Was that even possible?
The onslaught of images that had assaulted her back at the crime scene seemed to have been triggered by the photo of Rita Fairweather and her kids. The Ferris wheel in the background. The house of mirrors. And although she knew, instinctively, that the little girl plaguing that dark corner of her mind was not Kimmie-not even close-there was something synchronistic about those images. About this case.
Something about it all that just… fit.
She wasn’t sure how-wouldn’t even try to guess why-but she knew that she was meant to be here. Meant to be part of this.
Thoughts of sideshow psychics once again rose from the back of her brain. Maybe she was psychic after all.
Or just plain nuts.
When she returned to Pope’s room, the so-called hotel doctor was finishing up his exam. He was an old guy, with rheumy eyes, who smelled faintly of Preparation H and carried the distinct air of a man who, at one time in his career, would have been perfectly comfortable performing backroom abortions.
“Vital signs are all stable,” he said, rising from the side of the bed. “He’ll be fine in an hour or two. Best thing now is to let him sleep.”
Stuffing a stethoscope into his black bag, the doctor nodded to Anna and Pope, then headed back to the casino or wherever it was he’d come from. When the door closed behind him, Anna turned and told Pope about the phone call with Worthington, immediately broaching the subject of babysitting.
Pope balked. Big-time.
“Do I look like I’m equipped to take care of a kid?” He gestured to their surroundings.
“Worthington said you wouldn’t mind.”
“Nice of him to consult me first. But that’s Jake for you. Always trying to keep me engaged. He hasn’t quite accepted the fact that I’m a lost cause.”
“A lost cause with a flair for the dramatic,” Anna said.
Pope frowned. “That’s why I do a show six nights a week. You want tickets?”
“What I want is for you to keep an eye on Evan.”
Pope shook his head. “I promised Jake two hours. No more, no less.”
“Then you still have some time left. It’s only until social services gets here. I wouldn’t leave him, but-”
“Then don’t.”
“Look,” Anna said, studying him intently. “I don’t know if you’re enjoying this woe-is-me act, or you just can’t help yourself, but I saw the way you interacted with Evan, and I know you know exactly what he’s going through right now.”
Pope faltered a bit. Seemed thrown by her assessment of him. “So what’s your point?”
“Just do the right thing, okay? Watch him until someone comes to pick him up, so I can go help Worthington snag the son of a bitch who did this to him.”
Pope stared at her a moment, then shifted his gaze to the sleeping figure on the bed. Evan looked smaller and more fragile than ever.
Then Pope went away for a while, and Anna knew he was lost in a memory. Something bittersweet. Painful.
When clarity returned, he looked at her again. He’d made his decision.
“All right,” he said. “Go.”
“Thank you.”
Pope shook his head and stared out his window at those ever-present prison lights.
“Just do us all a favor and catch the motherfucker.”
1 2
They used the tried-and-true dog-walker ploy.
They waited in two unmarked vans, parked about a block and a half from the strike zone, Anna cramped in back with Royer, who still had the remnants of an angry scowl on his face.
Despite their close proximity, he had managed to avoid saying a word to her since she’d returned from the Oasis. It occurred to her that they wouldn’t even be here if she hadn’t spotted Evan in the first place, but doubted that this meant much to Royer. Their partnership, such as it was, was over.
Anna shifted uncomfortably. The air in this godforsaken town had not gotten any cooler and she figured the temperature inside the van was a good two degrees hotter than it was outside. Sweat tricked down her back and along her armpits, and judging by the smell, she wasn’t the only one feeling the heat.
Even the Oasis would be better than this.
Although he was ignoring her, Royer had made it clear to Worthington that he thought this operation was a mistake. Back at the Fairweather house, he’d urged the deputy to wait for him to call in a bureau strike team, a suggestion that hadn’t set well with anyone present.
“What exactly are you trying to tell us?” Worthington had asked, to which Royer had no reply. Next to these rugged, sun-baked deputies, he looked like a prissy prep school kid, and as they all silently piled into the vans, it was Royer who was the appendage, the excess baggage. And though she tried to resist, the thought of this had made Anna smile.
The carny encampment was little more than a collection of tents, trailers, old motor homes, and beat-up cars, parked haphazardly on a dusty vacant lot next to the high school campus. Several big-rig trucks emblazoned with the words O’FARRELL AMUSEMENTS were lined up against the curb across the street.
Just beyond the encampment stood the dark silhouettes of the trucks’ contents-the arcade stands and rickety metal rides that dominated the school’s football field.
Under the fading moonlight it looked to Anna like an extension of the junkyard behind the Fairweather home. There was, she thought, a sad, almost pathetic poetry to it all. Traveling carnivals were quickly becoming a thing of the past, and this one looked as if it had overshot retirement by several hard-worn years.
The dog walker, a lean female deputy dressed in civilian clothes and sporting an iPod, was walking her German shepherd along the encampment’s side of the street. A typical local out for a pre-dawn stroll.
She paused a moment to let the dog sniff at the base of a lamp post, then raised a hand to her left ear to adjust an earbud.
The van’s radio crackled. “Looks like I’ve struck gold here, Jake.”
Worthington, who sat up front with Chavez, raised his mic. “What’ve you got?”
“Black Ford Mustang with a flame on the side. Parked between two motor homes.”
“That’s our guy,” Worthington said. “You see any movement inside the trailers?”
“Not a thing. What do you want me to do?”
“Get back to the van. We’re going in.”
They went in fast and hard, in two teams of four, each of the deputies moving with a speed and agility that put the lie to Royer’s unspoken assumption that they weren’t skilled enough to handle such an operation.
Each team took one of the motor homes parked near the Mustang, two covering the windows as the other two made swift entry through flimsy aluminum doors, weapons and flashlights raised.
Chavez accompanied Worthington into the second motor home as Anna and Royer circled it outside. Screams and shouts filled the air, and seconds later lights began coming to life all over the yard. Doors and canvas flaps flew open as alarmed carnies poked their heads out of their motor homes and tents to find out what the hell was going on.
The two motor homes in question were quickly flushed out, a couple of dazed and confused occupants emerging from each, only half-dressed and blinking. A male and female from one, two females from the other, all looking disoriented.
And not a Tommy Lee wannabe among them.
Or bearded lady, for that matter. Just four frightened people, wondering what they’d done wrong.
Royer and two deputies pointed weapons at them, Royer shouting, “Get down! Down on your knees, hands locked behind your head.”
The four did as they were told, one of the women starting to cry. Anna heard a banging sound from inside the motor home near her, then Worthington emerged, and he didn’t look happy.
“Shit,” he said, spitting the word out as if it had assaulted his tongue. He shone his light into the Mustang, then moved to the two women he and Chavez had just chased outside.