“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
Cotton, world-weary and jaded, looked intrigued despite herself. “Oh, yeah? What do you want?”
“If you guys are up for some day jobs — we’re talking manual labor, cleaning and whatnot — head over to the fairgrounds and go to where the circus has been set up. Ask for a guy named Kade. Tell him I sent you and that I said I would pay twenty if you do some work.”
“Kade?” Cotton made a face. “What kind of name is that?”
“What kind of name is Cotton?”
“Fair point.” A shrewd negotiator, Cotton wasn’t ready to agree until she’d thought out all the angles. “That’s twenty bucks each, right?”
I nodded. “I’ll also allow you to sleep in the main tent, although there aren’t really any beds. You’ll be safe in there and not on the street. Just in case you can’t come back here, I mean.”
She appeared intrigued. “Seriously?”
I nodded. “There are a lot of us. I promise you’ll be safe.”
“Well ... we’ll think about it.”
I knew they would be at the circus before I was finished talking to Beacon. “Just ask for Kade. He’ll take care of you.”
“No problem.” Cotton added some swagger to her step as she strolled down the street. “Oh, hey, wait.” She slowed. “What’s your name? You said to tell Kade that you sent us, but I don’t know your name.”
I opened my mouth to answer but someone else responded before I could.
“Poet,” Beacon volunteered, causing me to jerk my head in his direction. “Her name is Poet ... and she used to run these streets much like you about twelve years ago.”
Cotton didn’t appear impressed by the news. “Okay, well ... you don’t look like much of a street kid now.”
“I got out,” I replied. “We’ll talk about that when I get back in a little bit. For now, you guys head that way. I need to talk to Beacon.”
“Sure.” Cotton flashed a peace sign before taking off. This time when she started whispering to her friend she sounded excited.
Beacon waited until he was sure they were out of earshot to speak again. “Been a long time.”
“It has,” I agreed. “Rick Baxter, right? That’s your real name.”
“It is, although I think of myself as Beacon now. The name just sort of ... fits.” He folded his arms across his chest and regarded me with an unreadable look. “You’re one face I never expected to see around here again. I always knew you would get out.”
“I’ve heard that a lot the last few days.”
“Most people thought you were dead,” Beacon offered. “I knew better. I figured you were too smart to stay on the streets for long. I didn’t foresee you joining the circus, but stranger things, right?”
If he only knew the truth. “I’m only here for a few days. I’ve heard some of the street kids talking. There’s a predator on the loose. Some of the girls have gone missing.”
“Why do you think I was considering taking Cotton in again tonight despite her breaking the rules? She’s vulnerable.”
“That’s why I offered to help.”
“She’s also an opportunist,” he added. “She’ll steal if she can, try to sell sex to your workers for drugs. That’s who she is. She can’t help herself.”
“My workers won’t engage in that and I’ll keep an eye on her.” His tone rankled. “I remember how the street works.”
“Do you? You’ve been gone a long time. Even when you were here, you were never really ‘street.’”
“I survived. If I can, I’ll help them survive.”
“You can’t save them all.”
“Are you afraid I have a martyr complex? I’m well aware I can’t save them all. I can try to stop a predator, though. That’s why I’m really here. You must know what the kids are whispering about. If I had a lead ... .” What? I couldn’t exactly tell him what I planned to do if I caught this guy ... or monster.
“You always were the type who thought with your heart instead of your head.” Beacon made a clucking noise with his tongue. “I guess it’s not my place to tell you what to do.”
“It’s not,” I agreed. “I want to see if I can help. I don’t have much time. I figured you’d be a good place to start for information.”
“I’d agree, except I don’t have information to share.” Beacon let loose a heavy breath as he leaned against the building and rubbed his forehead. “It’s been going on for weeks now. When the first girl disappeared, everyone thought it was a fluke. Kids go missing out here. A lot of the time it’s of their own volition. I mean ... you woke up one day and just walked out without a backward glance. Sometimes others do the same thing.”
“Not without a backward glance,” I countered. “I looked back. I simply opted to keep going forward. I saw it as my only shot.”
“And it was. I’m glad you got out. Coming back now seems a strange choice. It has me questioning what I always believed about you.”
“I’m back for work. We were hired to run a festival at the fairgrounds. I heard about the missing girls after we arrived. There’s no reason I can’t do two things at once.”
“Fair enough. I don’t have any information to offer. There are a lot of rumors and no facts. I’ve heard twenty different stories — including aliens and evil witches.”
The second part of that statement caught my attention. “Evil witches?”
He chuckled and nodded, obviously mistaking my interest for amusement. “Yeah. Some of the kids are saying that witches, the sort that scream constantly and try to rip out people’s throats with their teeth, are behind the disappearances. I like the alien stories better.”
“So ... you don’t put any stock in their stories?”
“I’ve been here a really long time. I’ve heard every story imaginable. There’s a monster out there — I’m sure of that — but it’s not a witch. I hope they find him soon.”
