With his eyes on the prize, Ronan walked out onto the floor of the Boston Garden. He was standing across from where Vincent was working with the clowns. He’d guess the distance between them was thirty or forty feet, but Ronan could hear the man’s voice perfectly well. Vincent sounded angrier than the Incredible Hulk. He wasn’t going to like the interruption. Ronan wanted to rub his hands together like a cartoon villain, but there wasn’t time for that now. Once Vincent was in cuffs and read his rights it would be time to celebrate. Now, he needed to keep a cool head.

Ronan, Fitz, and Jude stalked across the floor. He nodded at the trapeze artists, acrobats, and roadies working on the equipment. They weren’t in his sights at the moment. Even though Ronan was fairly certain Vincent was the killer, he’d keep his opinion to himself and go after hard facts.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Goofball? Are you drunk or just fucking stupid?”

Vincent shouted, as Ronan approached.

“Vincent!”

Ronan said. The tone of his voice was all business.

Turning, Vincent eyed the people standing in front of him. “What the fuck do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy? This act is going to flop if these morons can’t get their shit together.”

Ronan shot Vincent a dubious look. The act was going to flop if Vincent kept acting like an asshole. “Take five everyone. Vincent, come with us.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Vincent spat at Ronan, as the other clowns watched with obvious glee.

“Members of the Boston Police Department.”

He brushed his coat to the side to reveal his badge. Fitz, Jude, and Carson followed suit.

“We can have this conversation here, or we cuff you in front of everyone, and drag your ass downtown.”

Carson sounded like he was auditioning for a guest spot on Law and Order . “Your choice.”

“Fine.”

Vincent turned back to the clowns. “Fuck off! All of you.”

He shooed them away with a wave of his hand. Some of the clowns scrambled toward the locker room. When they were gone, Vincent took a seat. If this were a Celtics game, he would have been sitting in the most expensive seats in the house.

Ronan took the seat to Vincent’s left. Jude took the one to the right, while Fitz and Carson remained standing. Ten took a seat two rows behind Vincent. Ronan didn’t blame him one bit.

“What do you want?”

Vincent eyed each of the detectives. “As if I can’t guess.”

“Tell us what happened the night Jumping Jack was murdered,”

Carson commanded.

Ronan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Carson had taken to his role like a duck to water.

Vincent rolled his dark eyes dramatically. “It was opening night and the arena was packed. We all wanted to put on a good show. Me, especially.”

“Why did the performance mean so much to you?”

Ronan asked.

“Because some little shit’s mother complained to management about me. Something about how I threatened to rip off his arm and beat him with it.”

Vincent flashed a malevolent look.

Ronan burst out laughing. “I had no idea my mom reported you.”

“Yeah, well you almost cost me my job, asshole.”

Ronan was about to point out that Vincent almost cost himself his job, but Fitzgibbon shot him a warning look. Ronan was content to keep quiet. For now. He couldn’t wait to talk to Erin about what she’d done all those years ago.

“So you went into the performance on your best behavior,”

Fitz prompted Vincent.

“Yeah. It was a great show. Everyone laughed at the clowns and oohed and ahhed over the trick ponies and the elephants. When the clowns came out for our second performance, Kent and Jack seemed to be fighting or making up or something . Either way, neither of them were doing their jobs. I told them to cut the shit and went on with the performance.”

“You were mad at them?”

Fitz asked.

“Fuck, yes! I was about to lose my job, my career, my family and all those two dickheads could do was make moon eyes at each other.”

“It would have sucked being kicked out of the circus,”

Carson said, sounding sympathetic.

“Well fucking duh.”

Vincent rolled his eyes.

“I mean because if you were out of the show then you could no longer beat and control your wife. Ditto for your daughter.”

Carson took a step forward, as if he were challenging Vincent to disagree with him.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Vincent thundered, getting to his feet. He towered over Carson by at least a foot, but Carson stood even taller, refusing to wither under Vincent’s threat of violence.

Carson grinned up at the giant clown. “You beat your wife. Controlled her every move. What she wore. What she ate. When she slept. When you had sex. If you were kicked out of the circus, all of that control would have gone bye-bye.”

Carson wasn’t backing down and Ronan was loving every moment of Carson playing bad cop. “Before you ask how I know that, I’ll tell you. Everyone knew! You thought you were keeping this secret from your circus family,”

Carson made air quotes, “but you weren’t fooling anyone. The only thing worse than what you were doing to your wife and daughter was the fact that no one stood up to you to make it stop.”

