Thrills And A Kill (An East Pender Cozy Mystery Book 12)

by Leona Fox

  Chapter 3

  As soon as it was over Andy whipped out his badge and made his way to the floor, with Ellen quickly behind him. The rest of the crowd were talking among themselves, confused and afraid, wondering what they were supposed to do. The kids didn't understand. Ellen overheard their parents trying to explain to them that the beautiful lady had been hurt and they had to stay in their seats now.

  Quicker still were the circus folk who came rushing to Aurora's aid. Some of them were hoping against hope that by a miracle she had survived. If anyone deserved a miracle, it was her, her life so full of promise, but as they carefully turned her limp body over they saw that she had not survived. The light had gone from her eyes. Blood trickled out of her mouth and stained the floor. They all formed a circle around her as Mr. Mysterio cradled her in his arms, his face ashen with sadness and dread.

  As the crowd jostled, Andy pushed his way through, flashing his badge and declaring his presence. He and Ellen looked on with horror at Aurora's body. The sparkling leotard was torn and stained scarlet. It had lost whatever sparkle it once had. As much as she seemed an ethereal spirit while she had been twisting and twirling in midair, now she was just a girl, a girl who had lost her life before she even had had a chance to live it properly. Ellen was filled with a deep sorrow that such a place of magic and wonder should be the setting of this grisly scene.

  “I'm a cop, let me through,” Andy said. The circus folk glared at him and Ellen though, scowling at them.

  “We can take care of our own. We handle these matters internally,” one of them said.

  The clowns huddled together, crying, while Ivan stood solemnly with his huge arms folded over his barrel-chest. Andy was about to argue police procedure when one of the helpers came up to them, holding the frayed end of the rope. In an uncertain voice he said it didn't look right. The father of the Fantastic Four took it from him and looked at it, then handed it to his wife.

  “It's been cut,” he said in a hollow voice. Ellen and Andy glanced at each other, for this only meant one thing – somebody had wanted this to happen.

  “We're talking about murder now and this is not something you can handle internally,” Andy said firmly, pushing his way past the people blocking him.

  Still, the rest of the circus folk did not agree and they made no move to help him. Ellen wondered if she should speak but she was more concerned with the ramifications of this crime. Murder was a serious thing, especially within a community such as this, but before she could say anything Mr. Mysterio spoke in a soft voice.

  “Get out,” he said, and then, when nobody responded, he lifted his head, revealing the rivers of red in his eyes. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he yelled again, a deep, guttural command that shook the very foundations of the circus. Andy still was undeterred but Ellen pulled him away.

  “We need to find out what happened,” he said.

  “I know, but think about it. They're basically like an extended family and we're talking about murder. Do you know what that's going to do to them? This whole place is built on mutual trust and they're all in this together, but now somebody killed Aurora and the killer mostly likely is standing around here.”

  As she said this both of them looked with suspicion upon the circus members. They found it was difficult to tell anything from their body language since people dealt with grief in different ways. Considering they knew so little about them anyway, it was impossible to have a baseline for the behavior. For example, was Mr. Mysterio always prone to emotional outbursts like that or could it have been an expression of guilt? They would have to ask around and find out all this information. It certainly was not the time now because the wounds were still too raw. If they asked too many sensitive questions the already-insular community would close its doors to them completely.

  Andy didn't look happy about it but he took Ellen's advice and stepped away to call in a team to investigate the crime scene. In the meantime, Kelly and Matthew rushed down to Ellen and the three of them helped usher out the rest of the guests, each one of them staring into the middle of the ring where Mr. Mysterio wept over the fallen angel.

  As soon as they all were out of the tent the accusations started flying around among the circus folk. Emotions were running high as they yelled at each other in English and Russian, confronting each other with harsh truths. There were claims of love and jealously, of envy of her position within the circus. Nearly everyone had something to say. All except Mr. Mysterio, who remained on the floor, cradling the body of Aurora.

  The clowns tried to help him up but he didn't seem to have the strength to do anything but sob over Aurora. Ellen wondered if it was just the sadness at losing a performer or if there was something more. Now that there had been a crime Ellen's mind had switched from a circus fan to a detective and she looked at everything with the cool eyes of suspicion.

  Andy tried to go over to the performers to calm everyone down. The last thing they needed was for a fight to break out. While they waited for the other officers to arrive Ellen went over to Ivan, who was standing by himself at the side of the ring.

  “Ivan, I know this must be difficult for you but can you please help us? We need to try keeping things under control,” she said.

  It took a few moments for him even to look at her as his mind seemed to be elsewhere. When he did it was only his eyes that moved, every other part of his body remained as still as a statue.

  “This is not a matter for outsiders. We will handle this ourselves.”

  “It's not as simple as that. If it's true the rope was cut, then this is a murder and we're going to have to get involved. And we'd like to keep everything under control here. I know it's not easy and emotions are high right now but we don't want there to be anything else happening tonight.” As she said this a fight broke out between a couple of the band members and Ivan leaped into action, pulling them apart.

