Page 7

The ride into Boston was thankfully uneventful. With it being Saturday, there wasn’t the kind of traffic that plagued the city during the work week. Ten sat in his seat and watched the scenery pass him by, while worrying about Everly’s problem. He’d reached out via text to Madam Aurora, who’d written back to say she hadn’t had any experience with children losing abilities, but said she’d look into it and get back to him. He’d also asked her to look into his recurring nightmare. All he could do now was wait and try to enjoy the day in the city with his family and friends.

Fitzgibbon had booked a large capacity van to take the entire crowd to the Boston Garden to check out preparations for the charity circus, which meant no one had to drive or navigate. The kids sat in the back watching movies and laughing together, while the adults did their own thing. Ronan, Jude and Fitz were whispering about a case they’d been working on. Kaye and Jace were each reading a book on their phones, while Cope and Barb chatted about how picky Delta was now that she was on solid foods.

Movement at the front of the van caught Ten’s attention. River had gotten up from the seat next to his wife and was heading toward Ten, which brought his first real smile of the morning. Like Everly and Brooke, Ten and River spoke on FaceTime several times a week and texted each other every day. Even though they spoke all the time, neither brother ever ran out of things to say.

“How are things this morning?”

River asked, with a knowing look on his face.

“I didn’t have my nightmare last night, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep either. The kids were up late laughing together.”

Ten didn’t want to use the kids as an excuse for his lack of sleep. Truth be told, Ten was more than okay with being awake during the night. If he wasn’t sleeping he couldn’t dream.

“We’re moving the sleepover to Kaye’s house tonight. That will leave you free to get some sleep.”

“Here’s hoping.”

Cope had already volunteered to take Ezra for the night, so he and Lizbet could have their own little sleepover, which meant Ten could sleep in his own bed and not worry about waking the kids up if he had another nightmare.

“Have you tried taking something to sleep? Like Ambien or one of those over the counter sleep aids?”

Ten shook his head. “I’m always worried that if I take something that will make me tired, even low-dose Benadryl, there will be something wrong with the kids or Ronan and I won’t wake up in time to help.”

His answer was only part true. The other reason Ten didn’t want to take any sleep aids was because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to break free from the nightmare, if it came back.

“I hear that. I took NyQuil a few months back when I had a cold and slept right through Delta screaming her tiny head off in the middle of the night. Barb was afraid I’d taken too much and put myself into an inadvertent coma.”

River snorted.

“I reached out to a friend this morning to see if there was something she could do to help me with this nightmare, but I haven’t heard back yet.”

Even though he trusted his brother to keep his confidence, Ten kept his mouth shut about Everly’s situation. The last thing Ten wanted was for Everly to pick up on this conversation and think people were talking about her behind her back. Ten didn’t want anyone else to know what was going on. The fewer people who knew, the better. For now.

“We’re here!”

Jace called, sounding like he was one of the kids. He pointed out the window, where the soaring edifice of the Boston Garden was visible. “Wait until you see the surprises I’ve got in store for all of you!”

Ten snickered when Ronan’s happy expression turned a bit green. He didn’t need his gift to know Ronan was thinking about the clowns. There had to be something he could do to allay his husband’s fear. Maybe if they put a clown face on Ronan he’d be able to relax more around the others. Or he’d end up running back to Salem in record time.

Fifteen minutes later, the van was parked and unloaded. Delta, Ezra, and Lizbet were strapped into their strollers and everyone was ready to roll. Jace led the way to a door where a man dressed in black stood guard. “Good morning, Mr. Lincoln.”

“Good morning, Lucas. Are you bringing your family to the dress rehearsal later this week?”

Jace was all smiles.

“I sure am. My wife and kids can’t wait to meet the clowns.”

Lucas didn’t look so enthusiastic.

“They all need to have their heads examined,”

Ronan muttered.

“I couldn’t agree more, Mr. O’Mara, but you know the saying, ‘happy wife, happy life.’”

Lucas looked less than enthusiastic.

“I do indeed,”

Ronan agreed.

“Just an FYI, they’re everywhere .”

Lucas’s entire body shivered, making him look like he was doing a crazy dance.

“Thanks for the heads up.”

Ronan coughed. “I’m not feeling too well. I should stay in the van.”

“Not a chance.”

Fitzgibbon wrapped an arm around Ronan’s shoulder and led him into the building. “The only way to overcome your fear is to face it head on.”

“Why are we friends?”

Ronan gave Fitz a playful shove. “Forcing me to walk into this fun house of horrors doesn’t sound like something a bosom buddy would do.”

