I poked the tip of the knife into Calliope’s left breast, not deep, but threatening enough to make her squeal.

  “He tried to do the same thing with Penelope. But she gave her kid up and came back to the damn circus.”

  Calliope’s blue eyes popped open wider, comically so, and I couldn’t hold in a loud laugh. Screw being quiet, when the costume trailer was so well insulated.

  “You’re not special, Calliope.” My voice had grown quiet, but she heard me. She’d given up arguing. That, at least, made me happy. “Plenty have come and gone from Reggie’s dick before you. My mom, for one. More recently, Penelope.”

  “Ty…”

  I shrugged. “It’s what he would’ve done to you too. Knock you up. Make you have a baby you don’t want. My mom didn’t deserve that.”

  I took a deep breath and slid the knife down Calliope’s exposed skin—very lightly.

  “Her name was Deidra. Deidra Belloise. Reggie drove her off and took everything that mattered to me in the process. Sure, he’s let me live out my life here, letting the circus family raise me, but that’s about the barest of bare minimums, wouldn’t you say?”

  I turned away from her. I’d managed to do what I needed. I’d turned her into one of Reggie’s playthings in my own mind.

  She was just a poor man’s Deidra and nothing more. I should’ve seen that fact sooner.

  When I reached the knives, I set down the one I’d selected earlier. I edged one of my favorite blades out of its loop and brushed the point along my finger. The balance was perfect, and the blade was sharp. Some blood came up, but I didn’t feel any pain.

  Calliope’s panting breaths squeaked from between her lips. Her makeup had long since been cried off. She stared at me with tears leaking down her cheeks as I turned back to her.

  Really, the girl has no dignity.

  Her breath started coming faster again, but I could only shake my head as I played with my knife, dancing the weapon along my arm once more. “Babe, Reggie must’ve been screwing Penelope at the same time he was screwing you. You should’ve fucking smelled her on him.”

  Calliope shut her eyes, tensing against the wheel and pulling at her cuffs once more.

  Ah, there’s the struggle I was looking for. Good girl, Calliope. Fight me and watch me win anyway.

  Moving closer, I poked my knife against her breast again, just hard enough to draw her attention. “Penelope’s death was a dagger to his heart…one of my daggers…because he was fucking her behind closed doors. Dennis abandoned his family the same way Reggie abandoned me. Two fucking clowns.”

  “Why…” Calliope choked out. “Why Kyle?”

  “Why? You have a thing for him too?”

  Calliope shook her head, her eyes going desperate and wide again in a way that made me giggle like my little sister. “N-no. He was gay, anyway, Ty. We all knew that!”

  “That’s right, and Reggie showed Kyle more fatherly affection in six months than he did to me over twenty-one years. Fuck Kyle.”

  Calliope inhaled a deep breath. “And Betty? Betty loved you. She loved all of us.”

  That one still stung.

  “She was another one of Reggie’s lovers. Betty was special to him. He knocked her up even though she was a married woman.”

  “Bunny?” Calliope’s voice came out in a whisper. “Bunny’s…his?”

  A pound of adrenaline shot through my heart when she said it out loud. Hearing anyone say that. Knowing it for myself was one thing. Understanding the world would now know was another.

  Everyone loved Bunny just like everyone loved Reggie. Not me.

  That’s fine, though. I’m ruining him and his legacy, and that’s worth a hell of a lot more.

  “That’s why he’s so interested in her upbringing, don’t ya know? She’s his dear little daughter, and yeah, he loves her for it. I could go on naming names, but I think I’ve hit the highlights on Reggie’s roster for you. How special do you feel now?”

  Calliope trembled like a freaking rabbit. “I’m sorry, Ty. I’m sorry Reggie wasn’t good to you. I’m sorry I…did what I did with him. But please don’t kill me. Please.”

  Her begging was getting old faster than Reggie himself.

  Moving back to the wall, I turned and took my stance.

  She saw it. She knew.

  Good.

  “No! Ty, no!”

  This was going to be the nail in the circus’s coffin and the final stab, right in the center of Reggie’s heart.

