Barney looked so profoundly grateful my stomach twisted with anxiety.
Max waited until Barney was on his way to the trailer, well out of earshot, to speak again. “If Paige was taken by the person or entity who took the other girls, she could be in real danger. I will handle Mr. Tolliver and the police. You all have duties to attend to.”
Melissa was furious when she slapped her hands on the table. “Duties? You expect us to work when Paige is missing. That’s just … ridiculous!”
“I expect you to fulfill your responsibilities.” Max chose his words carefully as his eyes hardened. “I understand you’re upset, bereft even, but the show must go on.”
“Screw you.” Melissa’s face flushed with rage. “I’m not simply going to abandon my friend. She’s out there somewhere and she needs help.”
“You will do your duty,” Max shot back. “You will leave Paige to me for the time being. When I have more information I will be back and we’ll make search decisions then.”
“I don’t have to listen to you.” Melissa’s eyes glinted with something I couldn’t quite identify. “You’re not my father.”
“No, but I am your boss.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“It certainly does not.”
I cleared my throat to get Max’s attention and hopefully ease the tension. “Now is not the time for this. Max will get information on Paige. You have to trust him, Melissa.”
Her face twisted with conflicted grief. “You know what? No. I’m looking for her myself. You can’t stop me.” She turned on her heel and stalked away, heading in the direction of the beach.
I made to go after her, but Kade stopped me with a hand on my wrist.
“Leave her be,” he instructed. “She’s upset and her emotions are all over the place. You’ll only make things worse if you track her down and attempt to force her to see reason.”
I didn’t see how things could get worse. “She shouldn’t be out there wandering around alone.”
“No one is going to take her in broad daylight, especially once we get the cops down here,” Kade argued. “Let her be. She’ll be okay.”
I hoped he was right. I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead. “Okay, no matter what, we need to search for that cave once the circus closes down tonight. I don’t care who hates caves or why, we’re putting together a team … and I don’t want to hear any crap.”
“You won’t hear crap.” Luke was earnest. “You’ve got our support. You always do.”
I knew that was true, yet it didn’t make me feel any better. What in the holy hell is going on around here?
I WASN’T IN THE MOOD TO tell fortunes, but I had no choice. After breakfast I changed into my costume, tucking my hair under a brightly-colored scarf before sliding into a skirt that had bells hanging from the drawstrings. Usually I enjoyed the sound I made when I walked. Today was another story.
The circus opened at noon and guests were lined up twenty minutes before that. I didn’t have a lot of time to worry about Melissa – who was apparently still out searching for Paige on her own – yet she was never far from my mind. So when I recognized one of the boys from the previous night I decided to play fast and loose with the magical rules to entice him to my tent.
He was with a group of boys, so I was forced to wait until he was alone. That meant following him for a full ten minutes before I found an opening. When it happened, I didn’t waste time and immediately started working on him.
I let loose a different sort of lullaby, one that weaved its way through the boy’s mind – this was the infamous Toby, I found out within seconds – and drew him to my tent. There was a line, but I politely informed everyone that things would move quickly and Toby had won a free reading at the bonfire the night before. Then I drew him into my web and forced him to sit in one of the chairs across the table from me.
In general, I’m not one to exert undue force on an unsuspecting young man. I had no proof Toby did anything wrong – and I mostly believed he was innocent – but I needed as much information as possible and I didn’t want to waste time being polite. I also didn’t want to risk falling for a lie because Toby was uncomfortable with the truth.
“Do you remember me?”
Toby’s eyes were glazed and unfocused. “You were at the bonfire last night. You took that Melissa girl away.”
“How did that make you feel?”
Toby snorted at the question, as if there was something funny about it. “How was it supposed to make me feel?”
I clamped down tighter on the magic wafting through his brain. “How did that make you feel?” I repeated, keeping one eye on the closed tent flap should someone try to push inside while I was essentially using a magical vise on this kid’s brain.
“Angry,” Toby barked out, his features twisting. “I was angry when it happened because she was hot. I wanted to take her to the beach for a private swim session.”
I poked his brain with a deliberate needle, enjoying the way he whimpered. “She’s too good for you. Stay away from her. In fact, if you see her again, you’re going to wet your pants. Do you understand?”
Toby was horrified. “Why would I want to do that?”
“You won’t be able to stop yourself. Do you understand?”
Toby squirmed on his seat but nodded. “I understand. I don’t want to talk to her.”
“That’s good.” I returned my voice to a soothing tone. “Once Melissa left, Paige stayed behind. “What happened after that?”
“We talked for a bit and I asked if she thought Melissa would return.”
I hadn’t spent much time talking with Paige, but I was fairly certain her ego wouldn’t like that reaction one bit. “What did she say?”
“She told me that Melissa was a tease and I was wasting my time.”
That sounded about right. “Did you stick with Paige?”
“For a time, but she was kind of annoying,” Toby replied. “She kept flirting with me and then she got upset when I ignored her.”
“Why did you ignore her?”
“She’s not really my type. She’s too … out there, if you know what I mean.”