  “No!” he said, “I will not have you fighting now. Aurora would not have wanted that. We are a family. We have to remember that now,” he said, and then gave Ellen a slight nod.

  She knew she could trust him to keep the peace, and hopefully at least he would be willing to answer some of their questions later. She walked over to the rope and picked it up herself. It was heavy and larger than it seemed when she had been watching from the stands, but then again that was natural since it had to support Aurora's weight. It rested in the palm of her hand and her fingers barely met when she curled them around the thick twine. Indeed, the end did appear to have been cut deliberately. The pattern most definitely was not natural, and the tension placed on it through the act eventually tore it apart.

  As she looked at it Ellen wondered what must have gone through Aurora's mind as she felt the rope breaking. She must have spent countless hours with this rope, and it was as much a part of her as her arms or legs. She was such an expert that surely she would have known how it felt when it started to break apart. Had it been a gradual process? Ellen wondered. If so, did that mean Aurora had carried on with the show even though she knew the rope likely was going to fall and cost the angel her life? Sadly, Ellen never would know the answer to that question, and she let the rope fall to the floor again.

  “This is a far cry from your elephant and the piano,” Andy said, folding his arms.

  “I know. What do you think so far?”

  “God knows. These people are wild. Everyone seems to be accusing everyone else but I can't tell if they're serious or if they're just blowing off steam. Like you said, it's a family. I know better than anyone how you can say things you don't mean. We need to talk to them, really, but I understand it's a delicate situation.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I think we'll wait for the team to get here. We'll get things under control, give them a bit of time to calm down, then we'll talk to a few people and see if we can find out anything. The thing I'm worried about is none of them are going to talk. If they really do see this as an internal matter then they might want
to take care of the murderer themselves, and who knows what form their justice will take?”

  “I'm sure they'll see sense eventually. I'm betting a lot of them liked Aurora and they'll want to see her killer brought to justice. It's just a shame this had to happen in a place that's meant to be fun.”

  There was a moment of silence, then Andy began to walk off as he saw his team arrive.

  “I saw her face, you know,” Ellen said, making Andy stop, “as she fell. I swear she looked right at me and she had the strangest look on her face, almost like she knew it was going to happen. She looked at peace, though. Almost like she knew it was meant to be.”

  Andy stepped beside Ellen and hugged her, then kissed her on the cheek. Her arms wrapped around his as they shared a moment of intimacy before breaking off and getting down to business. He updated his officers on the news and told them to cordon off the crime scene. Ellen noticed that more than a few of the performers did not look kindly upon the officers’ arrival. She nodded to Iris when she saw the deputy, and Iris returned the gesture.

  “Do you need me to stick around?” Kelly asked. She looked pale.

  “Not if you don't want to. I'm not sure how much we're actually going to get done tonight anyway. I can't imagine many of them actually will want to talk to us,” Ellen said.

  “You know I love helping you with these things, but seeing that with my own eyes it's just...it's a little too much. I mean, she was so young and she was so helpless just falling like that...”

  “It's okay,” Ellen said, reaching out and squeezing Kelly's arm. “You go off and try to get some sleep. I'll catch up with you tomorrow,” she said.

  As Kelly and Matthew walked off she heard Kelly say that she kept seeing Aurora fall whenever she closed her eyes. Ellen pressed her lips together and tilted her head to look up at the big top. It seemed even bigger from that vantage point. She imagined how the world must have looked to Aurora as she fell, the ground coming up so suddenly. Did she even have time to think? Ellen shuddered when she thought about it and tried to stay focused on the matter at hand.

  “...keep the perimeter secure but try not to interfere with anything. These people have their own rules and they're all on edge right now. So let's not aggravate them,” Ellen heard Andy saying as she rejoined him.

  “I think everyone has been taken out of the big top but if you see anyone from East Pender try getting them to go home. There's nothing for them to see here and we don't want this to turn into a, well, a circus,” he said, smiling wryly at the unintended turn of phrase. The officers were dismissed and went about their tasks as Andy placed his hands on his hips and looked at Ellen.

  “You've asked me for my thoughts, what about yours?”

  “It's hard to say right now given what little information we have. I looked at the rope myself, though, and it definitely was cut. Could be that somebody didn't like her, or they were jealous that she was the star.”

  “What do you think about Mr. Mysterio?”

  “It seemed pretty intense earlier when they fought, but he looks genuine now. I can't imagine that anyone would be faking that. I spoke to Ivan and I think he at least is going to co-operate with us, and hopefully others will follow his lead.”

  “Well, let's get to it then,” Andy said, walking purposefully through the circus.

  Chapter 4

  Even though it was late and everyone was tired the questioning still had to begin. Most of the performers still were gathered in the ring, mourning the loss, but others had left for their trailers. There were so many of them that Andy had to delegate some of the questioning. He called over Iris and told her to question a few of them, meanwhile he and Ellen went among the rest.