  Aiming, I raised the tip of the knife just slightly—I didn’t have the room I had in the ring and had to adjust—and breathed in deep, ready to exhale on the throw.

  Then I heard the doorknob turn. A second later, the squeak of it opening echoed in my ears like a cannon.

  No! Reggie and I are the only ones who have the key. But Reggie might’ve given one to—

  Bunny’s scream contained more anger and confusion than any eleven-year-old should possess.

  “No!”

  35

  The second Emma opened the door, Bunny ran forward, slinking out from behind Leo and dodging around Emma with lightning speed, taking full advantage of her size and acrobatic skills. She drew aside the thick curtain blocking their entrance and shrieked before hollering “No!” at the top of her lungs. Emma surged forward to yank the girl back. Bunny clawed at the curtain, and it tore away in her hands, opening up Emma’s view and path more fully.

  Leo was there in a flash to sweep Bunny away.

  Emma drew her Glock and stepped into the trailer even as Ty lunged toward Calliope.

  He landed with his body partially blocked by the wheel and touched a knife to the terrified woman’s neck.

  As Emma witnessed the scene inside the costume trailer in slow motion, she realized exactly what they’d interrupted.

  Ty poked the knife harder against Calliope’s skin. His trembling hand drew the barest trickle of blood. “Go away. Go away now. All of you!”

  “We can’t do that, Ty.” Emma kept her weapon up.

  Calliope struggled against the bonds holding her to the wheel, but Emma focused on Ty.

  She blocked out the desperate screams of the eleven-year-old being held back by her partner outside.

  Emma chanced a small step closer. The lantern light cast long shadows, making it tricky to determine what was moving and what was still. “Ty, put the knife down. You don’t want to do this. Not with Bunny right outside. You’re not that cruel.”

  “You don’t know anything about me.” Ty’s hand shook where he’d braced his arm around the wheel, pressing against Calliope’s bicep. Tight enough to cut off circulation. Calliope’s fingertips were blue, and her fingers were slowly changing color too.

  His voice remained hard, but his eyes kept glancing over Emma’s shoulder, toward the doorway. Toward the sound of Bunny yelling his name.

  Keep yelling, Bunny. Let him know you’re there.

  Emma breathed deeply, almost like she was taking her last breath. She held her grip steady.

  A blast of cold air swept through the trailer. Sweat froze against the skin of her back. The air chilled her lungs. Her fingers went numb against the hard polymer of her Glock.

  Glittering gold caught her attention. Penelope, pale as the death that was her reality, stood in the corner of the trailer. “He’s mad because everyone chooses someone else.”

  The ghost’s words trickled into Emma’s mind, sounding far away. Finally, she speaks.

  “I know you don’t want to hurt Bunny. I know you didn’t mean for her to see this.” Emma took another step closer. Seven feet between them now. She paused. She could make this shot, but she didn’t want to. “And I know the one you really want to hurt isn’t even Calliope.”

  Ty’s lips parted in an angry sneer, and he spat on the ground, but the knife remained steady. “Calliope’s getting what she asked for. She’s the one who—”

  “Chose someone else?”

  “Everyone chooses someone else over me!” The knife thrower screamed, almost crying. His blade’s tip nicked Calliope’s neck again. “Everyone!”

  Penelope’s thready voice, like a distant whisper, leaked out of her destroyed face. “Not everyone. Not Jamie. Not Betty. Not Bunny. Even his mother brought him here so his life would be better.”

  Emma took a gamble and repeated Penelope’s words. “That’s not true, Ty. Jamie hasn’t chosen anyone over you. Betty didn’t. Bunny is still outside, waiting for you. Even your mother tried to give you a better life.”

  He shook his head, but the knife’s point fluttered a centimeter backward so that the blade no longer pressed into Calliope’s skin.

  The makeup artist didn’t look as if she noticed the change, but Emma did. Progress by distraction.

  “Reggie, my fucking father, chose everyone over me,” Ty all but growled at her, his face going red. “And you don’t know the first thing about my mother.”

