by Paul Ruditis
Without another word from Puck, all the TV screens changed to a test pattern, with the National Anthem playing softly in the background.
“‘Stop clowning around’?” Phoebe said indignantly. “Who is he kidding?”
“I hate to say it, but he’s got a point,” Paige said. “A demon doesn’t need permission to visit the animals. The Bestiari probably manages to come and go as it pleases.”
“True,” Piper said. “But if the demon has been traveling with the circus in his human form, he would still be using human means to do some things. Either way, his image would be on a recording from the nights the animals died. If we find those tapes, we’ll find our demon.”
Chapter 16
Since it was less suspicious to be seen walking out of the media trailer than orbing out of it, the Charmed Ones chose the mortal way to make their exit. Piper was the first one out, and she made sure the area was clear before her sisters exited. There was no need to bring any unwanted attention to themselves—aside from the fact that they didn’t want to get kicked out of the circus, they also didn’t want to alert the demon that they were onto him. Phoebe made sure that the trailer door locked behind them so no one would know they had been inside.
Once they were back out on the grounds, they paused to take stock of their surroundings yet again. Rows and rows of trailers were laid out all around them. And maybe somewhere in those trailers were two tapes that could potentially lead them to their demon. All they had to do was find them.
“How are we supposed to find two tapes in all these trailers?” Paige wondered.
“And who’s to say they haven’t been destroyed already?” Phoebe added bleakly.
“Wait a minute,” Piper said. “We don’t have to find those specific tapes. Reed had indicated that there was a copy of the recordings in the media trailer.”
“Which would mean that the veterinarian probably still has the originals,” Phoebe surmised.
“Unless, of course, the veterinarian is the demon,” Piper noted.
“One scenario at a time,” Phoebe said. “First thing’s first. We need to check the vet’s trailer for the tapes.”
“I think I saw his trailer back by the tents,” Paige said.
“Good,” Phoebe said. “Because I think I see the vet coming this way.”
Phoebe nodded toward the end of the long row of trailers. Reed was coming their way, accompanied by a man wearing a white lab coat. Although the circus apparently employed a small team of veterinarians, Phoebe suspected that this was the man they were looking for. As Reed had described earlier, the veterinarian looked ancient. He also seemed surprisingly spry for someone that old.
“Okay. New plan,” Piper said. “Phoebe, you intercept Reed and Kahn. While you interview the vet, Paige and I will sneak into his trailer and see what we can find.”
“I don’t know,” Paige said. “I think we should stay together. The Book of Shadows said we’d need the Power of Three to stop this demon.”
“We can’t stop the demon until we know what it looks like,” Piper reasoned. “And it will be faster to find that out if we split up.”
“If you think that’s the way to go…,” Paige said, not convinced.
Piper and Paige hurried off toward the back row of trailers before Reed could see them. The last thing Phoebe needed was to cause Reed concern, and if he thought that the story was so large that the paper had sent in an entire team of investigators, he would certainly panic.
Phoebe tried to look casual and indifferent as Reed and the veterinarian approached, as if she had just been hanging around waiting for the press release he had promised her after the show. She suspected that she wasn’t quite pulling it off, since Reed looked like he was bracing himself for another round of questions as he and the doctor walked up to her. For a moment she thought he was going to blow her off, pretending as if he hadn’t seen her.
That was when Phoebe realized the full power of the press. Even though she and Reed seemed to have been getting along fairly well, she obviously made him nervous about what she could uncover. Phoebe thought his skittishness was a little suspicious. Beyond trying to cover up the circus’s secret animal problem, maybe he had another secret that was worth hiding.
“Ms. Halliwell, I thought you’d be inside enjoying our show,” Reed said. He didn’t sound too disappointed to see her. Maybe she had been reading too much into his concerned expression.
