“You’ll make new friends, dear. Don’t worry.”

  At least one of the new faces was familiar, though.

  Special Agent Mia Logan’s transfer from Richmond to D.C. couldn’t have come at a better time. With Mia around, plus the two remaining members of her original team, Denae Monroe and Vance Jessup, Emma could count on more familiar faces than new ones.

  “New team members, new case, new everything. So I have to get ready.”

  Emma waited, thinking Mrs. Kellerly might take the hint, but it didn’t happen. Hands clasped together in front of her like a schoolmarm, Mrs. Kellerly stood there observing the kitchen drama as if she might just be content to do so all day. Emma suspected ghosts just didn’t have much to do.

  She decided to be more pointed. “That means I have to get dressed.”

  The woman shook her head. “Everybody in this city is always rushing around. It’s a real shame. You need to slow down and smell the flowers sometimes. Take your time and have a real cup of coffee, with me even, instead of rushing out the door.”

  The hope in the ghost’s voice made Emma’s heart squeeze.

  When Mrs. Kellerly first appeared in her kitchen, Emma had poured them both a cup of coffee—after she’d calmed down from the fright. The old woman couldn’t enjoy the beverage, of course, but had seemed pleased with the gesture.

  Over time, Emma had found the courage and refined some skills to make the visits end quicker without making the old soul feel rejected. Yes, ghosts had feelings, too, she’d learned.

  “That’s Washington, D.C. for you, always a rush. But…” Emma gestured down to the running gear she still wore from her morning outing. Two miles in the cold January air had woken her up, but she could’ve used the added warmth of coffee. “Maybe you wouldn’t mind going back across the hall to your own apartment, so I can have some privacy to get showered?”

  The gray-haired woman huffed, her lips forming into a comical pout. She clutched the oversize sweater hanging on her bony frame and shook her head. “You know I get so incredibly bored over there. But I suppose I understand.”

  Instead of allowing guilt to change her mind, Emma gave her a small wave that some might call affectionate. The white-eyed Mrs. Kellerly mimicked the gesture before disappearing through the front door.

  I’m sorry, Mrs. Kellerly.

  Emma paused a moment to make sure the old woman had gone, then headed off to shower. Breakfast and coffee could wait, or else she’d risk the old woman wandering back over for another visit.

  Emma didn’t get a single moment of peace anymore.

  Not. One. Moment.

  Granted, she hadn’t had much peace to begin with—not since joining the FBI’s Violent Crimes Unit two years ago—but now? Now everything had changed. Her work life, her private life, and even her perception of the world had altered.

  Because of the ghosts.

  At first, Emma couldn’t even comprehend that they were ghosts. They appeared humanlike—opaque, 3D figures like their formerly living selves. It was their eyes that gave them away—all whites with no pupils.

  For some, the other giveaways were their wounds, like Miguel’s shooting injury. Fortunately for Emma, her elderly neighbor had no “war wounds.” It was hard not to react to the ghosts that appeared out of nowhere with their throats slit or their guts hanging out.

  Emma knew the signs by now, though, which helped her to remain calm, including controlling her facial expressions. A shift in air pressure and a chilling sensation. A decade back, the first time that feeling had come over her, she’d mistaken it for some kind of random windchill phenomenon.

  Ten years later, she was only just beginning to understand her esoteric ability sometimes referred to as a “gift.”

  The fact that Mrs. Kellerly wandered in to chat over morning coffee every day, even though she’d died of heart failure three months before, had certainly been giving Emma a crash course in how it felt to have ghosts spring up on you from the abyss, or “the Other,” in her words. And although she’d somehow grown used to the woman’s visits, she was far from being used to these changes in her life.

  Even her showers had gotten faster, partly for fear of a ghost popping up on her out of nowhere.

  Which meant she needed to hurry. She bore down harder on her toothbrush and spit out the remaining paste with some water. Thank god Mrs. Kellerly always stopped short of following her into the bathroom, or she’d probably instruct her on how to brush her teeth. She’d always been quick to offer unsolicited, vaguely parental advice when she was alive too. Why should Emma expect the woman to be any different as a dead person?

