Page 9

As he walked back to the arena floor with Celestina, Ten did his best to read the woman. He didn’t get much, only that she was excited to have some of her old circus family back together for the charity performance and that there was darkness inside her. What that darkness was, he didn’t know.

“Daddy!”

Everly sang out, running to him. “You met Celestina! What a beautiful dress!”

Everly ran her hand over the sleeve of the dress, with a look of awe on her face.

“How do you know my name?”

Celestina asked.

“My Dad told me all about you and the baby tiger. My gift told me your name. You have gifts too.”

Everly reached for Celestina’s hand. “Come meet my friends.”

Taking her hand Everly led her back to where the other kids were taking turns swinging on a lowered trapeze.

Ten smiled at his daughter. He wondered if she noticed her gift was working again. Celestina was still beautiful, but looked much different today than she had in Ronan’s pictures with her. In the photo the girl had worn a happy, carefree look. Now, she appeared worn down by life. Ten couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to her over the years, but Celestina was so locked down, he couldn’t even sense if the woman was married or had remained single.

Feeling a bit of relief, Ten pulled out his phone to take pictures of the kids. Wolf was hanging from his knees, while one of the trapeze artists gave him a little push. He laughed as he soared a few feet off the ground.

“Wonder Wolf!”

the little boy shouted.

“Please don’t tell me Everly tried that?”

Ronan asked, coming up behind his husband.

“No, Wolf is the only one so far. He’s hooked up with a harness and there are five people all around him, but I feel sick to my stomach thinking about Everly giving it a try. Her turn is coming up next.”

“Holy shit!”

Jude yelled, running past Ten and Ronan. “You’re doing it Wolfie!”

“He wants to try it, doesn’t he?”

Ronan asked.

“Yup, and so do you, Raunchy Ronan.”

Ten gave his hand a squeeze.

“Daddies, watch me!”

Everly shouted. She was wearing a harness and sitting on the trapeze bar holding on to the side cables. Kicking her legs out, she started to swing, just like she did on their backyard playset. What was different was the way Everly let go of the cables and fell backwards, which left her swinging from the bar by her knees.

“I’m flying!”

Everly shouted. She swung through the air with her arms spread wide. Joy filled her eyes. Ten had never seen her quite so excited. On the other hand, he’d never felt quite so scared.

“Sweet baby cheeses,”

Ten muttered. “Now she’s going to want to be a psychic trapeze artist. God help me.”

Ronan wrapped an arm around Ten. “It’s going to be okay. I wanted to join the circus when I was a kid too.”

“What changed your mind?”

Ten asked.

“The smell of the elephant shit for starters, but the deal breaker was Ying Yang. I actually thought he was going to feed me to the tiger that day. I’ve never quite seen rage like that in another person before. Did you manage to read anything from him?”

Ronan asked.

“Not really,”

Ten admitted, “but I was overwhelmed by his presence. He was menacing when he walked in the door, but after he found out who you were, it ratcheted up several notches. Why the hell is someone like that allowed around kids?”

“When I meet him the first time, he seemed edgy and cool. It felt like he was my teenage angst come to life. Emo, but with a smokers’ cough, if that makes sense. He wasn’t the kind of clown a kid Everly’s age would like, but he was perfect for someone my age.”

“I can see that,”

Ten agreed. “I wish I could tell you more, but there’s so much going on in here with the circus and so many spirits are looking for a piece of my time. Whatever Vincent’s hiding is on lockdown.”

“I think you spooked him with what you did know.”

Ronan grinned.

“Good. If he had anything to do with Jack’s death then he deserves to be spooked. If Faulk and Cisco allow you guys to work this case, you’re only gonna have a few days to catch the killer. Once the circus disbands after the charity performance, they’ll scatter again.”

“I hear you. I’m gonna huddle with the guys.”

Ronan snorted. “As soon as Jude gets off the trapeze.”