“Please. It’s Phoebe,” she said, directing a smile at both men. “I was hoping to get some more information on Tasha. Maybe some more colorful background, to make her real for the readers. If we get this story out, somebody might recognize what’s happening to her and offer some assistance.”
“I’d take help from anyone,” the veterinarian said. “At this point, the only thing I haven’t tried is looking up Dr. Dolittle.”
Reed quickly made the introductions, explaining that Phoebe was a reporter for the Bay Mirror.
“You wouldn’t have time for some questions, would you, Doctor?” Phoebe asked.
“Love to, love to, and please call me Jordan,” Dr. Kahn replied. “Just as long as Reed here approves. I don’t talk to anyone without his permission.”
“Jordan, I’ve told you a hundred times, you can give interviews whenever you want,” Reed said, with fake exasperation in his voice. “All you have to do is let me know you’re doing it. I think it would be great for you to speak with Phoebe.”
“Isn’t it nice how encouraging he is?” Jordan asked.
“He’s a sweetheart,” Phoebe said.
“Have I mentioned that Dr. Kahn is a bit of a matchmaker?” Reed asked as he moved toward his trailer. “Why don’t you do the interview in here? Then the doctor and I can get straight to work on the press release afterward.”
“Perfect. How is Tasha doing?” Phoebe asked as the three of them went inside. Considering that she had visited the elephant earlier, she was fairly certain she already knew the answer to that question.
Jordan took a seat on the couch, patting the cushion beside him for Phoebe to sit down. The small couch seemed rather tight for the two of them to sit together, but Phoebe went along with it. She figured she’d get more out of him if they developed a comfortable rapport.
Once Phoebe was seated, the veterinarian answered her question. As he spoke, his jovial attitude evaporated. “She’s not well, Phoebe. Not well at all. She could leave us at any moment.”
Phoebe wondered if he knew just how accurate his words really were. From the way Tasha looked, she could tell that all it was going to take was one more visit from the Bestiari. Phoebe and her sisters needed to find a way to keep that from happening. Luckily, she knew that Lane was with the elephant now, so the Bestiari wouldn’t go near Tasha. But time was running out.
She took her stolen notepad out of her purse and once again adopted the persona of a seasoned reporter. Phoebe knew she had to finesse her way into finding out about the demon and the missing tapes. She couldn’t just ask the vet point-blank.
After several arbitrary questions about the nature of the animals’ illnesses, Phoebe started to feel bad for the doctor. He obviously loved the animals and was taking the illnesses, and the fact that he hadn’t been able to help Zeus, Sabra, or Tasha, hard.
The problem was that so far, Phoebe felt empathetic toward everyone she had spoken to about Tasha and the other animals. If this continued, she was going to have a hard time maintaining her journalistic objectivity. Even worse, if everyone continued to come off as completely devastated over the loss of the animals, it was going to make it nearly impossible to determine who among them was the killer.
“I just don’t know what I could have done differently,” Jordan lamented.
Phoebe wished she could explain to him that he had done nothing wrong; that the cure was entirely out of his hands. But of course Phoebe couldn’t explain that the illness was more super than natural without revealing her identity as a Charmed One. Besides, if she did tell them, they’d probably t
hink she was a nut and Reed would probably have her escorted off the property. He might even call the Mirror.
Reed had taken a seat at his desk and was busying himself with some work, but it was clear that he was listening to everything they said and was ready to jump in, if necessary. Phoebe didn’t get the feeling that he was trying to stifle the story so much as protect his friend in case the questioning started to get too intense.
Phoebe finally got down to the real questions.
“How long have you been with the circus?” she asked. Though the doctor’s words had been moving, she and her sisters had fallen for manufactured acts of grief before. Considering his unlimited access to the animals, Dr. Kahn should technically be at the top of their suspect list.
“Oh, about a hundred years now,” he replied.
Phoebe caught Reed’s eye, and the two shared a smile. Apparently, the vet was more than willing to joke about his longevity.