He wasn’t the only one. “Well, thanks for your time.” I started to leave and then something occurred to me. “You’re not familiar with the Grimlock family, are you? They’re not on the street or anything but I’ve seen several members of the family around. I would like to track them down.”
Beacon looked puzzled. “Redmond Grimlock?”
Bingo. “Yes. He was one of them I met.”
“He lives in Grosse Pointe with his father, Cormack. The old man is a big philanthropist. They’ve given to my shelter multiple times.”
“Great. Thanks.” It was a place to start. “Wait ... he lives with his father?” The dude had to be pushing thirty, if not sliding over the line. “How does that work?”
“They’re a tight family.”
11
Eleven
It wasn’t hard to track an address when I got back to the circus. I booted my computer, connected to the wi-fi hotspot and had a location in less than five minutes. Now I knew where to find them, which meant I needed a ride to one of Detroit’s ritzier surrounding areas.
“I put your new friends to work,” Kade announced as he entered the trailer. “They seem gung-ho about earning their twenty bucks and didn’t complain a lick when I told them to wipe down all the bleachers in the big top. They’re in there doing it right now.”
“Thanks for that.” I meant it. “I plan to let them sleep there if it becomes necessary. It’s not safe for them on the street.”
“Just for the record, the one named Cotton offered me a blow job for meth.”
I cringed. “Yeah, well ... .”
He chuckled at my expression. “You’ll be happy to know I turned her down. The other one is shy.”
“I never did get her name.”
“Michelob.”
“Ah.” All I could do was shake my head. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t just leave them to fend for themselves.”
“I’m not upset. I warned the others what to expect, and put Nellie and Luke in charge of them. I figured they were the ones most likely to be able to handl
e whatever weird stuff Cotton throws at them.”
“That’s a good idea.” I programmed the address into my GPS and then turned a hopeful look to Kade. “Are you busy?”
“That depends. What do you have in mind?” He wiggled his eyebrows in the direction of the bedroom.
“On any other day, I would take you up on that. I tracked down the Grimlocks, and I want to talk to them.”
He sobered. “I see. I’m allowed to go on this mission with you?”
I bit back a sigh. “I’m not trying to cut you out. You have to believe that. It’s just ... this is hard for me. I can’t help remembering what I was like back then and I don’t want to take up too much of your time chasing this if it turns into nothing. I feel off my game.”
He stepped in front of me and ran his hand down my hair, a soothing gesture that caused me to turn my cheek into his palm as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
“I love you, Poet,” he whispered. “Time spent with you is never a waste. I feel off my game, too. I don’t want to push you, because this is clearly affecting you. I don’t know what to do to make this okay.”
“We can’t make it okay. But we can catch a monster. Beacon didn’t have any information. He said he’s heard a hundred stories, including ones about evil witches. We need someone who understands about the paranormal world and isn’t afraid to tell us the truth. That means the Grimlocks.”
“And you want to invade their turf?” He didn’t look thrilled at the prospect. “What if they attack?”
“They won’t.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I have a really good feeling.” That was true. “I need to talk to them. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I can go alone.”
“Oh, that’s fighting dirty.” He poked my side and smiled. “I’m going. You don’t even have to ask. It’s you and me to the end, right?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Then let’s visit the Grimlocks.”
I hopped to my feet, excited. “They live in Grosse Pointe. That’s a ritzy area. You’ll be much more comfortable there.”
“You say that now, but if I have to kill them it’s not exactly going to be a comfortable experience.”
“Good point.”
I EXPECTED A BIG HOUSE. What I got was a castle.
“No way!” I was flabbergasted when I climbed out of the truck and fixed my eyes on the behemoth of a house.
“I guess now we know why he’s still living with his father,” Kade said. “This house is big enough for everyone to pick a wing and then never see each other again.”
Even though I’d spent only a bit of time with the Grimlocks, I seriously doubted that’s how they operated. “Let’s get this over with.”
It was the middle of the day, something I didn’t think about until I was knocking on the door. There was every chance the Grimlocks were at work ... or sleeping because they spent their nights hunting monsters. I wasn’t surprised when a man in a dapper suit opened the door. I was, however, surprised when he gave me a churlish look.
“Deliveries are made in the rear.” He moved to shut the door.
Kade reacted faster than me and held out a hand to stop him. “We’re not here to make a delivery,” he said quickly. “We’re here to ... .”
“See Aisling,” I finished. Of all the Grimlocks, she would probably be happiest to see me. “We’re here to see Aisling.”
The butler — we learned later that’s what he was — narrowed his eyes. “You know Miss Aisling?”
“We do.”
“Do you wish to do her bodily harm?”
That wasn’t the question I was expecting. “No. Why? Do people who want to do her harm stop by often?”
“You would be surprised.” He held open the door. “Please come in. You’ll have to wait in the foyer until I ask Miss Aisling if she’s available to guests. If you have weapons, I expect you to leave them on the front table.”
“Okay, well ... we’re unarmed.”
The foyer was as impressive as the outside of the house. The floors were marble and the statues stationed at either side of the room looked to be carved from the same. They were huge lions, sitting resplendent as they stared at each other across the room. They were creepy, but I was hardly an interior decorator.