  Deep inside, though, Emma appreciated the routine of the visits. The consistency. The knowing. Especially now that so much was changing in her life.

  Her biggest adjustment was losing Keaton. He’d transferred to Richmond’s BAU to be near his little sister, Hailey. Her career with the Richmond PD had just started. More than anything, losing him from the office hurt.

  “Wonder what it would be like to have a big brother willing to make a move like that for me?” Emma scoffed at herself in the bathroom mirror as she tucked her button-down white blouse into her pants. She would’ve been lucky to have had family who wanted to be close to her that badly for any reason. Dead or alive. But then she let out a humorless bark of laughter that cut through the apartment. It wasn’t like she was all alone and hurting for company.

  No, Emma was arguably inching toward becoming the most popular living human on the planet. Always surrounded by people these days…or what was left of them, at least.

  She finished tying the laces on her work boots just as her phone buzzed.

  SSA Jacinda Hollingsworth’s name popped up on her screen. She clicked the message to read the whole of it. The new SSA wanted the full team to meet up at some seldomly used fairgrounds out on the edge of D.C.

  ASAP.

  New week, new team members, new case.

  Emma shook off her nerves. Strangely, today reminded her of the first day of school. An unknown teacher would be steering her and her new classmates.

  But a case was good. A newly formed team built for action and investigation couldn’t exactly mesh while sitting around an office, after all.

  After pulling on a scarf and zipping up her work coat, Emma picked up the keys to her white Prius. She grabbed her iPad and shoved it into her shoulder bag as she headed out the door.

  SSA Hollingsworth had included the address of the fairgrounds and promised to brief them at the scene, which was fine with Emma.

  Maybe getting on scene early with her new SSA would allow her to gain Hollingsworth’s approval sooner rather than later. Emma hadn’t been able to get a read on the woman or her dry sense of humor very well. She hoped working an actual case might help in that department. A new case would also be a welcome distraction from the ghostly changes accosting Emma’s life on the regular.

  And with any luck, working a first case together would help Emma get to know Leo Ambrose, the agent who’d tagged along with Hollingsworth from Miami. She could read him fine. After just one week in the D.C. field office together, Emma knew Leo was one of the nicest people she’d ever met. Not to mention charismatic. Charming too.

  Leo couldn’t have been more different from her old friend and partner, but for some reason, she thought of him as Keaton’s Replacement.

  Emma sighed as she flopped into the driver’s seat. “Really, aside from the two of them both needing a haircut, they’re polar opposites.” Where Keaton was somewhat shy and regularly anxious, Leo was outgoing and seemed to always have his shit together. At least, Emma hadn’t seen him lose his cool yet. Where Keaton had been humble, Leo was, well, not arrogant, but he wasn’t ashamed to share his accomplishments, that was for sure.

  “I just hope I can depend on Leo like I depended on Keaton.”

  Turning out of her quiet subdivision and onto the main road, Emma pushed herself to reframe her thoughts. There was no use being pessimistic about the new team situation. Being an adult meant dealing with change. So she would. This was just a transitional period.

  Did she miss her best friend? Yes, absolutely. Was she more than a little disoriented by the dead people popping up every time she turned her head these last six months? Well, yeah. Who the hell wouldn’t be? Were the two issues technically nonrelated? Yes, but still…the universe was piling on.

  “Bring it on.” Emma shifted into drive and cruised to the fairgrounds. She’d never met a challenge she’d backed down from, and she wasn’t about to start now.

  3

  When Special Agent Leo Ambrose arrived at the fairgrounds, he regretted not wearing a heavier coat. He had the truck’s heater going full blast but was still freezing his ass off.

  He lifted a hand to a police officer at the perimeter. The man looked like a Popsicle, even in his winter uniform. He directed Leo to a section dominated by the traveling circus and its caravan of vehicles. Leo idled his way forward, staying at a crawl as he followed the gravel path into the fairgrounds.

