mystic caravan mystery 01 - freaky days

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Who said it was Raven?” Kade asked, tamping down his embarrassment and turning it around on me. “Maybe it’s you.”

  “I definitely don’t want to know how you picture me naked.”

  “It’s flattering. Don’t worry.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Tell me about yourself.”

  “Read my mind.”

  “I just told you … .”

  “Maybe I’m not afraid for you to read my mind,” Kade said.

  “I won’t do that,” I said. “You’re a good man.”

  “Are you saying you only read the minds of bad men? I … wait a second … .” Understanding washed over Kade’s face, making me shift uncomfortably on my side of the booth. “You read that Morgan guy’s mind yesterday and saw something, didn’t you?”

  “I saw that he’s not a good man.”

  “Why can you read his mind and not mine?”

  “Because I don’t know him,” I said. “I can do surface reads on people all the time. I spend five minutes with them and it’s over with. I am not capable of reading someone I know and not delving too deep. I don’t know why. I just … can’t.”

  “What are you afraid that you’ll see?” Kade was serious, his face tight as he stared at me.

  “The one thing you don’t want me to see.”

  “And what is that?”

  I shrugged. “I have no idea,” I replied. “Everyone has secrets, Kade. Everyone hides a piece of his or her soul under a shiny veneer. Whatever you don’t want anyone to know, that’s the first thing I’ll see.”

  “Okay,” Kade gave in. “I guess you know best.”

  “I do know best,” I agreed. “If it’s any consolation, I probably wouldn’t see your deepest and darkest secret first. That might be down the line a bit.”

  “What would you see first?”

  “Since men think about sex every seven seconds, I’m guessing I would see your kinkiest fantasy,” I replied.

  “Oh, well, that’s good to know,” Kade said, digging into his wallet and retrieving enough money to cover our tab.

  “I can pay.”

  “Oh, no,” Kade said, smirking. “My kinky sex fantasies about what you wear under those skirts are payment enough. How do you feel about pink feathers?”

  Yup. I opened the door to getting to know him better and now I was the one who was going to pay. I had no one to blame but myself.

  Fourteen

  By the time Kade and I got back to the circus grounds our relationship was more … settled. I wasn’t sure how it happened. Maybe it was the revelation about my past. It could have humanized me to him, which wasn’t my intention. In truth, I was merely trying to delay him as long as possible.

  Spending time with him was purely a bonus.

  Whatever it was that shifted between us, Kade was positively chatty the rest of the morning. He told me about growing up in Los Angeles, he opened up a little about his time in the military – although I didn’t understand most of it – and we even argued about what generator to buy to the point the clerk assumed we were married.

  I ultimately won the battle, so I was happy. Kade didn’t appear unhappy with the outcome, though.

  When we got back to the circus, I was surprised to find Max waiting for me in front of my trailer. “Maybe you should drive the new generator over by yourself,” I suggested, reaching for the door handle as I prepared to jump out of Kade’s truck.

  Kade considered the suggestion. “What do you think Max wants?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, I want to talk to him, too,” Kade said, shifting the truck into park and killing the engine before pocketing his keys. “The generator can wait for a few minutes.”

  “I … .” It was obvious Max wanted to talk to me alone. Kade was going to kill our privacy. Of course, I figured that was Max’s problem. “Come on.”

  Max’s smile was tight – and obviously fake – as we approached. “Good morning.”

  “We’ve already seen each other this morning,” I said, slipping my key into the lock and pushing the trailer door open. “Would you like to come in?”

  “Yes,” Max said, moving toward the entryway.

  “I’m excited to see your place,” Kade said. “Is there freaky stuff on the walls?”

  “Only if you hate wallpaper.”

  “I’m not a big fan,” Kade replied. “It doesn’t give me nightmares or anything, though.”

  “Well, then I guess you’ll be safe.” He flashed his dimples as he moved past me and I swear I got a little weak in the knees. What is wrong with me?

  “You don’t have to be present for this, Kade,” Max said. He was trying to act congenial, but his discomfort was evident. Kade didn’t have to be a mind reader to know Max was trying to get rid of him.

  “I want to be here,” Kade replied. “We have a few things to discuss.”

  “I see.” Max worried his bottom lip with his teeth and darted an uncomfortable look in my direction. “What things are you speaking about?”

  Max was nervous, something I’d never seen before. It was an interesting turn.

  “Poet and I had a talk over breakfast,” Kade said. “She’s an engaging conversationalist.”

  “She’s a woman of many talents,” Max agreed.

  “She talked through breakfast, and then we argued over a generator,” Kade said. “It wasn’t until we were almost back here that I realized she was stalling for time. Do you have any idea why she would do that? I certainly don’t. She won’t tell me, so I guess it’s up to you to enlighten me.”

  “If I understood the mind of a woman I would be married with children.” Max was a master of deflection. It worked with most people. I wasn’t sure Kade would fall victim to his powers, though.

  “That’s cute,” Kade said. “I want to know what’s going on.”

  “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  “Wow, it’s like pulling teeth,” Kade complained. “Okay, for starters, tell me what the police said about Johnny’s death.”

