Pilo Traveling Show (Pilo Family Circus #2)

15. ABOVE

Gonko found them picking through the grass for the night's takings with cigarette lighters and lanterns. He took JJ and Jamie aside and said, "You two, get below. No need to worry about George seeing you now."

"Kurt's back already?" said JJ with cheer so false it made Jamie cringe.

"Not yet, but today's the day. JJ, a private word?" Jamie watched the pair of them from a distance in quiet conversation and he could not say why it made him so uneasy. After, Gonko went around to every other carny and told each of them the same thing: "It ain't safe down there yet. You been marked down as runaways, and you know what that means. Don't you worry, I'll smooth it over real gentle. Stay put for a couple of days, then I'll send for you one by one."

With that, Gonko headed for the gates again. "Hey, Gonko," Jamie called as he jogged over. "Dean—Deeby—and Emerald. Is it okay if they come back with us? They're kind of friends of mine, and they've been eager to see the real circus."

"Is that so?" said Gonko. His eyes were thin slits, following Emerald as she breezed across the ground at that moment with her veil tossed back. As usual, heads turned to follow her; even now Jamie felt the pull of her enchantment. "Ain't she a pretty little number," said Gonko. "You know what, just those two, they can come down. But no one else. Keep her wearing that veil. You don't want Kurt or the MM to get too smitten with her. And she sure as hell don't want that." Gonko leaped through the gates without another word, and Jamie thought, Why do I have the strange feeling I just saved Dean and Jodi's lives?

A finger tapped him hard on the shoulder. JJ grinned from ear to ear. "Get this! Gonko's gonna kill everyone up here, except for you and me. Makes you feel pretty special, huh?" JJ laughed at a joke only he could see.

"So that's why," said Jamie.

"And he wants me to help him do it. He would've asked you but thinks you'd back out. Best part is, he's not even mad I came up here. He didn't want me to see any of this, he told me, but he says he knows he can trust me now."

"Why's he want you to help him kill everyone? Actually I'd feel better if you don't answer that. Dean and Jodi are coming with us below. When's he going to do it?"

"After he's sure George has gone for good and he doesn't need these carnies anymore. He's been paying 'em so well, he figures when they get back to normal wages below, they'll get the idea of setting up on their own again. That's what he says, anyway."

Jamie groaned. He looked around at the handful of gypsies and dwarfs finishing up the day's count with tired faces, but alight with greed as they pocketed their own helpings of the powder, more brazenly than before. Seeing them, they looked like utterly wretched creatures living wretched lives; he could not help thinking an end to their misery would be a mercy, not just for those they preyed on in the circus, but for themselves. It was a queasy thought that they would all soon be killed unless he said something, queasy only because it offended the sensibilities; he could not feel any love nor much compassion for these beings. Still . . . "Are we going to let him do it?"

JJ scoffed. "Carny rats? You want to blow your big grand plan to save a bunch of carny rats who'd gut you for a bag if they knew they'd get away with it? Look at these trash bags! See, here is a clown who never had to make tough choices. This one's not even tough. I'll kill 'em, no problem. You don't have to watch."

Jamie looked at his own face staring back scornfully. These freaks took you out of your life, what he'd told Jodi echoed through his mind. What right did they have to do that? And these guys were all willing parts of it; they'd chased after the music box, desperate to twist its handle again. If they weren't willing parts of it, they were little more than nuts and bolts of the circus machinery. "You're right," he said. "Let's get Dean and Jodi and get out of here."

But JJ was far too light-hearted about the business of murder. Jamie knew that he had to learn everything he could about this doppelganger, who could ruin them now with just a few words. Deeper than that, he had to see whether there was something connecting them beyond just physical similarity; did Jamie himself do these kinds of deeds, last time here? Was guilt the reason he'd blocked it all out? He could wait no more. He would recover his hidden memories and find out why he'd hidden them.

***