Go for the Juggler

by Leanne Leeds

  As I stepped back, Kyle stepped forward.

  “What’s obvious to you is obvious to exactly no one else.”

  “I, um, agree with her. Actually.” Gunther said. “I don’t think Drake killed Tiffany, either. Frankly, he has so little respect for women I don’t think he has it in him to see her as a threat to anything he does.”

  “Do you even live in this town?” Kyle snapped at Gunther. “I know you’re her boyfriend and all, but you don’t know any of these people, do you? Why did I even bother getting civilians involved? I’m such an idiot.”

  “Hey, Kyle—” Aidan said as he reached for the angry detective.

  “Don’t touch me! This is your fault,” Kyle told him.

  Aidan dropped his hand.

  “You don’t have to know people to listen to them speak,” Gunther said. “You don’t have to have a history with people to understand them. For example, I don’t think the way you’re treating all of us has anything to do with us.”

  “Oh really, brainiac? Then what did it have to do with?”

  “Anthony Drake insulted you in there,” Gunther responded. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to be spoken to in that manner by such a man. Truly, I sympathize with you. Trying to serve with honor in a system designed to reward those who are corrupt… Well, it can be intolerable.”

  Kyle Roberts froze and stared at Gunther.

  “But Charlotte didn’t speak to you that way. Neither did I. Aidan would never pass judgment on you the way that man did. We all were here for you. Charlotte was attempting to help you,” Gunther said. “I think you know that. I do, however, suspect your frustration stems from the fact that even though you have more information, there is nothing you can do with it. In your town, these criminals are untouchable.”

  “Guys…” Aidan said again more insistently, but Gunther held his hand up to silence him.

  “You are right, I am a stranger here. More of a stranger than you could possibly know, Detective Roberts,” Gunther said with a smile. “The place, this place, is very confusing to me in many ways. What is not confusing, Detective, is that you are a good person. You mean well. You are trying to protect your people. And you are being thwarted in your sacred mission. I understand that produces anger. You are angry, however, at the wrong people.”

  Kyle Roberts looked down at the asphalt. Gunther’s words had touched him, and the tough detective moved from angry to uncomfortable. After a few moments, he raised his head and met Gunther’s eyes. “You circus people are pretty weird, you know that?”

  “We have been told that, yes,” Gunther returned the smile warmly.

  “The dogs!” I shouted as I stared at the other three. “The dogs! At the shelter!”

  “Does someone want to finish her sentence? Because I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Kyle said to Aidan and Gunther.

  “The dogs were unreasonably frightened when Anthony Drake and Michael Hayden came to see where Tiffany was killed,” Gunther explained to Kyle. “I think what Charlotte is saying is that if Anthony Drake did not kill Tiffany, it must’ve been Michael Hayden.”

  “I may have been kind of a jerk a minute ago, but I’m still not convinced Anthony Drake didn’t kill his daughter,” Kyle pointed out. “So, it’s clearly one of the two if we believe the dog fear theory.”

  It must be Michael Hayden, I thought to Gunther.

  I agree, but how do you plan on explaining that to Kyle?

  “Now that we have that all settled and before everyone breaks into a group hug, I need to let you all know that Michael Hayden is staring at us from the doorway of that restaurant. I may not have Charlotte’s… intuition, but the hair on the back of my neck is standing up,” Aidan said. “I suggest we leave and have this conversation somewhere else.”

  It wasn’t the brightest moment the four of us had, but all four of us simultaneously turned our heads to look back at the restaurant doorway. Michael Hayden was indeed staring at us without any subtle pretense. His lithe body leaned against the overhanging frame as patrons walked passed him without concern. His arms crossed, he merely watched the four of us as we watched him.

  “Could he hear us?”

  “He’d have to have superhuman hearing,” Kyle responded without turning back.

  “I want to go back and talk to Melissa,” I told Detective Roberts quietly. Maybe her story would contain information that would clarify it to Kyle that Michael Hayden was the killer. “She has to know about her brother’s relationship with Tiffany Drake. She never really got to finish her story about that. We were interrupted. By you, if you’ll recall.”