  Max was prepared for the question. “They said they couldn’t find any wounds and that they had to perform a full autopsy before they had answers,” he said. “It could be weeks before they get the results. They’re going to perform a cursory exam this afternoon, but if they can’t find anything they’ll have to wait for toxicology results. They promised to call when they have something.”

  That all sounded logical. Kade obviously wasn’t buying it, though.

  “Are you suggesting we’re going to leave Monday without any answers?” Kade asked.

  “I’m suggesting we don’t have much of a choice,” Max replied. “I understand you aren’t … comfortable … with the ways of our world yet. That saying about how the show must go on? It’s true. We have a schedule to keep. It’s not voluntary. We’ve signed contracts.”

  “I don’t understand how you can wipe your hands of one of your workers,” Kade argued. “When you offered me the job here, you said that all of the Mystic Caravan employees were like family to you. Was that a lie?”

  Max balked. “Of course not.”

  “What about Johnny’s body?”

  “What about it?” Max countered. “Are you suggesting that I’m going to leave Johnny in the morgue and relinquish him to a pauper’s grave?”

  Kade shifted uncomfortably in the face of Max’s ire. “No. I … what are you going to do?”

  “The coroner’s office isn’t going to release Johnny’s body until they’re positive he wasn’t murdered,” Max said. “We can’t stay here for weeks until that happens. When I get word that they’ve released Johnny’s body I will arrange for a proper funeral in his home state. If our schedule allows at that time, anyone who wishes to attend the funeral will be given paid leave to do so.”

  “What happens if the schedule doesn’t allow for that?”

  “Then I will go alone.”

  Kade glanced at me, his previous indignation fading in the face of Max’s fort
itude. “Are you okay with that, Poet?”

  “I know it makes us seem cold,” I answered. “Johnny understood how the circus works, though. Max is right. We’re bound by contracts. If we break those contracts, we open ourselves up to lawsuits.

  “I know that death is one of those things that’s supposed to stop life in its tracks, but that’s not something we can control here,” I continued. “If the police suspected foul play, they’d be out here questioning us.”

  “Exactly,” Max said, nodding.

  “I don’t understand how you two can be so blasé about this,” Kade said. “He was your friend and he’s dead.”

  “Do you think this is the first time we’ve faced loss?” Max asked.

  “No, but … .”

  “When you were in the Marines, did you stop doing your duty every time you lost a comrade?” I asked, cutting him off.

  “Of course not,” Kade protested. “It’s just … .”

  “We’re not the military,” I said. “I’m not suggesting we are. We do have a job to do, though. I’m sorry if that upsets you. I truly am. This is our way.”

  Kade pursed his lips and glanced around my trailer, collecting himself. “I guess that makes sense,” he said, standing. “I’ll leave you two to your meeting. I need to get that generator over to the tent.”

  “I’ll check on you later,” I offered.

  “Don’t you have readings to do?” Kade asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll check on you later.” Kade directed a stiff nod in Max’s direction and then exited the trailer.

  I extended my mind, making sure he was truly leaving before turning to Max. “You can’t keep lying to him.”

  “Don’t tell me my business,” Max warned, getting to his feet so he could pace the distance of my tiny living room.

  “It’s not just your business now,” I argued. “You made Kade a part of this team.”

  “You like him,” Max said, his eyebrows lifting. “You … like him more than as a friend.”

  “Don’t go there,” I said, working hard to make sure my tone didn’t shift into shrill territory. “I don’t know what game you’re playing here, Max, but it has to stop.”

  “Who says I’m playing a game?”

  “My intuition.”

  “You can’t read my mind,” Max challenged. “We both know that. Don’t pretend you can.”

  “I don’t need to read your mind to see that something’s bothering you,” I said. “Whatever it is, it’s more than Johnny’s death and it’s more than Kade’s questions. You don’t like that he challenged you, but that’s not all you’re worked up about. Something else is going on here.”

  “We’ve already talked about this,” Max snapped. “My private life is none of your concern.”

  “I didn’t say it was.” I refused to back down. “We have some real problems here, Max. Johnny was killed. Everyone knows he was sucked dry. Did you find anything during your search this morning?”

  “The trail went dead near the woods.”

  “That means someone parked there,” I said.

  “What are the odds we have a second lunatic using the access road?”

  That was a pretty good question.

  “We have a body in the lake that the police haven’t discovered yet,” Max said. “One of our own has died and we had to … dispose of him … in a way I wasn’t entirely comfortable with.”

  Sympathy poured out of me. “Did you burn him?”

  “We had no choice,” Max said. “We couldn’t risk burying a body where Kade might discover it. We also couldn’t risk planting Johnny in a plot knowing the police will eventually find your rapist friend. We had to burn his remains.”

  “Where are you going to spread his ashes?”

  “I’m going to hold on to them until we hit the Grand Canyon,” Max replied. “Johnny always loved the Grand Canyon and insisted we stop so he could see it.”

  “I think that’s a good idea.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that we’re in a spot here, Poet,” Max said. “Something hunted on our grounds last night and the dreamcatcher didn’t alert us. What do you make of that?”