Ten turned to see Jude hanging from his knees with both arms out in front of him. Wolf sat on the trapeze across from Jude and was listening intently to what the acrobat was telling him. With a little nod, Wolf started pumping his legs. Before Ten realized what was going on, Wolf launched himself off the bar toward Jude, who caught him by the wrists.

“Wooo hoo! Wonder Wolf!”

The little boy laughed as he and Jude swung through the air. Seconds later, Jude let Wolf go and he bounced harmlessly into the net.

Cope approached Ten looking a little green. “Did you see what Wolf just did? I got it all on video! I’m sure he’ll love to watch himself on television later, but I swear that’s ten years off my life.”

Ten nodded. “I hope Everly doesn’t want to try it next.”

“She got other worries on her mind, namely you.”

Cope sounded as if he was all business.

Ten sighed. “Yeah, I walked in on her and Ronan talking about my nightmares this morning. She said that she stayed up as late as she could to help me if I had that dream again.”

“But you didn’t, right?”

Cope asked.

“Right,”

Ten agreed, but knew it was only a matter of time until it came back for him. “I don’t know what to do about it. Do you have any idea what the dream is trying to tell me?”

Cope sighed. “I don’t, but, looking at Celestina in that glittering gown, I wonder if she’s the one in your dream with the pink dress. If we find out she plans to wear a dress like that this week, then we may have a Bingo.”

Nodding, Tennyson headed toward Celestina, who seemed deep in conversation with a man dressed in brown Carhartt pants and a dirty tee shirt. As he got closer, she turned around and offered Ten a bright smile.

“Tennyson, this is my husband Hank Myers. He grew up in the circus with me and is working maintenance for the show.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Hank.”

Ten offered his hand. When the man shook it, Ten was jolted by a vision. A young woman, dressed in blue, in lay in a heap in the grass at Hank’s feet. He could hear Hank shouting at someone, but he sounded as if he were underwater. When Hank dropped his hands, the vision faded.

“I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll catch you later.”

He bussed a kiss to Celestina’s face and hurried away.

“You saw something, didn’t you?”

Not waiting for an answer, Celestina led Ten to the arena seats and settled him in to one. She sat beside him. “Are you okay?”

Ten managed to nod. “I always feel a bit off balance after I have a vision.”

Off balance was an understatement. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to throw up.

“Can I get you anything? Water or juice?”

Celestina laid a hand on his arm.

“Water would be great, thanks.”

As Celestina headed off toward a large cooler, Ten took a deep breath. He’d been too overwhelmed by the vision to have read anything from her touch.

“Here we go,”

Celestina said, handing him an ice cold bottle of water and a snack package of chocolate chip cookies. “I figured you could use a little energy boost.”

“Thank you.”

Ten tore into the cookies and gobbled them down with several sips of water. As he ate, his heart began to slow down and he was able to think clearly again. He turned to Celestina, who’d been watching him closely. “My daughter said you have gifts like ours.”

He figured this was the best way to get her talking before he revealed what was in his vision and how he thought it might be connected to his nightmare.

Celestina nibbled her bottom lip, as if she were trying to figure out how to respond. “I wouldn’t say I have an actual gift, she began. “I occasionally get glimpses of things that are about to happen, like the way Wonder Wolf is going to flop out of the trapeze net like a floundering fish.”

Sure enough, that exact thing happened. Jude caught his laughing son and swooped him into the air. Tennyson hadn’t seen what was about to happen to Wolf.

“According to your daughter, your gifts are much stronger than my little bit of intuition. Everly is lovely, by the way. She’s going to grow up to be a beautiful woman. Ronan’s going to lose his mind when young men show up wanting to take her out on car dates.”

Ten snorted. “Ronan’s threatened to not let Everly date until she’s in her forties. I’ve gotten him to begrudgingly relent to thirty-five.”

Celestina laughed. The sound was musical, sounding like windchimes in a summer breeze. “What did you see when you shook my husband’s hand?”