“And you’ve never seen anything like this before?” Phoebe asked.
“Well, now, I never said that, did I?” the doctor replied.
Phoebe forgot her notepad for the moment. No one—not Lane, not Elise—had mentioned any unexplained illnesses striking the circus animals before.
“So this has happened before?” Phoebe asked. Even Reed looked surprised.
“Once,” Jordan said. “It must have been…well…several years ago. Before Reed over there started with us, I think. I could be wrong about that—it’s tough for me to keep the years straight anymore.”
Phoebe smiled sympathetically at the doctor, but her mind was still focused on his revelation. Reed didn’t offer any indication as to whether he knew what year the doctor was talking about. He just sat quietly and listened along with Phoebe.
“Anyway,” Jordan continued, “the circus usually takes the winter months off from performing. That’s a throwback to when we used to do everything back in a real big top, in the great outdoors. Nowadays, we can keep the animals—and ourselves—in warm, climate-controlled buildings and pens so we don’t need to worry that much about the weather beyond how it affects our ability to get us from one place to the other.”
“I see,” Phoebe said, not really sure where this was going.
“So, it was our last show, and we were in Denver,” Jordan said. “Which is poor planning, if you ask me. Who books a gig in the mountains so late in the year? But that was…oh… about half a dozen booking agents ago.”
Phoebe liked the elderly man’s detailed conversational style, but she was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get to the point.
“So, there’s this massive snowstorm,” he continued. “It totally closed down the city, and the circus was trapped. Roads were closed. Everything was shut down. And this was in Denver! A city that knows how to deal with snow, not someplace that gets a snowstorm once every few years. So you know it had to be big. We couldn’t get out for days, and while we were waiting for the routes to clear, Tongo took ill.”
“Tongo was the circus’s lead elephant before Tasha,” Reed explained. “He was retired the year before I started here.”
“Retired?” Phoebe asked. “So Tongo survived?”
“Yes,” Jordan replied. “He got really sick, too. He looked much like Tasha does today. We were afraid to move him, but once we got the go-ahead from the weather service, we were on the road. Tongo was completely cured by the time we stopped for a rest in Salt Lake City.”
Phoebe knew if the newspaper’s staff had looked back far enough, they would have found an animal death in Salt Lake that would have coincided with the circus’s arrival. She took Tongo’s story as confirmation of what she and Piper already suspected. The Bestiari Demon must have been forced to feed off a circus animal while stuck in Denver. But the first opportunity he had to find an animal outside of the circus, he took it. Obviously it was safer not to feed where he lived.
Of course, that confirmation did nothing to help locate the demon today. It did, however, tell her that the demon had been around even longer than she had suspected. Considering the number of animals it had lived off of, she suspected that it was possibly one of the strongest demons the Charmed Ones had ever encountered.
No wonder Puck didn’t want to deal with the demon on his own, she thought.
“Reed mentioned that Tasha is under full quarantine?” Phoebe asked.
“We had to do it,” Jordan said. “I don’t think humans are susceptible to this illness. I’m more worried for Tasha’s sake. We don’t need a bunch of well-intentioned folk coming by to see her in her final hours. We need to give the girl some rest.”
“So who is allowed in the tent?” Phoebe asked.
“Her trainer and I,” Jordan said, shifting in his seat. “That’s it. We don’t even let the head of the circus in. Reed here was the last unauthorized person to see her before we sealed up her area.”
Phoebe thought she had caught something unsaid in the way the vet shifted his body. Maybe she was developing journalistic instincts. “If you’ll pardon me for saying, you don’t seem very sure about that. Are you positive no one else could get inside to see Tasha?”
“No, that’s all,” Reed said. “The circus is very clear about this policy.”
But Phoebe could tell that while the circus may have been clear, Jordan was not.
“Dr. Kahn,” Phoebe said, gently. “Jordan. Someone else has been visiting the animals, right?”