Jace led them through the back of the building and into the locker room usually used by opposing basketball teams. Set up inside were long tables with lighted mirrors and more cosmetics than an entire drug store, where a dozen clowns were applying their makeup.

“Clowns!”

Everly, Aurora, and Brooke shouted together. All three girls took off running toward the pink clown at the end. Lizbet undid her buckle and climbed out of her stroller, to follow after the other girls.

“Seriously?”

Ronan muttered.

“Come on, how scary is Pinkie?”

Ten pointed to the clown the girls were losing their minds over. She was dressed in different shades of pink from head to toe, including her rubber nose. “Why don’t we introduce ourselves?”

As Ten spoke, Pinkie hoisted Lizbet onto her lap and put a pink nose on her. Lizbet squealed, while Jude snapped pictures.

“Okay,”

Ronan agreed, sounding like he’d rather cover himself in honey while standing on a fire ant hill.

As they approached, Pinkie started to draw a pink butterfly on Lizbet’s cheek. All of the girls insisted they wanted a butterfly too.

“Ronan, why don’t you get your face painted?”

Fitzgibbon suggested. “Might help you overcome your fear of clowns.”

“Who’s afraid of clowns?”

The frowny-faced clown in front of Pinkie asked.

“This guy.”

Fitz held Ronan’s hand up.

“Asshole,”

Ronan muttered.

“Let’s turn that frown upside down! I’m Sad Sam. It’s nice to meet you.”

He held out a gloved hand, which Ronan shook.

“This is Ridiculous Ronan!”

Jude said, laughing at his joke.

“Very funny. Ha. Ha.”

A small smile lit up Ronan’s face.

“Come on, Daddy, don’t be a grump!”

Everly called over her shoulder. Pinkie was painting a butterfly on her left cheek. Lizbet and Aurora already had theirs.

“What shall we paint on your face, Ronan?”

Sam asked.

“How about a dic-”

Jude began before Cope slapped a hand over his husband’s mouth. Jude pulled his husband’s hand away. “Excuse me, I was going to say dictionary . Or has that word been outlawed by the swear jar police?”

The nearby clowns laughed along with Jude.

Cope fisted his hands on his hips. “If you were going say dictionary , then I’m the Queen of England.”

“Your Majesty!”

Pinkie executed a perfect curtsey.

Even Ronan laughed at the clown’s performance.

“Why are you ascared of clowns?”

Pinkie asked. She ushered him into the nearest chair and started painting a butterfly on Ronan’s cheek.

“Don’t tell me it’s because you read that Stephen King book.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “I swear, that book did for clowns what Jaws did for sharks.”

“No, it wasn’t the book. I had a bad experience with a clown threatening me when I was a kid and I’ve been afraid ever since.”

Ronan wrapped his arms around himself.

“What kind of a clown?”

Pinkie asked.

“He was bald and dressed all in black and white.”

Ronan shivered as he spoke.

“We’re you getting jiggy with his woman?”

Sad Sam asked.

Ronan snorted. “Hardly, I was twelve.”

“It’s never too young to-”

Sam stopped in his tracks.

“To what, Sad Sam?”

Everly asked innocently.

“To make new friends, kid.”

Sam’s sad face perked up into a smile, which made him look slightly terrifying.

Ten was starting to understand where Ronan’s fear had come from, when a clown he hadn’t seen before approached him.

“I need your help,”

the man said. He was dressed in a white satin outfit with splotches of red on it. He looked like someone threw a can of paint at him.

“Help with what?”

Ten asked.

“I need you to find my killer,”

the clown said.

“Your killer?”

Ten realized at once that the red on the clown’s outfit wasn’t red paint. It was blood. “Who are you?”

“I’m Jumping Jack. You have to help me before it’s too late.”

With those words, Jack vanished.

Ten looked around the room. No one else seemed to have noticed the ghost clown. Not even Everly, who was watching Pinkie apply a spider to Wolf’s cheek.

“Who’s Jumping Jack?”

Ten asked.

The room went silent. Each of the clowns shot each other dark looks. One shook his head, as if to caution against saying anything.

“I’m a psychic medium,”

Ten said. “A clown wearing a white outfit covered in blood just appeared to me and asked me to find his killer.”

He looked around the room. None of the clowns were looking at Ten, but he could feel their unease without using his gift.

“He was one of us. The best clown I ever knew,”

a clown with an overexaggerated bright blue mouth said. “He was my mentor. I was the one who found him inside the tiger cage. Jack was covered in blood, but we all knew Sheba wouldn’t have done anything like that.”

“Sheba? The white tiger?”

Ronan asked.