  “The failure of the dreamcatcher is troubling,” I agreed. “I’ll take Raven and Naida to strengthen it before the customers arrive. I have an idea about how to do it. I’m not sure the dreamcatcher actually failed, though. I’m leaning toward the likelihood that it was confused.”

  Max furrowed his brow. “Why do you say that?”

  “I think I know what killed Johnny.”

  “What?” Max leaned forward, intrigued.

  “There was a Wendigo in my tent yesterday,” I said. “He was … interested … in my abilities.”

  “Did you let him know what you could do?” Max frowned. “That wasn’t very smart.”

  “I read his past,” I said. “His future was blank. I’m not sure whether that’s because we’re going to end it or because he still has ties to the human plane.”

  “Ah,” Max said, realization dawning. “You think he didn’t set off the dreamcatcher because he still has one foot in the mortal realm. How do you think he managed that?”

  “The proof is in the body we found,” I said. “Johnny was sucked dry. He wasn’t eaten. Wendigos are cannibals. What if Dale Morgan passes under the radar because he’s never eaten human flesh?”

  “Could he survive for long merely by drinking the blood of others?”

  “I have no idea,” I answered truthfully. “I’m not an expert on Wendigos. I’m not sure anyone truly is. They’re almost extinct. Groups have hunted them for a reason. They’re bloodthirsty and nasty enough to kill for sport. Dale might have figured out a way to evade detection.”

  “What do you know?”

  “I know he was interested in what I saw and he considered jumping me in the tent before Kade showed up,” I said. “I know that he doesn’t like that I know what he is and what he’s done. He considers that a threat. He doesn’t want to leave here. He likes it. I think he realizes he has to take me out to survive.

  “What I don’t think he realizes is that I’m not the only threat here,” I continued. “His isolation from the rest of his species has given him blind spots. He thought I was a grifter when he came in for a reading. He had every intention of sucking me dry, but when he found out I was more than I appeared … well … that’s when his interest shot off the charts.”

  “Why do you think he was here last night? Do you think he was looking for you?”

  “His mind isn’t clear,” I said. “I can see flashes. I don’t think I can control him if it comes down to it. It’s almost as if I’m seeing a … mirror image. What’s there isn’t real.”

  “That’s probably because he’s not living the way he’s supposed to,” Max mused, rubbing the back of his neck. “He’s not fully Wendigo and he’s not fully human. You can’t read him completely because he’s caught between two worlds. He’s in flux.”

  “That’s my thought, too,” I said. “I wanted to tell you what I suspected this morning. Instead, you sent me on errand duty with Kade.”

  “You were the only one capable of distracting him.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Like it or not, young lady, he’s as intrigued by you as you are by him,” Max said. “I’m old, but I’m not blind. The only thing keeping him from pursuing you is his uncertainty about Luke. Is there a reason you’re hiding the true nature of your relationship from him?”

  “It makes things easier right now.”

  “You know it won’t save you from your attraction forever, right?”

  “I’m not looking for eternal salvation,” I said. “I’m looking for a little breathing room. Until Kade knows what we are and what we do, I have to keep my distance. He already knows I can read minds, although I think he believes it’s an exaggerated parlor trick more than anything else.”

  “I’ll think of a way to tell him,” Max said.

  “You do that,” I
said. “Until then, though, we have to find a way to protect him. The Wendigo is coming back tonight.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because Johnny wasn’t his initial target,” I answered. “He settled for him.”

  “You were his initial target.” Max’s face shifted from weary to worried.

  “I sensed someone watching me last night when I was waiting for Luke,” I said. “Had I walked the stretch from the big top to my trailer alone, he would’ve attacked. In hindsight, I wish I had done that.”

  “You don’t know you would’ve survived.”

  “I can pretty much guarantee Johnny would’ve survived,” I countered. “It doesn’t matter now. Johnny is gone and I’m still here. We can’t change his death. All we can do is avenge it.”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “Kade needs to be distracted,” I said. “You’re going to have to do it so I can have all hands on deck. Say you want to explain how the circus runs to him.”

  “Okay,” Max said. “What are the rest of you going to do?”

  “Rain fire and brimstone on anyone who dares cross our borders and take one of our own.”

  “Make it hurt,” Max said, exhaling heavily. “Make it tear him apart.”

  “Oh, it will hurt.”

  Fifteen

  Going about the daily grind when you have a bloodbath on your mind isn’t easy. The steady stream of customers moving in and out of my tent was enough to distract me. It wasn’t enough to lull me, though.

  “I need to know what to major in when I get to college.”

  Sabrina Davis was a seventeen-year-old girl with the ambition of a thirty-year-old entrepreneur. When she came to my tent she was prepared for everything. She brought a course catalog for the University of Iowa and her best “no nonsense” expression. She wasn’t kidding around.

  “What do you want to major in?” I asked, feeling more like a therapist than a fortune teller.

  “Whatever is going to make me rich.”

  The girl was obsessed with money. Every time I looked at her I could practically see the dollar signs wafting over her head. The truth was, she would be successful at whatever she applied herself toward. Giving her advice was tricky, though.