  Let’s hope something in her story will give the detective something to hang his hat on, I thought to Gunther.

  “Didn’t he tell us to leave his sister alone?” Gunther asked out loud.

  “Does Charlotte normally do what she’s told now?” Aidan asked, laughing. “That’s a change in her I wouldn’t have guessed.”

  Gunther looked sharply at Aidan and then broke into a smile. Laughing, he responded with a camaraderie I wasn’t entirely sure wouldn’t bite me in the butt at some later date. “No, Charlotte does not normally do what she’s told. I suppose that’s not a new thing, is it?”

  “No. No, sir, it most certainly is not.”

  “Okay, how about everybody stops comparing notes on me and let’s get a move on, huh?”

  “They didn’t even ask me for my opinion,” Kyle said as he walked toward the car. “I mean, I knew you before any of them.”

  “Nobody wants your opinion!” I called as we all climbed into our vehicles to head back to the AOK house.

  When I looked back to the doorway, Michael Hayden was gone.

  The Texas sky was a bright burnt orange. After living here for many years, I knew that color meant the sun had dipped below the horizon. I felt vaguely uncomfortable at being locked out of the Magical Midway for the first time since I became ringmaster.

  My old human life was something so familiar and something I had slipped into so smoothly that I didn’t think spending one night out of the grounds would be that big of a deal. Now that the choice to get back in time was taken from me I realized it was, and I didn’t like it.

  It’ll be okay, Gunther said in my mind.

  I didn’t think I was going to feel this… adrift, I guess, I told him. When we get back, I really want to find a way to change this. I don’t like this.

  Of course, Charlotte, he told me. His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. Even though I couldn’t see his mouth, I could tell from the crinkle in his eyes he was smiling at me.

  My feelings for Gunther had deepened. I couldn’t imagine my life without him now.

  “Here we are again,” Aidan said as we pulled up. After my friend turned off the car, he quietly gazed at the houses around the circle. “Seems awfully quiet for a cul-de-sac filled with sororities. Charlotte, can you sense anything?”

  I scanned each house and let my psychic fingers poke around as if I was waving a hand through water. I periodically bumped into a girl here and a girl there, but nothing stood out as suspicious. Young women studying, chatting, watching television, talking about boys. It may be a particularly conservative sorority Friday night, but nothing seems strange or out of place.

  At least it didn’t until I scanned the A-OK house.

  “Melissa’s in there by herself, and she’s terrified,” I gasped.

  Car doors flew open as we jumped out of Aidan’s car. Kyle was walking casually toward us as we began a mad dash over the ramp. We vaulted over the zigzag handrails as if we were training for the Olympics. Kyle raced after us not understanding what prompted our mad dash toward the A-OK door.

  “What are you doing?” Kyle yelled at Gunther as Gunther waved his hand in front of him to slam the door open. “You can’t go in there, I don’t have a warrant! What the heck are you people doing? Stop!”

  The three of us ignored him and raced through the door.

  Anthony Drake stood in the center
of the living area.

  His gun was pointed at Melissa’s head.

  “You people need to get out,” the gangster growled. “This is between her and me. My daughter’s dead because of this stupid girl.”

  “Mr. Drake, please,” I said as I slowly stepped around the room, so we were facing each other. I was the only person in the room immune to the bullets in that gun, and all I could think of was how to get myself in front of that barrel so no one else would get hurt.

  “Charlotte, are you insane? Get away from him!” Kyle shouted from the door. I glanced quickly and saw he had pulled his own service revolver. “You’re going to get yourself shot! Let me handle it!”

  Aidan and Gunther knew I was bulletproof.

  Kyle had no idea.

  “Mr. Drake, Melissa is in a wheelchair,” I told him. “She could not possibly have murdered your daughter.”

  “Hey!” Melissa said sharply, her voice shaking. “I can do anything anyone else can do!”

  “I don’t think this is the time, Melissa,” I told her.