The doctor seemed to mull over the question. Phoebe could tell that he didn’t want to lie to her.
“I promise whatever you tell me about this visitor will not be included in the article,” Phoebe said. Considering that there wasn’t going to be any article, it was an easy promise to make. “I can’t imagine that it’s important to the story, but now you’ve piqued my curiosity.”
“If you say it won’t go any further than this trailer, I guess there’s no harm in telling you,” Jordan said. “It’s just, he loves the animals so much. I couldn’t bear to keep him away from them in their final hours.”
“So you let someone visit the animals with you?” Phoebe guessed.
“No, never with me,” Jordan said. “The circus managers are really strict about these things, so I can’t just go walking in with whoever strikes my fancy. But I usually give the guard permission to let the animals have a visitor when no one is around—you know, at night….”
“So there’s a good chance this person was with Zeus and Sabra when they died?” Phoebe asked.
Jordan nodded his head. “But he didn’t do anything to them. Tommy couldn’t have been responsible for this illness.”
“Tommy?” Phoebe asked, latching on to the name that Jordan had dropped.
“Tommy Brace,” Jordan said. “He’s been with the circus for years. I know he’s going to be torn up when I tell him that he can’t go in to see Tasha. But the guys in the front office are really tightening the reigns, what with it looking like a mini-epidemic is sweeping the circus. I don’t want to risk us both getting in trouble.”
“I don’t think I’ve met Tommy yet,” Phoebe said, hoping to wrangle an introduction.
“You wouldn’t know him by that name,” Reed said as he opened up a circus program and handed it to her. “But you may recognize him.”
Phoebe looked at the photo and was shocked to realize that she had met Tommy Brace. She had met him a few times, in fact.
At the very end of the last row of trailers, Piper and Paige were conducting their own investigation. Paige had orbed them into Dr. Kahn’s trailer. It had been easy to get around since the entire circus staff was busy with the performance.
“This isn’t good,” Paige said as they took in the sight of the trailer around them. “The place has been ransacked.”
Unlike Reed’s trailer, this one was entirely devoted to living space. The overall design made sense to Piper. After all, the vet didn’t need an office. It wasn’t like he was going to be seeing his patients in his trailer.
“I don’t think
so,” Piper said as she looked at the mess.
Clothes and books and all sorts of junk were strewn about the place haphazardly. But it didn’t seem to have been done with any set goal in mind. The furniture wasn’t turned over. The few drawers and cabinets in the place were all closed. They hadn’t been flung open and left hanging about as if someone had done a hurried search of the quarters.
The stack of dirty dishes in the sink and the overflowing trash can cinched it for Piper. No one had torn through the place searching for the tapes. The veterinarian was simply a slob.
“I don’t think we have to worry,” Piper said. “Just consider the place ‘lived in.’”
Though the state of the trailer would help cover up their own search, it also hindered their ability to actually find anything. It took close to five minutes for them to even locate the thirteen-inch TV set the doctor kept in his residence. It was under an overturned box that he had obviously used as his breakfast table. From there they had to follow the cable leading to the tape player that had been shoved under the couch on the other side of the room.
There was still a tape lodged inside the machine. Piper just hoped that it wasn’t anything from the veterinarian’s personal collection. Luckily, when she hit play she was greeted with an image of what looked to be a very sick tiger lying in a cage.
“He must have been watching this while going over Tasha’s case,” Paige said.
“Lucky for us, because I don’t know how we would have found the tape in here otherwise,” Piper said as she watched the tape, keeping a sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary.
“Everything looks fairly routine, so far,” Paige said as they scanned through the images that zipped across the screen in fast-forward motion. It was dark inside the tiger’s tent, and Zeus was lying in his cage. He wasn’t moving, and it was hard to tell if he was asleep or already dead.
Piper watched with her hand on the remote control. That had been a lucky find, as well—it had been sitting on top of the machine, under the couch. “This has got to be the—”