Ten was jolted back to reality by her question. “I saw a woman crumpled at Hank’s feet. Your husband was shouting at someone, but I couldn’t hear the words he was saying.”

“Was the woman wearing a blue dress?”

Celestina asked quietly.

Ten nodded. “The woman was you?”

He knew from the tone of her voice that this was a hard moment for Celestina to recall. “It was your father. He hit you.”

“Hank had just kissed me for the first time. I thought we’d managed to get away from my father for a few minutes, but I was wrong. He ripped me away from Hank. He called me a slut and slapped my face. I wore his handprint for two days. My mother had to put extra makeup on me so that no one would see the bruise. She’d spent years doing the same thing for herself after my father hit her, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he’d turn his rage on me one day.”

“What was he so angry about?”

Ten asked gently.

“Everything,”

Celestina offered a mirthless laugh. “He hated being passed over for ring master. Hated when other men so much as looked at my mother. He was angry when dinner was too cold or too hot. You name it.”

She shrugged carelessly.

“Are you still a part of his life?”

Ten asked.

Celestina nodded. “Vincent didn’t give me much of a choice. Someone has to be there to protect my mother from him. She’s frail and old before her time. My father did this to her. All of his years of abuse and mistrust have turned my mother into a shell of herself. I’d kill him myself if I thought I could get away with it.”

Ten could feel waves of hate coming off Celestina, like heat from a hot stove. He absolutely believed she would come for Vincent and honestly, didn’t blame her one bit. “I’m so sorry you and your mother were forced to live this way.”

“We weren’t given much of a choice. All I can do is be strong for her now.”

“Is she here in Boston?”

Celestina pointed across the arena where a woman dressed in a red sweater sat in a wheelchair. Blankets were piled onto her lap. Her eyes were cast downward, away from all the bustling action of the circus rehearsal. “There’s no way he’d let her out of his sight for the week we’re here in Massachusetts. She should be home resting. After all these years, she deserves a little peace. I wished he’d just drop dead. I swear if I saw that happen with my gift, I’d turn away and let him die.”

Ten had no doubt she was telling the truth. “Did either you or your mother bring a sparkly pink dress on this trip?”

Celestina’s eyes grew wide. “I did, why?”

“I keep having this recurring nightmare. I’m all alone and scared in the dark. Suddenly, I see a flash of a pink dress and I wake up screaming my daughter’s name. She wore a dress like that last year to Jace’s winter fundraiser. We all joked that she looked like Glinda on steroids.”

“That’s exactly how I’d describe this dress. It was my plan to just supervise this event. You know, make sure everything was running smoothly, but Mr. Lincoln asked me if I would give a little speech at the end of the performance to wrap it up and to ask people to make donations to the cause. I went shopping yesterday for something to wear at the end of the show and found a pink ball gown.”

Celestina turned toward Tennyson with fear in her eyes. “Do you think this premonition is about me? Am I going to die?”

Ten took Celestina’s hand. “I don’t know. I’m not seeing anything about you at all. Usually I can get some kind of overall impression of someone, but you’re like a black hole. I can’t see or feel anything at all.”

Celestina stood up, dropping Ten’s hand. She reached into her small handbag and pulled out a business card. “Call me if you see anything else.”

Ten added her number to his phone and sent off a quick test. “You do the same.”

With a small smile, Celestina walked away. Ten saw she was heading toward her mother.

It was obvious to Tennyson that his nightmare featured Celestina. Now that he’d met her in person, Ten hoped that the dream would give him more information about what was to come. Was Celestina who was frightening him? Or was she being harmed by someone who was now turning his sights on him?

All Ten could do now was wait for bed time. The kids would be out of the house at different sleepovers, so he didn’t have to worry about scaring them when he woke up screaming. Ronan would be there to protect him. He knew the dream would be back and that’s exactly what he wanted. It was time to face the fear the dream inspired in him and get to the bottom of what it meant.