  “Right,” she said as she glanced up at Anthony Drake. “Okay, I could have. But I didn’t. I didn’t kill anyone. But I absolutely could have if I wanted to. Just so we’re clear.”

  “I didn’t say she killed her,” he snapped at me without taking his eyes or his gun barrel from the frightened girl. “I said it was her fault.”

  The sound of young women exclaiming shock drifted in from the front porch.

  Gunther, go stop them! I’ve got this!

  Gunther nodded and ran out of the front door.

  “Aidan, Charlotte, you both need to go!” Kyle commanded.

  “I know you’re not gonna believe me, but I can handle this,” I told him. “You and Aidan need to go. Please, Kyle, just trust me.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” Kyle shouted as Aidan turned to his boyfriend. Rapidly wiggling his fingers, he pressed against the center of Kyle’s forehead. With a whispered word no one in the room heard, Kyle’s face turned placid, and his gun lowered.

  “We’ll be outside,” Aidan said calmly. Just before he left the front hallway, he looked back at Melissa with concern. “Be careful, Charlotte.”

  “Yes, be careful, Charlotte,” Anthony Drake spat at me. “I have enough bullets for both of you.”

  “Step back away from my sister, Tony,” a voice rasped from behind me.

  I knew who it was without turning around, obviously, but if he hadn’t spoken, I never would’ve known that Michael Hayden was there. I could sense nothing from either man. They were cold, calculating sheets of glass. Robotic. No emotion, no thoughts, nothing I could read and nothing I could see.

  It was why Aidan couldn’t see that Michael Hayden had killed Tiffany. It was why I couldn’t sense what he’d done. Maybe it was why Aidan couldn’t read it in his timeline.

  It was how I knew now that the chances of us all getting out of this room without someone getting shot were low.

  The two men were predators. When they were ready to kill, they were dead inside.

  For the first time since I had become ringmaster, I was terrified. It was as if my intuition depended upon the humanity of whoever I tried to sense, and these two men at that moment in time had no humanity. There was nothing for me to read. They felt nothing, they thought nothing, and so I sensed nothing. That they were human beings and yet so empty… it was horrible.

  Michael Hayden had killed Tiffany. Anthony Drake would kill his sister in retaliation. And I was standing in the center of the dangerous confrontation unsure of how to protect the girl in the wheelchair.

  “Your sister is the reason my daughter is dead,” Anthony told him coldly.

  “You are the reason your daughter is dead,” Hayden responded just as coldly. “If you weren’t such a jerk, Tony, I never would have been able to pull this off.”

  “It was you from the beginning?” Mr. Drake growled. “I should have known. I should have known when you screwed up Tiffany’s lawyer that something wasn’t right. You ungrateful—"

  “Micah, I don’t understand,” Melissa whispered through choked tears.

  “Mellie, don’t be afraid,” Michael said as emotion suddenly flared from him as if someone had turned on a psychic lightbulb. “I told you I would never let anything happen to you. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

  “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep,” the gangster sneered at his right-hand man. “Congratulations. You got me. You killed my daughter. Time to make it even, eh, Micah? A stupid girl for a stupid girl. That’s fair, right?”

  “How did you know I killed Tiffany?” Michael asked.

  “When those four idiots came to the restaurant,” Drake said as he waved his gun in my direction. “I have the parking lot bugged. They pointed out that when we came to see where my darling Tiffany met her end, the dogs were scared. They weren’t scared of me.”

  “To be fair, you did yell at them and kicked one of their cages, so I think they were also scared of you,” I told him as I stepped closer to Melissa.

  “You really don’t know when to shut your mouth, do you?” the gangster responded.

  “How does killing his sister solve anything?” I asked the man as I inched closer to the frightened girl. “Melissa didn’t have anything to do with your daughter dying. Michael did it. I mean, if you’re going to kill anybody, wouldn’t you just kill him?”

  “He can’t kill me,” Hayden said with a laugh. “He’s so lazy that he has me move all of his money. He doesn’t even know where half of it is.”