The blue-faced clown nodded. “When the police got here, they wanted to kill Sheba for hurting Jack, but Celestina and Nava were able to move the cat into a different pen so the police could do their work.”

“The Boston Police were assholes,”

another clown with green stars painted around his eyes chimed in. “It turned out Jack had been shot. Sheba was one hell of a show tiger and they wanted to kill her for nothing. Fuckers. Then, they tried to blame me, since Jack and I were, uh...”

“Lovers,” Ten said.

Green eyes nodded. “Brought me downtown and screamed and shouted that I was going to prison for the rest of my life and explained in detail what happened to gay men in jail.”

“Assholes,”

Everly agreed, breaking the tension in the room and making the clowns chuckle.

Sam shook his head. “They didn’t have enough evidence to arrest anyone, but that didn’t stop them from coming down hard on us.”

“So the crime was never solved?”

Ronan asked.

All the clowns shook their heads.

Ten exchanged a look with Ronan. “I’d like to lend a hand if I can.”

“Why, so you can accuse all of us of killing him too?”

Blue-mouth accused, crossing his arms over his chest.

“ Again ,”

Sam said, bitterly.

“You were all accused?”

Jude asked. “Not just Green Stars?”

“Every single one of us with the circus was accused of killing Jack,”

a clown, with a tag identifying him as Goofball, said. “Not just the clowns, but the ring master, the trapeze artists, the animal keepers. Cops shook us down hard and wouldn’t let us leave town for two weeks. You have any idea how much money we lost, pal?”

“I can imagine, Greg,”

Ten said softly.

“How the fuck do you know my name?”

Goofball Greg demanded.

“I told you, I’m a psychic. The real deal. Not like Madam Fortuna.”

Ten grinned.

A few of the older clowns chuckled. “She was the worst psychic in the world. Copied Bela Lugosi’s Dracula accent and pretended she was from Transylvania. She always told married women their husbands were cheating on them.”

“Can’t tell you how many times we had to break up fights. Women hitting their husbands with their handbags and sometimes their fists. It was all bullshit.”

Greg paused. “Sorry, kids.”

“It’s okay, Goofball. My Dad says that word all the time!”

Everly laughed.

“Yeah, well, cops think we’re all on the grift. Back then, we were just working to support our families. I had a wife and three kids back in Kalamazoo. The money I made during the summer was what paid for back to school supplies, Christmas presents and clothes. I didn’t make enough money as a math teacher to support my family.”

“I hate math!”

Aurora wailed. Brooke and Everly joined in.

“Why don’t we head out to the arena floor and check out all the surprises I promised you.”

Jace motioned the kids toward him. He dropped a wink at Fitz before leading the kids away.

Ten waited for the room to empty out. Ronan, Jude, and Fitz had stayed behind, as he knew they would. Three clowns remained. Goofball, Green Stars, and a third clown dressed in a white satin outfit similar to the one Jumping Jack had been wearing, minus the blood stains. “You’re Jack’s son.”

The younger man nodded. “I am. My name is Alex. I used to sit by Dad in the dressing room while he put on his makeup. I was ten when he died. My mother came to pick me up after the murder. She’d been visiting her family in Maine, while the circus was in Massachusetts. After the show was allowed to get back on the road, no one ever contacted us about Dad’s murder. The police didn’t even return my mother’s calls and you think that after thirty-something years you’re going to solve his murder?”

“I work as a psychic, but I also consult with the Salem Police Department’s Cold Case Unit.”

Ten pointed to Ronan, Fitz, and Jude. “These guys are the best in the business when it comes to solving the unsolvable.”

Ten watched as Alex sunk his head into his hands. He knew the young man had wanted nothing more than to have his father’s murder solved, once and for all.

“When did your father die?”

Ronan asked.

“In 1995. I was ten years old. I don’t have any memories of him at all.”

Alex’s eyes were downcast, Ten could feel his pain.

“1995?”

Ronan asked, looking alarmed.

“Yeah,”

Alex agreed.

Ten knew Ronan had come to the circus back then. That was the time he’d met Celestina and had been scared to death by Ying Yang. Was it possible there was a connection to Jumping Jack’s death?”

“We’ll tell you what we know, on one condition,”

Goofball said.

“Name it,”

Fitzgibbon said eagerly, stepping forward.

“I don’t want you to put the others through what happened the last time. If you’re going to look into this, do it right and don’t just assume one of us is the killer.”

“You got it,”

Fitz agreed. Ronan and Jude nodded their assent.

Ten turned his attention to Alex and the others. “Tell us what happened the night Jumping Jack died.”

He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the story to come.