“She was aggressive?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “She kept putting her hands on me and I was uncomfortable. She asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her. I said I was happy hanging out with my friends, but she said she thought we could walk alone together. I didn’t want to, so I told her that.”
“And how did she react?”
“She was angry. She didn’t yell or anything, but you could tell she was ticked off. Once I told her no, she turned her attention to Dakota and tried to get him to walk with her. He wouldn’t. He thought she was crazy too.”
“Then what happened?”
“Then … I don’t know. She got sick of us and took off. She didn’t even say goodbye. We were kind of happy about it, because she was weird. We only started talking to them in the first place because of that Melissa girl.”
“Was that the last time you saw her?”
“Um … I think so.”
Well, that was disappointing.
“No, wait. We saw her again right before we left,” Toby volunteered. “She was on the beach talking to someone.”
“Was it another boy? Did you recognize him?”
“No, she was talking to a woman.”
Now things were getting more interesting. “Did you recognize the woman?”
“I don’t know. She looked familiar, but I’m certain I didn’t recognize her.”
I poked through his brain, searching for an image, but his memory of the night was clouded by alcohol, and by the time he’d decided to leave he was truly drunk. The woman he saw on the beach with Paige was a blur. There were no clues in her clothing either – simple jeans and a plain black shirt – which left me very little to go on.
“What time did you leave again?”
Toby shrugged. “I think it was around midnight.”
“And Paige was on the beach at that time with the woman?”
“Yes.”
“Did she look like she was enjoying the conversation with the woman?”
“I don’t know. They were just talking. No one was angry or anything. They stared out at the water and talked. That’s all I saw.”
“Okay.” I let loose a sigh. “Remember what I said about staying away from Melissa. She’s too good for you.”
Toby involuntarily shuddered when I pushed an image of him standing in front of Melissa with a notable stain on the front of his jeans.
“You don’t want that to become reality, right?”
“Absolutely not!” Toby was adamant. “I don’t want to ever see her again.”
“That’s probably a good idea.” I licked my lips before pushing a more pleasant fake memory into the young man’s head, this one involving him sitting down for a reading with me. I made it a reading he’d enjoy because I didn’t want him dwelling on our interaction for too long. Then I released him and pasted a fake smile on my face.
“Have fun at the circus today. Make sure you stop at the midway and play a few games. I’m sure you’ll enjoy spending money there.”
Toby stood on shaky legs, his eyes focused but his mind working overtime to come to a resting stop. “I … um … okay.”
“Thank you for stopping by my tent. Have a nice day.”
20
Twenty
I steadfastly worked my way through the line until lunch, when it was time for my mid-afternoon break. It had been a long day and I knew it would feel endless by the time we wrapped things up.
There was nothing I could do about that, so I persisted through readings in the hope that I would find hints to … something. So far the only thing I’d been tipped off to was that one woman was about to get a rude awakening when she went home early to surprise her husband and a husband was about to get the shock of his life when his wife announced she was pregnant.
That was it.
Kade surprised me with takeout containers from the food trucks and directed me toward the picnic tables shortly after noon. Raven, Naida and Nellie were already seated and deep in conversation.
“Anything?” I asked hopefully.
Naida shook her head. “I’ve tried a few scans, but I haven’t run across outright evil yet. I did find a woman who is plotting the death of her husband’s secretary – who also happens to be his future baby mama – but she’s too stupid not to get caught, so I gave her a fake potion and sent her on her way.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “Are you sure that’s the way to go?”
Naida shrugged. “It’s not as if I can tell the cops how I know she’s planning to kill the secretary.”
“How do you know?” Raven queried. “You can’t read minds.”
“She told me.”
Kade arched an eyebrow. “You can tell the cops that. Do you remember her name?”
“Danielle Studebaker.”
“Write it down. And what she looks like,” Kade instructed. “I’ll pass it on to the police.”
I poked at my food with my fork as I listened, my stomach arguing with the thought of trying to digest fried food. I’d been on edge all morning and the acid rolling through my tummy seemed to indicate that it was on strike … at least until Melissa returned and I could stop worrying.
“You need to eat,” Kade prodded, tapping his fork on the side of my container to get my attention. “You’ll need your strength later.”
I forced a smile, but it was purely for his benefit. “I know. I have a little news, by the way.” I related my run-in with Toby and what I saw in his head. When I was finished, Kade’s expression was hard to read.
“How often do you do that?”
I shrugged. “As often as is necessary.”
“Hmm.”
I wasn’t a fan of his shuttered expression. “If you have a problem with it … .”
I didn’t get a chance to finish because Kade cut me off with a shake of his head. “I didn’t say I had a problem with it. I simply wasn’t aware you could take things that far. I thought you could only read minds.”
“I told you about the rapist and murderer I put into a trance before Luke and I pushed his truck into the lake right after we met,” I reminded him. “You were worried that it would be tied to us, but we got away with it. How did you think I did that?”
“I didn’t know.” Kade flashed a smile. “It’s okay. I’m more impressed than anything else.”