“Am I under arrest?”

Vincent asked, sounding like he already knew the answer. He shouldered past Carson heading for a group of clowns who all wore stunned looks on their faces.

“That’s right, run away,”

Carson called after him. “You knew Kent and Jack were about to fuck you out of a job, so you did the only thing you could. You killed Jack, and intimidated Kent so that you could go on abusing your wife and daughter. You may have fooled the Boston Police back then, but you can’t fool me. I know exactly who you are.”

Ronan couldn’t decide if he wanted to hug the stuffing out of Carson or give him a standing ovation. He was absolutely killing this interrogation and hadn’t given away the fact that he was using his psychic gifts to read Vincent like a dime store penny dreadful.

“What the hell is going on out here?”

Celestina, dressed in a bright purple kimono, hurried to her father, putting herself between Vincent and Ronan. “I could hear shouting all the way from my dressing room.”

“We’re here to talk to your father about the night Jumping Jack was killed,”

Ronan said, as gently as he could. Watching Celestina defend her father body and soul broke Ronan’s heart. Vincent had done nothing but terrorize his family. All Celestina had known was violence at his hands and here she was, all of a hundred pounds soaking wet, putting herself between her towering, evil father and four members of the Boston Police Department.

“You people have harassed him enough. I don’t care what your relationship is to Mr. Lincoln, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Celestina fisted her hands on her hips.

Fitzgibbon held out his badge. “I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. Why don’t you come talk to us away from the crowd.”

Fitz indicated the rows of seats they’d been sitting in before Vincent pulled a runner.

“Why should I talk to you? So that you can try to turn me against my father?”

Celestina sounded like a petulant child about to throw a tantrum.

When Everly got into the same mood, Ronan did whatever he could to avoid her melting down. Ronan had to admit he wanted to do that very thing now. This beautiful woman had been through enough in her life.

“Please, Celestina, come sit.”

Carson offered his arm, as if she were the Scarlet O’Hara to his Rhett Butler. Surprisingly, she acquiesced. “You know, my eight year old daughter would go nuts for this gown. She loves everything purple.”

The hard look on Celestina’s face softened. “Obviously your daughter has excellent taste. How many kids do you have?”

Carson led her to a seat in the front row. Ronan and the others took seats behind them. “Three. They’re triplets.”

“Triplets?”

Celestina’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, we had two embryos transferred to our surrogate and ended up with three babies. Two girls and a boy.”

Carson pulled out his phone to show her a picture of the kids building a dinosaur in the snow.

“They look like they’re a lot of fun.”

Celestina handed the phone back with a sad smile.

“They really are.”

Carson nodded. He took a look behind him at Ronan, who simply nodded.

Ronan wasn’t stupid. He knew Celestina had bonded with Carson. He didn’t need the spotlight to be on him constantly. Carson was killing it and he intended to let him keep going with her.

“Look, I don’t mean to be insensitive here,”

Carson began, “but you and I both know the kind of man your father is. If we’re being objective, you have to admit that he’s a viable suspect in this murder.”

“How do you know what kind of man my father is?”

“Because I grew up with one like him. My father was constantly on the grift. He was always pulling one con or another. He cheated on my mother, left, right, and sideways. When she finally kicked him out of the house. He was gone for years and only came home when he needed something, usually money. The last time he came home he needed a kidney.”

“I was going to say I can’t believe that, but I can.”

Celestina took a deep breath. “My father was abusive and cruel, but for whatever reason, my mother stayed with him. Through the beatings, the infidelity, a son born to one of his lovers. I’d be lying if I told you my father wasn’t capable of killing Jack, but I can tell you for a fact that Vincent didn’t kill him.”

Carson’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be so sure?”

“I know my father didn’t kill Jack. That’s all I’m willing to say. Good day, gentlemen.”

Celestina rose from her seat and walked away with her head held high.

“What did the two of you get from her?”

Ronan pointed back and forth between Carson and Ten.

“Not much,”

Ten said. “She’s pretty angry. Whatever she’s hiding, it’s locked down like Fort Knox.”

“I’m getting the same thing,”

Carson agreed. “Celestina has a heart of gold and she’s willing to defend her father no matter what. She’s got a secret, one that’s so well protected, I can’t see anything about it. All I can tell you for certain is that this secret is a big one.”