  “I know everything.” Emma steadied her gun, seeing the panic in the young man’s face. She hoped Leo was far enough outside to not overhear. “Penelope told me.”

  Ty jerked as if electricity had shot through him. “Penelope’s dead, you bitch.”

  “I need hand powder.” Penelope stood right beside Emma, but Emma kept her eyes on the target. Penelope grew more insistent. “I need hand powder! I need hand powder! I need hand powder!”

  “I know she’s dead.” Emma smiled tightly and readied herself to move. “But she’s still right here. Right…there.” Emma nodded at the dead acrobat who lingered in the corner of the trailer, poised and pretty for someone with half her skull crushed in and all bloody.

  Emma didn’t intend to disappoint the ghost.

  “You’re a liar.”

  “I swear I’m not.” In a quick decision, trusting the shrieking ghost, she said, “I need hand powder.”

  He jerked, the knife dropping another centimeter as he looked into the corner shadows of the trailer. His eyes and mouth were wide with fear, focused on the shadows instead of Emma.

  “How do you know that?”

  Emma took a step closer. “I need hand powder.” She felt ridiculous, but the effect on Ty was nothing short of stunning.

  He was trembling from head to toe, spinning and searching.

  Emma imitated Penelope’s intensity. “I need hand powder! I need hand powder! I need hand powder!” She charged, holstering her weapon in the same movement.

  Transfixed by her haunting words, Ty didn’t resist when she grabbed his knife-wielding hand and forced his arm above the wheel.

  He pivoted and landed hard against the trailer wall with Emma against him. She twisted his arm upward, leveraging the pressure points in his forearm, forcing him to release his weapon.

  The knife clattered to the trailer floor as Ty panted, not quite able to catch his breath.

  “How did…how did you know her last words?”

  “Emma!” Leo launched into the trailer.

  A loud convergence of people scrambled beyond the open door. Bunny still screamed Ty’s name. Emma thought she heard Denae out there, trying to calm the girl down. And Jacinda barking orders to police officers.

  All of that was blocked out as Ty shrieked his rage into the small space.

  She had his arm locked and guided him to the ground.

  “Ty Belloise, you’re under arrest for the murders of Penelope Dowe, Dennis Hamel, Kyle Perkins, and Betty Weaver, as well as the imprisonment and attempted murder of Calliope Langley.”

  Ty tried to rear backward against her grip, but Emma had the leverage, and she held him still. “Keep struggling and you’re going to break your arm. It’s time for you to stop hurting people, Ty. And for you and your father to answer for what you’ve done.”

  Behind her, she sensed Leo’s approach. She looked up. He handed her his cuffs and moved to the wheel, releasing Calliope’s bonds.

  The other woman’s skin was raw where the leather had held her, but she seemed mostly unharmed. Tearing her sweater in the effort to get away from the wheel, the young artist all but collapsed against Leo, sobbing.

  Emma locked the handcuffs around Ty’s wrists with a satisfying click.

  She looked over at the glittering young ghost, Ty Belloise’s first known victim. Silently, Emma thought the words she felt Penelope must be waiting to hear. “We’ve got him.”

  The ghost seemed to stare beyond Emma, but there was a wavering of movement, almost a nod, and then Penelope was gone.

  36

  Mia held her hand on Calliope’s knee, keeping contact between them. The girl was hunched in the back of an ambulance, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Stars warred with the ambulance’s flashers to light the night, but Mia had long since become accustomed to the eerie lighting of the fairgrounds.

  Paramedics had already bandaged the nicks on Calliope’s shoulder and neck, as well as applied salve and bandaging to her wrists, which were raw from trying to break free from her leather restraints. Her ankles had barely been abraded by the cuffs, protected by her jeans.

  The makeup artist had also received coffee to warm her up, but she hadn’t calmed enough to drink it before the liquid went cold. Mia guessed they were nearing five in the morning now, but the circus was just as busy with activity as when the team had arrived.

  “It’s going to be okay.” The words were mostly empty repetitions at this point, but Calliope nodded anyway. She wasn’t shaking from the cold. Mia offered a small smile. “You’ll see. Once the sun comes up, and once you’ve gotten some sleep, you’ll feel better. You’re going to be okay.”