  They left Mr. Mysterio for the moment as he still was sitting on the floor with the body, and decided to let him mourn. Ellen had intended to question Ivan first but he had left the big top. They decided to focus on the people who were left. They began with the Fantastic Four. The mother and father were in their late twenties while their children were under ten.

  “Can you tell us a little about your relationship with Aurora?” they began.

  The acrobats looked at them skeptically and shook their heads. Andy and Ellen prepared themselves for this reaction as they felt like it was going to be common among the people they were going to question.

  “Look, we're going to investigate this murder whether you people like it or not and if you don't help then I'll have you for obstructing an investigation. The best thing you can do for Aurora is to answer our questions. Otherwise, you're going to be under suspicion.”

  The mother and father looked at each other, then sighed. The mother spoke first.

  “We had same relationship as many others here. She was a good girl, bright girl, talented girl. We all liked her. We help train her when she was younger.”

  “And were you jealous that she became the star of the show? I imagine you must have put a lot of work into your act and the two of you were quite similar, both acrobats.”

  “What was good for the circus was good for us. We never want to be the stars anyway. You think the pressure of that would be good for our children? No, no. Perhaps one day, but not now. Now, if you excuse us our children need to be put to bed. It has been long day for them,” she said, and they walked off.

  “I had more questions,” Andy muttered as they moved onto the next person. Ellen pointed to one of the boys helping out, a fresh-faced teenager. He was the one who first had noticed the rope had been cut.

  “Could you tell us a little bit about Aurora?” Ellen asked.

  “I'd love to but I didn't really know her that well, not for lack of trying,” the boy said. He was the first person they had encountered in the circus who spoke with an American accent.

  “It's sad that she's gone, though. Everyone around here really liked her.”

  “You're not Russian. Where did they pick you up?”

  “Oh, just outside Chicago, I figured it was a better way to spend the summer than sitting inside. I won't be going back with them when they go to Russia, though. Truth is I don't know any of them that well. I've only been with them a few weeks.”

  “Did any of them have any arguments with Aurora?”

  The boy laughed. “Everyone around here argued with everyone else. That's just the way it goes. Took me by surprise as well at first but that's just the way they talk with each other. Things get pretty stressful. It's a tight schedule, and if anything goes wrong it really can mess things up, but they need to blow off steam. So I think they have an understanding.”

  “A murder really is going to mess things up for them,” Ellen said.

  “You can say that again. I don't know how they're going to come back from this. Aurora was the main event, you know? There's nobody that compared to her. You saw that for yourself. She was something special alright, but look, you're better off speaking to them yourself. I need to go help clean up. When it's show time I only get about three hours of sleep a night and I'd better get ready just in case we are going on tomorrow,” the boy said, and he walked away.

  “It wouldn't be hard to believe these arguments turned into something more serious,” Andy said as they walked around the ring and went to one of the band members, who was setting aside his trumpet. Again they began with asking about Aurora.

  “Ha! As if she'd bother with the likes of me. You know, people always say she was special and I'd hate to speak ill of the dead, but from what I saw she wasn't a very nice person. Stardom went to her head, you know? Everyone worshiped her and she started believing the hype,” he said.

  Some other people they spoke to felt the same way, while others had nothing but kind words to say. They also learned that a lot of people were jealous of the treatment that Aurora was getting and they all had their own ambitions to be the stars of the show. Ellen and Andy heard these things from different acts, all saying the same thing about each other. One person, for example, was absolutely adamant that the Fantastic Four were vying for Auro
ra's position, feeling their children were more talented than Aurora. This ran contrary to what the acrobatic family had told them in the first place. All in all, it led to an intriguing, complex web that left Andy and Ellen scratching their heads, for they had no better idea of things than when they began. From what they had been told everyone had had a motive to kill Aurora, and given the transient nature of the circus anyone could have climbed up there with a knife and severed the rope.

  “We're not getting anywhere with this,” Andy said, and as if to give more voice to their frustration Iris came storming up to them.

  “I can't deal with these people! They're too difficult. It's like they don't know how to interact with the world! How are we supposed to handle this case if they won't even talk to us?” she said, her cheeks reddening as the flurry of words cascaded from her lips.

  “I know it's difficult,” Ellen began in a soft voice, “but you have to understand that for them this is their society. Their whole lives are wrapped up in this tent and they don't play by the same rules as us. They have their own social structure. It's almost like they're another civilization and they're going to resist our interference. We're going to have to be gentle with them. They're going to try protecting each other. So if they refuse to talk, we're just going to have to leave it for the moment until they do trust us.”

  “That's not exactly what I mean. It's not that he's refusing to talk out of loyalty or anything, it's because he's a mime and he's committed to his act! I've tried explaining to him that this is a serious incident and that he could be arrested for obstructing the investigation, but all he does is make stupid faces and pretends he's in prison already!”

  “If we start arresting people for obstructing this thing we're going to have to arrest all of them. None of them are being very helpful,” Andy said as he cast his eyes around the empty big top, looking at the sad state of the empty seats, which should have been filled with cheering people.