It didn’t feel that way. “He won’t remember. He’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Kade’s eyes flashed as he held up his hands in mock surrender. “I was merely asking a question. I didn’t mean to step on your toes.”
I scowled as I stared into my food. “I’m on edge. It’s not your fault.”
“You’re worried about Melissa,” Kade surmised. “She’s okay. You don’t have to worry about her.”
“I know she’s an adult, but … she was upset. She could do something stupid while trying to find Paige.”
“No, I mean you really don’t have to worry,” Kade clarified. “I sent one of the security guards to find her. He’s been following her all morning. She’s been walking up and down the boardwalk and asking people if they’ve seen Paige. She’s safe.”
“Oh.” I felt a bit stupid for overreacting. “Well, that’s good.” I dug into my food with gusto as my appetite came roaring back. “That was smart. Good job.” I shot him an enthusiastic thumbs-up with one hand while shoveling food into my mouth with the other.
Kade merely shook his head as he dumped cucumber sauce on his kebab. “I guess I should’ve told you that hours ago, huh? You’re much more relaxed.”
“You definitely should have,” I agreed, flipping my eyes to Raven. “What about you? Have you come up with anything?”
“I enchanted one of the mirrors to show me the guests’ true faces,” Raven replied. “The worst thing I’ve seen is a housewife who used to be a man and hasn’t told her new husband the truth yet.”
Kade knit his eyebrows. “Wait … how does that work? Isn’t it obvious?”
Raven shrugged. “Apparently not.”
Kade flicked his eyes to me. “There’s nothing you want to tell me, right?”
I managed a genuine smile. “You’re safe.”
“Good to know.” Kade pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and lowered his voice. “Melissa will be fine until we can get through this day and tackle her together. I promise.”
I should’ve known he wouldn’t allow her to wander around without watching her. That wasn’t his way. “I’m not worried.” I rested my hand on his knee under the table. “I was worried earlier, but I’m not any longer. In fact … I feel a lot better.”
“Good.” Kade shoveled some rice into his mouth. “We need to come up with a plan to find that cave,” he said after swallowing. “Does anyone have any ideas?”
“I’m working on a pixie dust spell that might be able to help, but we’ll need to be close to the door before we cast it,” Naida offered. “I mean … close. We’re talking ten feet.”
Raven made a face. “If we’re within ten feet of it we won’t need a spell.”
“Unless it’s hidden,” Nellie pointed out. “I mean … why would you have a secret cave to do whatever gross things you like to do and then have a door that everyone can see? That’s not how it works.”
“You seem to know a lot about how gross caves work,” Raven pointed out, wrinkling her nose.
“I am a fount of useless information,” Nellie agreed. “The magic pixie dust isn’t a bad idea.”
“We still have to get close for that to work,” I pressed. “Naida, how sure are you that you can find the area on land rather than water?”
“Very sure.” Naida said the words, but her expression reflected otherwise.
“How sure really?”
Naida’s shoulders hopped up and down. “Like … fifty percent.”
&nb
sp; I didn’t like those odds one little bit. “There has to be a way for us to increase those odds.”
“There is,” Raven supplied. “Max is going to get us an item of Paige’s clothing. I asked him about it before he went off to help Barney talk to the police.”
“What good will that do?” Kade asked. “I mean … can you use her clothes to cast a spell to find her?”
“Not that I’ve ever accomplished,” Raven replied. “But that’s not what I have planned.”
“What do you have planned?”
Raven slid her eyes to me. I already knew. I also knew that the answer probably wouldn’t go over well with one specific person.
Kade slid his gaze to me. “Am I missing something?”
“The clothing will have Paige’s scent on it,” I replied. “Luke is a wolf and has a heightened sense of smell when he’s in his shifter form. Raven is hoping he’ll be able to track Paige to wherever she’s being held.”
Kade brightened. “I didn’t know he could do that.”
“He’s not exactly fond of it.”
“Well, he’ll live.” Kade wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin and pointed to my lunch. “Eat that. We’re going to have a long day ahead of us and then an even longer night. You need some fuel.”
“Yes, sir.” I mock saluted before attacking my lunch. “I’ll talk to Luke this afternoon and let him know what he’s going to have to do. He won’t be happy, but he’ll eventually do what we want.”
“And I’ll work on the pixie dust spell,” Naida said.
“Keep reading people as they move through the circus,” I instructed. “We might get lucky and happen upon someone who knows something.”
“When have we ever gotten that lucky?” Raven asked.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
THE FLOW OF GUESTS through my tent was slower during the afternoon. I was thankful for that. It allowed me to spend some time hovering by the front of the tent. It also allowed me to scan random minds, which was how I found Becky Dunham.
Becky was a twenty-four-year-old waitress who looked younger than her years, and she was convinced she managed to escape abduction because of that. The only reason I picked up on the young woman was because a group of people happened to be talking about a craft artisan handing out fliers regarding his missing daughter and it triggered something in Becky’s mind. I was close enough to pick it up, which meant I was obsessed enough to draw her to my tent.
[Mystic Caravan Mystery 05.0] Freaky Places Page 18
