“Heads!” Aurora wore a serious look on her face, as if the fate of the free world rode on the toss.
“Heads is the winner. Congrats, little lady.” Jude shoved the coin back into his pocket.
“The circus animals are this way.” Ten had the park map spread out in front of him.
“Good luck folding that thing back up.” Ronan took Ezra’s hand and set off for the barn.
Ezra wanted to run ahead, but Ronan kept hold of his hand. “What do you think of this place?”
“Stinky!” Ezzie announced.
“That’s right, little man.” Ronan hefted the little boy into his arms.
When they reached the circus barn, Ronan could see the giraffe standing tall. Beside the red barn was a riding circle, where Duncan, the camel, was walking with three excited kids on his back. He’d read all about the camel on the Happy Hooters website.
“Me?” Ezra asked, pointing to the large dromedary.
Ronan wasn’t so sure he wanted his little boy riding on the back of a camel who’d worked in the circus for years, in captivity, unable to roam free and be with other camels. Duncan deserved every bit of his retirement.
“We’re not putting him on that beast, are we?” Ten asked, covering Ezzie’s ears with his hands.
Ronan shook his head. “I’m a little nervous about setting him loose with the goats. Those little fuckers bite.”
“Oh, look at the baby!” Aurora’s voice cut through all the noise surrounding them. She pointed straight ahead to where a small elephant was charging toward them. It made little trumpeting sounds and stopped just short of the fence. “Hi, my name’s Aurora.” She held out her hand as if she were going to shake with the animal.
With a bit of effort, the elephant lifted its trunk to Aurora’s hand and sniffed before working its way up her arm to tangle in her hair. Aurora let out a giggle while the other kids gathered around her. “Daddy! I want a baby elephant!”
“Of course she does.” Fitz hit the Record button and got closer to his daughter and the pachyderm. “We can’t take him home with us because he belongs here with his friends. He’d be pretty lonely without them.”
Ronan was about to point out that Fitz could also adopt the camel and the zebra but was interrupted by Fitzgibbon’s ringing phone.
“Can you stay with her?” Fitz asked.
Ronan nodded and moved toward Aurora, who was still up against the fence with Victor. Before Fitz moved away, he noticed Greeley’s name on the screen.
“Hi, Victor.” Ronan crouched behind Aurora and held his hand out to the elephant. “He’s too sweet, huh?”
Aurora nodded and pointed to a young man who entered the elephant enclosure. Victor trumpeted and rumbled off toward him. “Who’s that?
“Maybe he’s the guy who’s in charge of feeding and watering Victor.” Ronan watched as the little elephant ran around the man like a puppy would do with his owner, only this puppy weighed upward of three hundred pounds.
“That’s a cool job. I could do that job, right?” Aurora’s bright green eyes never strayed from the baby elephant.
“Definitely,” Ronan agreed. “Don’t you want to be a detective like your Daddy?”
Aurora wrinkled her nose. “No. I don’t like to run.”
Ronan snorted. “What does running have to do with finding bad guys?” In the early days of his career at the Boston Police Department, Ronan was a foot patrolman. He ran after suspects all the time in that position, but as he rose in the ranks, there had been less and less of that.
“Daddy says the bad guys give him the runaround.” Aurora shook her head. “I’m not running for anything.” She paused, her head tilting to the side. “Maybe for ice cream, but that’s it.”
“Hey, thanks,” Fitz said when he rejoined the group.
“Everything okay?” Ronan studied his friend. Fitzgibbon wore his heart on his sleeve. He was an easy man to read, but at the moment, he was giving nothing away.
“I didn’t want to say anything until it was official, but Greeley made detective two weeks ago. He’s been assigned to homicide.”
“What? That’s amazing.” Ronan clapped Fitz on the back. When he was younger, Greeley had worked some cases with them. His instincts were always right on the money. His promotion didn’t surprise Ronan one bit, but the pensive look on Fitzgibbon’s face did.