  I’m not in Miami anymore.

  A giant red circus tent towered over everything. Tattered pennant flags hung half-heartedly at the pinnacle. There wasn’t enough wind to lift the material, thank goodness.

  The circus vehicles stood out—banged up and, in some cases, all but rusted through. They were parked on one side of the lot and made space for an easy entrance.

  News vans took up the other side of the gravel lot, but crime-scene tape and some uniformed police officers kept them at bay for the moment. The area was empty of pedestrian traffic, a clear enough sign that the place was currently closed for business.

  Protesters gathered beyond the news crews for some reason. Leo couldn’t read the signs from where he was, but he’d check them out later.

  He parked his black Dodge Ram 1500—arguably his only pride and joy at this point in life—alongside Jacinda Hollingsworth’s dark-green Hyundai Sonata. Climbing out of his truck, he spotted a garish red sign, sparkling with its welcome to the Ruby Red Spectacle Circus. Stretching out around the central tent were stands, smaller tents, a smattering of rides, and even a few buildings that looked solid enough to keep in the heat. Temporary structures to house kiddie rides and games and fun houses, Leo assumed.

  Farther out from all that, Leo could just glimpse some trailers and campers on the outskirts of the circus grounds.

  He walked around to the passenger side of his truck and gathered two bags—both filled with an assortment of bagels and cream cheeses—and stuffed them into his shoulder bag. Then he grabbed the two cardboard carriers filled with still-hot coffees.

  This little café with good coffee, easy parking, and a cute barista was stationed right smack between his house and the Bureau’s field office, which meant he’d be seeing a lot of the place.

  Balancing one carrier against his hip and remaining mindful of the shoulder bag with precious cargo, he back-kicked the passenger door closed. As he headed into the circus world at a fast walk, keeping the drinks balanced took quite a bit of his concentration.

  Jacinda’s text had said to get his butt to the fairgrounds ASAP. But it was his first case with his new team, so he’d taken time to buy some goodwill with hot beverages and toasty carbohydrates.

  He looked forward to showing his new team what he was made of.

  No one could get to know a person like him—or any FBI agent worth their salt—while sitting around a bullpen. The bagels and coffee would be a nice opening gesture. Regardless of the gifts, he was well aware the other agents would be watching him.

  Judging.

  Would be nice if I could explain to them I’ve got the judgment thing covered. No way any of them will be harder on me than I am on myself.

  Still, he remained determined to go a bit easier on himself in this new job. Just last night, his grandmother had reminded him it wasn’t his job to save the world. He’d had an easy answer for her, of course. “Yaya, you used to ground me and my brothers for making our beds wrong. Who do you think I got my overdeveloped sense of responsibility from?”

  She’d laughed at that. Self-chastisement was built into Leo’s genetic code, as inescapable and as real as his Iowa roots.

  Along with two of the other agents, the SSA waited under a much smaller white tent just inside the circus’s main entrance, and Leo noticed two small heaters going full blast beside her as he approached. Setting the carriers and bags of bagels on a nearby table gave him an excuse to position himself near the heat sources. Washington, D.C. in January was nothing like Miami, that was for sure.

  “Coffee and bagels.” He grinned, motioning over Special Agents Denae Monroe and Vance Jessup. Jacinda would help herself whether he invited her to or not. He needed to make a good impression on these two.

  “Is it strong?” Denae Monroe raised an eyebrow. Her curly dark-brown hair bounced in the wind as she reached for a cup of the brew.

  Vance dug in a bag and grabbed an everything bagel.

  “I hope so. Not as strong as you make it, of course.” The one time Leo had sampled Denae’s coffee-making skills at the Bureau offices, he’d needed a spoon. Thick as tar. Hopefully, this would toe a middle ground.

  Denae bobbed her head, offering a pursed-lip acknowledgment as Leo grinned and grabbed a cup for himself, adding sweetener.

