-Six

  I checked on Melissa before winding my way over to the House of Mirrors, trying not to smirk as she shooed me away and focused on the guests. She was having a great time, so I tucked away the guilt about sticking her with my job and focused on the two big problems in front of us.

  Because it was a venue where guests could pretty much wander wherever they wanted – within reason, of course – Raven didn’t need to be hands-on when it came to watching over the House of Mirrors. That came in handy, given what we had to do.

  I found Raven, Kade, Nellie and Percival in the office when I pushed open the door. Nellie – never one to ignore an opportunity to mess with someone – poked the man in the chest several times as he tried to draw the set of glazed eyes in his direction.

  “What’s he doing?” I asked, moving to Kade’s side.

  “He’s being Nellie as far as I can tell,” Kade answered. “We’ve been here twenty minutes and Nellie has poked him at least a hundred times. The guy is probably covered in a series of tiny bruises from Nellie’s stubby little fingers.”

  “You probably shouldn’t say ‘poked’ like that,” Nellie complained, straightening. “It makes what I’m doing here sound dirty.”

  “You’re wearing a pink dress,” I reminded him. “You also need your shoulders waxed. Everything you do in that ensemble looks dirty.”

  “I don’t think I like your attitude,” Nellie sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m a beautiful and delicate flower.”

  “You’re a pain in the ass who likes to mess with people,” I countered, sliding around Nellie and staring into the man’s unfocused eyes. “Do we know his name?”

  “Wendell Wortham,” Percival replied, leaning back in Raven’s desk chair as he flipped through what looked to be an alligator skin wallet. “He’s a strapping chap with varied interests, although he has a ponce of a name.”

  “Well, Percival, that must be quite the trial to deal with,” Kade said, pursing his lips to keep from laughing as Nellie’s eyes lit up.

  “I don’t know what that means,” I said blankly, attempting to ignore the fact that Percival was dressed in his clown garb and Kade kept giving him the evil eye when he thought no one was looking. In truth, Kade’s dislike of clowns was much more rampant than anyone else’s. He actually feared clowns … which I found amusing and used to my advantage when possible. “How are his interests varied?”

  “It means that he doesn’t have a library card in his wallet, but he does have a photo of a bloody baseball bat,” Percival volunteered.

  I wrinkled my nose as I stepped closer, making a face when I saw the photo in question. “That is just sick,” I muttered, shaki
ng my head. “What kind of sick individual carries something like that in his wallet?”

  “Negan,” Nellie automatically answered. “I knew The Walking Dead would overtake real life at some point.”

  Kade snagged the photograph and stared. “If I had to guess, it’s something he pulls out to frighten his marks. These guys are mostly bravado and bluster, but they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty. They’re paid well for it, after all.

  “Still, if they can scare someone without getting down and dirty they prefer to go that route,” he continued. “That’s why he has the photograph. It’s probably enough to terrify eighty percent of his marks.”

  “Well, I don’t like him on principle alone,” I said. “I think anyone who carries something like this is a sick bastard.”

  “And not in a fun way like me,” Nellie added.

  I rolled my eyes. Nellie was having far too much fun with this. “I want to talk to him. Can you release him from whatever spell you put him under, Raven?”

  “I can, but I want to be sure that we’re clear on what’s going to happen here,” Raven replied. “He’s going to be spitting mad when he realizes that we’re on to him. He’ll be violent.”

  “That’s why Kade and Nellie are here,” I said. “They’ll be on either side of him when he wakes. They should be able to control him.”

  “Hey! What about me?” Percival was affronted. “I’m strong and manly, too.”

  Because he wore a purple wig and big, floppy shoes, I couldn’t help but disagree. “Of course you’re manly,” I lied.

  “You’re definitely manly,” Raven agreed, her smile reflecting fondness as she locked gazes with Percival. “The good news is – like many other men I know – Wendell here is afraid of clowns. I think your presence will be enough to make him wet his pants.”

  “Oh, well, the day won’t be complete until we do that to at least two people,” I teased, smirking.

  “You’re feeling pretty good about yourself now that you’ve had some rest, aren’t you?” Kade looked amused as he shifted behind me and patted my rear end before crossing to Wendell’s left side. “I worried you were going to eat yourself up with guilt.”