  “Don’t get cocky, kid,” Drake barked back. “Half of my money is still a huge pile.”

  Melissa’s gasps echoed in the silent room as the two men stared at one another.

  My hand rested lightly on Melissa’s wheelchair. As I was contemplating throwing my body across her to protect her, I had an idea.

  Can I freeze two guilty people simultaneously? I asked Gunther.

  What do you mean?

  Michael Hayden is guilty because he killed Tiffany Drake. Anthony Drake is guilty because he’s holding a gun on Melissa Hayden. I mean, they’re both guilty of something, right? So can I just freeze them both?

  Even if you could, how are you going to explain that to Melissa? And to both of them?

  Can’t I worry about that after it works and nobody gets shot?

  I don’t think so, Charlotte. There will be no reasonable explanation for what’s taking place for any of them.

  What about wiping their minds like we were going to do with Aidan?

  Then all of this just happens again.

  Superpowers should be much more useful in a situation like this.

  “You can’t kill me, Tony,” Michael Hayden said quietly. “The reverse, however, is certainly not true.”

  My head rang as a gun went off.

  14

  The police showed up in force, but I had to wonder why. What was the purpose?

  By the time Anthony Drake’s body was removed from the A-OK house, Michael Hayden had made it clear to the corrupt captain he was expecting things to run as they had before. The captain nodded as I watched him pocket a wad of bills. He didn’t even try to hide it.

  “I don’t get it, I mean, what was it all for?” I asked Aidan as we leaned against his car. “Hayden gets away with killing Tiffany Drake and her father, the town is still under the thumb of a psychopath, the police department is still completely corrupt. Did we actually accomplish anything here at all?”

  “Well, when you put it like that, it does kinda feel a little futile,” Aidan said.

  Michael Hayden walked across the street toward our group, and I tensed.

  “I wanted to thank you for your assistance,” he said as he walked up and held out his hand to shake mine. “I realize you put your life on the line to protect my sister, and that gesture did not go unnoticed by me. I wasn’t anticipating the confrontation between myself and Mr. Drake quite so soon, but your actions accelerated my plan. The conclu
sion is satisfactory, and I wish to thank you for that.”

  “What happened to you?” I asked him. “Your sister really loves you, Mr. Hayden. She sees you as someone selfless, someone that sacrificed to protect her. But you’re a cold-blooded murderer, and now you’re the head of a criminal enterprise. You can’t be both.”

  “Can’t I? Yes, I imagine it’s confusing for you,” he smiled coldly. “It really was simply a matter of overcoming the biggest obstacle in my way.”

  “What obstacle was that?”

  “My conscience,” he said. Michael Hayden kept his hand extended for a few moments more and then dropped it. “Your parents and your animal shelter have nothing to fear from me. I wanted you to know that.”

  “I feel like I should thank you, but…”

  “I understand. Again, I thank you for your attempt to protect Melissa. Good luck to you, Ms. Astley. I doubt we’ll meet again.”

  The new head of our small-town Texas mob walked away from me with his head held high. The police glanced at him, but they never stared for too long. There was a new sheriff in town.

  And it wasn’t the sheriff.

  “It’s never futile fighting evil,” Gunther said as he watched the human police with fascination. “Clearly both of our worlds have a way to go, but if no one fights, the evil wins. We have to fight. Perhaps we have to fight hardest when it seems most futile.”

  “If I haven’t told you, Charlotte, I really like your boyfriend,” Aidan said as he leaned in and bumped my shoulder with his own. “Definitely better than a pseudo-fake gay boyfriend.”

  “I like yours, too,” I told him, bumping back.

  “Well, I don’t think mine is going to be mine for very long,” Aidan observed with some regret as he watched the handsome Kyle Roberts talking with his captain. We could hear none of what was being said, but the look on Kyle’s face said it all. “I’m a little sorry I’m going to be leaving. Frankly, I feel much closer to him after this experience. That wall that was between us? It doesn’t feel like it’s there anymore.”