  He was gratified to see the other agent smile after she took a sip. His main assessment of the woman so far—aside from her inability to brew coffee fit for human consumption—was that she was one of the more laid-back agents he’d had the pleasure of meeting. He wondered if that would change now that they had a case.

  The only other man on their team, Vance Jessup, had been polite enough, and he seemed like he’d be a good guy to work with. Beyond the tent, Agents Emma Last and Mia Logan were approaching together, both of them moving at a fast pace. They completed the team.

  Although they hadn’t really begun working together, Leo liked his new team. He got a good feeling from them and thought they were solid. And, though it was too soon to say, maybe even better than the team he’d been on in Miami.

  It meant a lot to him that he got welcoming vibes from every single one of them.

  Well, all but one.

  When Agent Emma Last looked at him with those sky-blue eyes of hers, it seemed like she was struggling not to frown. Clearly, she was trying to be welcoming…but failing miserably. It made him wonder where her head was and what she’d been through.

  He hadn’t felt right about asking Jacinda, especially with her not only being new to this team but also the new SSA. Hell, even if Jacinda knew what was going on inside Emma’s head, it probably wasn’t her place to tell him. Any relevant stories of her past would just have to come to him with time.

  The question revolving in his mind was, how much time? That was his one concern about this team. How much time would it take them to feel like a full team, all of them depending on each other fully? Having each other’s backs? How long would it take him to convince Emma in particular he was there to help? That he lived and breathed to assist his fellow agents?

  He had too many loved ones lying in graves to feel any differently, and whether he was driven by survivor’s guilt didn’t really matter. It was what it was.

  Being an FBI agent wasn’t just a job for Leo but a lifestyle and a very purposeful, all-consuming choice. He wouldn’t be there otherwise, and the sooner his whole team accepted that fact, the better.

  But given that Emma seemed the one most doubtful of him, as well as something of a team leader beneath the purview of the SSA, he suspected that this team meshing would depend on him gaining her approval in particular.

  Emma reached for a coffee with a quick “Thank you” on her lips and averted her eyes before Leo responded with, “You’re welcome.”

  He passed her a napkin and told himself to take it as a good sign she was mowing down an onion bagel slathered in cream cheese. There were more where that came from. One way or another, he’d win her over.

  Far as he was concerned, failure had stopped being an option twenty years ago.

  4

  Emma shifted from foot to foot, trying to stamp some warmth into her toes. She stood beside Mia, embarrassed at being one of the last ones to arrive. So much for making a solid first impression with her new SSA.

  Once the group was gathered, Hollingsworth got things moving. She cleared her throat, waiting until she had everyone’s attention. Her long red hair was groomed in perfect waves, as if she’d just stepped out of a salon, and it was only eight thirty in the morning.

  And her freckles made her unique. Emma figured that could only work in the team’s favor. There was something to be said for the ability of a pretty woman to make criminals give up more than they intended.

  Wiping the cream cheese from her lips with a napkin, Emma took a step closer to Hollingsworth.

  “Welcome to the Ruby Red Spectacle Circus, everyone. Anyone visit over the weekend?” The agents each shook their heads, unsurprisingly. “Well, this is a traveling C-list circus that’s been on the outskirts of D.C. for about the last month. Further travel plans are currently on hold because, as of yesterday, three of their performers have turned up dead over the past two weeks. I’m sending you the victims’ files as we speak.”

  She tapped the face of her iPad.

  Emma’s device dinged, echoed by four others. A photo of a dazzling woman in golden sparkles flashed on the screen. The woman’s eyes were a brilliant, clear green. She hung upside down, her legs hooked on a trapeze bar. Her long brown ponytail dangled below her head like a waterfall. Another photo immediately followed, showing her right side up. Her smile revealed a thin dimple. Everything about the woman was bright and shiny.

  “The first death, that of twenty-six-year-old Penelope Dowe, was originally thought to be an accident.”

  “I heard about that one on the news.” Mia used two fingers to expand Penelope’s picture. “She fell to her death in the middle of a show when her safety lines broke.”