  Calliope’s lips quivered. Her tears had dried, but the whites of her eyes were bloodshot. “That’s sweet of you to say, but I don’t think so. I’ve made some mistakes, and one of them was definitely getting involved with Reggie, but at least I knew who Reggie was when I got mixed up with him. Ty? I had no idea…”

  “I get it. Believe me, I do.” An image of Chris Parker came to Mia’s mind. His blue eyes, once so warm, had turned icy in his last moments. He’d always seemed so focused on himself until he’d turned that intense focus on Mia, becoming so loving and concerned with how she was doing. But Chris betrayed all of them—his team, his love, himself.

  Mia closed her eyes and inhaled. When she opened them again, she willed herself to see only the young woman in front of her.

  She patted Calliope on her uninjured shoulder, using extra pressure so the poor girl felt her presence through the blanket. “But you’re not responsible for what he did—”

  “But how could I not know? How could I have spent so much time with Ty, dating him, and not understood how angry and full of hate he was?” The girl hunched tighter into herself and gripped Mia’s hand.

  You and me both, Calliope.

  “Sometimes, we only see what we want to see.”

  Numbness settled in Mia’s heart. The coldness of the night’s events leaked into her. Beside Calliope, searching for some way to comfort her, Mia only wished she could take her own words to heart. “We focus on the good because we want to believe that’s who the person truly is.”

  Calliope looked at her, still trembling. “I don’t know.”

  Mia wrapped her arm tighter around the young woman. “No matter what, you continue to focus on the good. On the good you see in people and the good you represent. Okay? Because that’s who you are. I know it. And that’s what matters.”

  A paramedic had been standing nearby, waiting for an opportune moment. When Mia nodded to him, he approached with a tentative smile. “You ready to go over to the hospital, Calliope? Think we should get you checked out, just in case.”

  Calliope let the man gently disengage her grip from Mia. He helped her settle back onto the ambulance cot. Blank-eyed and trembling as she was, she appeared every part the victim. But her shock had given way to grief over the relationship she’d thought she’d had with Ty. That was something, and it spoke to the girl’s strength.

  Mia believed what she’d told Calliope, that the young makeup artist would get over this and be just fine. With time.

  And now maybe it’s time I took my own advice, huh?

  She turned toward the agents’ staging tent, just beyond the circus gates. The man she sought was already moving to meet her halfway.

  Vance appeared as tired and wired as she felt—as they all felt, she supposed—but he had a smile on his face. “She gonna be okay?”

  “Yeah, I think she is.” Mia straightened, focusing on the moment. “I’m guessing we’ve got an update on things now, too, long as I spent with her?”

  Vance nodded, turning to walk side by side with her toward the staging tent. “Detective Griff’s decided to put up the rest of the performers and carnies, including the newly released O’Rourke, at the same hotel until we get this all sorted out.”

  “They let him out? What about the leotard and panties?”

  “Griff didn’t say, but he was satisfied O’Rourke wasn’t a pedophile. They must’ve gotten something out of him.”

  “So he’ll be off-site, pending further investigation? Hope they have someone watching him. Or at least let every young woman know not to wander the hotel hallways without an escort.”

  “Griff said he’ll have officers posted for privacy and safety. Now we just have to process Belloise’s trailer for any evidence.”

  “That’s not the only place they’re looking, is it?”

  “No, but they’re starting there. Jacinda thinks the whole fairgrounds should be considered a crime scene. Forensics will start to comb through in the next couple hours.”

  “Probably for the best. The Ruby Red is a mess. It’s going to take a while to straighten everything out.”

  “You said it.”

  Vance took a breath as if to say something else, but Mia held up a hand to stop him. The only moment she had was now. She shouldn’t be focusing on Chris or past mistakes. Now was all that mattered.

  “Say, Vance, I want to ask before we get back to the others…” She licked her dry lips. “What d’you say, maybe…after all the chaos here is wrapped up…I mean, well, what would you think of us going out?”