“I get what you’re both saying,”

Ronan said, “but is there anyway at all to tell what the secret’s about? If it’s not about Jack’s murder then I don’t want to waste time and valuable resources to find out Celestina binge eats PB in Ten’s heart. Ronan sent out a warning to Tennyson, Cope and Carson, who took a giant step to his right.

Nava, seeing Carson move, pivoted and swung the gun toward him.

Carson froze and put his hands in the air.

Jesus, Carson using himself as bait wasn’t what Ronan had in mind when he’d called out a warning about Kent. Carson had already been shot once. He’d taken a bullet meant for Truman when a disgruntled former employee brought a gun to a company Christmas party. Thankfully, Carson had been okay, but it had been a close call.

“Put down the gun, Nava. You don’t want your daughter to see you shoot someone,”

Carson commanded.

“No, but I do!”

Vincent shoved Celestina to the floor. He charged at Nava like a raging bull, slamming into her and knocking her to the ground.

Ronan could see the two of them wrestling for the gun. “Ten! Grab Everly and get the hell out of here!”

That gun could go off at any second and he wanted his husband and daughter as far away from it as possible.

Ten did what Ronan asked. He scooped up Everly and ran for the tunnel leading to the locker rooms. Cope and Carson were right behind him.

Fitzgibbon pulled his own gun. “Vincent stop! Drop the gun.”

A single shot rang out. A pained cry followed. Ronan, Fitz, and Jude hit the floor.

Vincent started to laugh. “I finally got you! You’re dead bitch!”

Still laughing, Vincent shoved Nava aside and started to stand up.

Ronan got quickly to his feet with his gun still trained on Vincent, who thankfully was not holding the his own gun. “I don’t think so.”

He pointed to Vincent’s midsection, which was covered in blood.

“What the-”

Vincent fell to the floor.

Ronan stalked toward Vincent, while Fitz and Jude went for Nava. He saw Jude grab the gun and tuck it into the back of his waistband. He got down on his knees to assess Vincent’s gunshot wound.

“Don’t just stand there, fucking help me,”

Vincent demanded.

“Fuck you, Pennywise!”

Ronan angry whispered, just as the paramedics and several uniformed members of the Boston Police rushed toward Vincent.

Ronan holstered his own gun and got out of the way. He backed away from Vincent to where Fitz had Nava back on her feet. He passed her off to one of the paramedics. A third medic team was with a woozy looking Celestina. The side of he head was bloody. Ronan assumed she’d hit her head on the floor when Vincent shoved her.

Grabbing his phone. He hit the button to Facetime Tennyson. Relief flooded through him when Ten’s face appeared on the screen. “Thank Christ. Are you hurt?”

“Not one scratch on me. Everly’s fine too.”

Ten panned the camera to show Everly sitting on a gurney talking to a paramedic.

Ronan had no doubt his little miss was reuniting the medic with her long lost grandmother. “We’re okay too. Vincent got shot. I don’t know how bad it is.”

He turned to check out what was going on and saw the medics laying a white sheet being laid over the clown’s body. “Correction. The shot was fatal. I’m gonna be here a while. Fitz, Jude, and I will have to give statements and help out the reconstruction team as well.”

“I’m sorry to hear about Vincent. He was a monster, but he didn’t deserve to die. Do what you have to do, we’ll be waiting for you when you’re finished in there.”

Ten blew Ronan a kiss and disconnected the call.

“Jesus Christ, Ronan!”

a familiar voice called out. “You’ve had your badge back for three days and you managed to bring down the big top?”

“Don’t thank me now.”

Ronan grinned. “I expect to see a bump in pay in my check for a job well done. We closed a thirty year old murder and stopped another from taking place. I call this a job well done.”

“I saw Everly outside. She told me about Ten’s vision. Thank God you got her and Ten out of there when you did.”

Ronan felt his hands start to shake. With the surge of adrenaline wearing off, the enormity of what happened hit him square in the gut. “Off the record, I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

Faulk wrapped an arm around Ronan’s shoulder. “I hear that. At the end of the day, family is the only thing that matters.”

Family was everything . It would take him a long time to forget when Vincent grabbed his daughter, but it would fade in time.

His little girl was a badass. After what Everly did today, he probably owed her that pajama-wearing baby goat.