“Oh, it’s you.” Redmond appeared in the doorway the butler had disappeared through. He was smiling when he poked his head through the door. The smile evaporated quickly. “I thought maybe someone from Aisling’s past showed up and wanted to pull her hair.”
“Does that happen often?” I asked.
“You would be surprised.”
That was the second time someone had uttered that phrase. I was starting to regret my decision to track down the Grimlocks. “We need to talk,” I started. I’d come this far, so there was no sense turning back. “I think you know something about the disappearances on the street and I’m here to find out what that is.”
In his home environment, Redmond was even cockier than normal. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the door jamb. “You came here to demand answers from me?”
“Actually, I was hoping to see your sister. She seems the most capable of your group.”
He snorted. “That just shows you haven’t spent enough time with her. She’s dealing with a tiny monster right now, so she can’t visit with you. Maybe you should stop by tomorrow or something.”
He was trying to put me off. That wasn’t going to work. “Is there someone else here I can talk to? Cillian or Braden, perhaps? They seemed more open to conversation ... and less likely to grunt their way through it.”
“Oh, big talk.” Instead of being offended, Redmond looked amused. “We’re not used to inviting strange people with magical powers into our house. How do I know you’re not here to kill us?”
“Why would we knock if we were here to kill you?” Kade questioned.
“That’s happened a few times, too.” Redmond’s gaze was thoughtful as he watched me for a long moment. “Okay. I’m going to let you in, but if you move on the baby we’ll cut your heads off without thinking twice about it.”
“Fair enough.”
He led us through the house, which somehow seemed bigger on the inside, and didn’t stop until we reached a large office at the end of an ornate hallway. There, sitting behind a huge mahogany desk, was the source of the Grimlock children’s looks.
“This is my father,” Redmond began as he led us through the door. “He thinks we should’ve killed you at the cemetery last night, but I stood up for you – mostly because you’re hot. He’s agreed to hold off on the murder for now. No worries.”
I focused on the patriarch. His hair was black, although there was a bit of gray at the temples, and his eyes were violet and full of suspicion. “Hello, sir.” I extended my hand. “My name is Poet Parker.”
He stared at my hand for a moment and then took it. “Cormack Grimlock.”
“She’s with the circus,” Redmond volunteered.
“So you’ve said.” Cormack gestured toward two open seats in front of his desk. “I understand you’re here to talk.”
“Is the house bugged or something?” I sat in one of the chairs, Kade taking the other, and tried to get comfortable.
“Not last time I checked,” Cormack replied, his gaze on Kade. “And you are?”
Kade introduced himself. It was clear he felt out of his element, but he was determined to stand with me. He was loyal and trustworthy, and even though we were outnumbered he wanted the Grimlocks to know he wasn’t afraid. I was fairly certain they were all talk, so I wasn’t particularly worried.
“We want to know about the missing women,” I started, frowning when I heard an infant start wailing in another part of the house. “Are you babysitting?”
Cormack sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Not exactly.”
“Then ... ?”
“Just wait for it,” Redmond instructed, his eyes on the door we�
��d just passed through. Sure enough, moments later, Aisling strode through it with a baby perched on her hip. She looked as if she had enough – of whatever it was.
“Take her,” Aisling ordered, shoving the baby at her father. She pulled up short when she saw me. “Hey. What are you doing here?”
“Actually, I came to see you,” I replied, smirking when Cormack obediently took the baby. He put a burp cloth over his shoulder and immediately shifted the infant so he could softly pat her back. “I was hoping to get some information about the girls who are going missing downtown.”
“And you thought we would know about that?” Aisling arched an eyebrow. “That’s kind of weird. How did you even find us?”
“It wasn’t that hard. I knew most of your names — first and last — and I asked the guy who runs the shelter around the corner from the cemetery. He not only knew you, but said you were philanthropists. Once I had a city, it was a simple matter of Googling an address.”
“Well, look at little Miss Nancy Drew,” Redmond teased.
Aisling had the honor of cuffing him. “Shut up. Trixie Belden is way better than Nancy Drew. If she’s anyone, she’s Trixie Belden.”
Redmond screwed up his face as he rubbed the back of his head. “You’ve turned vicious since becoming a mother.”
“She’s just tired,” Cormack countered. “The baby had us up all night.”
“Not that you helped,” Aisling said pointedly.
“I was on an assignment with Braden,” Redmond said. “Some of us have to work late shifts more than we used to because you’re not available to go out unless you feel like it.”
“Leave your sister alone,” Cormack ordered as he patted the baby’s back. “Lily is a handful. Your sister is still getting used to things.”
I focused on the baby, taking a moment to do a brief mind probe. Lily was indeed a handful. She was only a few months old but had already figured out how to manipulate all the people in her life ... which meant constantly crying because she liked the attention. She was probably going to grow up to be her own breed of monster. That was really none of my business, though.
Freaky Reapers (A Mystic Caravan Mystery Book 8) Page 11
