Ten had no doubt she was telling the truth. “Did either you or your mother bring a sparkly pink dress on this trip?”
Celestina’s eyes grew wide. “I did, why?”
“I keep having this recurring nightmare. I’m all alone and scared in the dark. Suddenly, I see a flash of a pink dress and I wake up screaming my daughter’s name. She wore a dress like that last year to Jace’s winter fundraiser. We all joked that she looked like Glinda on steroids.”
“That’s exactly how I’d describe this dress. It was my plan to just supervise this event. You know, make sure everything was running smoothly, but Mr. Lincoln asked me if I would give a little speech at the end of the performance to wrap it up and to ask people to make donations to the cause. I went shopping yesterday for something to wear at the end of the show and found a pink ball gown.” Celestina turned toward Tennyson with fear in her eyes. “Do you think this premonition is about me? Am I going to die?”
Ten took Celestina’s hand. “I don’t know. I’m not seeing anything about you at all. Usually I can get some kind of overall impression of someone, but you’re like a black hole. I can’t see or feel anything at all.”
Celestina stood up, dropping Ten’s hand. She reached into her small handbag and pulled out a business card. “Call me if you see anything else.”
Ten added her number to his phone and sent off a quick test. “You do the same.”
With a small smile, Celestina walked away. Ten saw she was heading toward her mother.
It was obvious to Tennyson that his nightmare featured Celestina. Now that he’d met her in person, Ten hoped that the dream would give him more information about what was to come. Was Celestina who was frightening him? Or was she being harmed by someone who was now turning his sights on him?
All Ten could do now was wait for bed time. The kids would be out of the house at different sleepovers, so he didn’t have to worry about scaring them when he woke up screaming. Ronan would be there to protect him. He knew the dream would be back and that’s exactly what he wanted. It was time to face the fear the dream inspired in him and get to the bottom of what it meant.
9
Ronan
After a quick call to Faulkner Hayes, assuring he was in the office, Ronan, Jude, and Fitzgibbon headed over to Boston Police Headquarters. Everyone else was going to the Boston Children’s Museum. They’d all meet up after for lunch at an Italian restaurant in the North End.
As they drove, Ronan called Cisco Jackson.
“Let me guess, there was a murder at the circus you want to solve,” Cisco said, not bothering to say hello.
“Faulk called, didn’t he?” Ronan said with a sigh. He should have known.
“Yes, he did.Unlikemy own detectives, Faulk thought it was a good idea to call me about this potential case.” Cisco shouted.
“We’re calling you now, Cisco,” Fitzgibbon said. “We reached out to Faulk to see if there was even a case file available. There was no sense getting you involved until we knew there was something more than Ten’s chat with the dead clown.”
“Of course the murdered man would reach out to Ten.” Cisco said, all earlier traces of his anger gone. He might have been upset that he wasn’t Ronan’s first call, but when it came to solving cold murder cases, Cisco was all in. “What happened?”
“Jumping Jack was murdered on opening night. His body was found inside the tiger cage, drenched in blood, but the tiger didn’t kill him. The man was shot,” Jude said.
“All members of the crew were interviewed, but no one was arrested and the circus was allowed to leave town a week after their school vacation week performances. In a weirdly related note, I was there the night of the murder.” Ronan was sure that little personal tidbit would sink the hook deeper into Cisco.
“Jesus, you were there that night? How the hell old were you?”
“I was thirteen. Mom had taken me to the parade of elephants and then to the event inside the old Boston Garden. I met one of the clowns, who was an absolute dick and this beautiful girl, who is his daughter. Ying Yang is right up there at the top of my list of suspects. He’s physically abusive to both his wife and his daughter, according to what the Celestina told Ten.”
“Do you believe Celestina?” Cisco asked. “I’m putting that on our baby name list.” The smile in Cisco’s voice was obvious.
“Yes, I believe her,” Ronan said. “What’s this about a baby?”
“Luca and I are going to adopt another child,” Cisco said. “Fingers crossed. We should know in about six weeks. Just have to make sure the birth mother is still willing to give her daughter up. We’re trying not to get our hopes up, but it’s hard not to.”
“I hear that,” Jude said. “I remember how agonizing it was waiting for Lizbet’s birth mother to sign away her legal rights.”
“I remember how hard that was, especially since you were still in the hospital after nearly getting your dumb ass murdered by a serial killer.” Cisco snorted, sounding as if the memory of the night they’d saved Jude was a good one. “Back to business, find out what you can from Faulk and get a copy of the case file. Pull criminal history on this Ding Dong character and go from there. Keep me updated. Jace dropped off tickets for the circus performance, so I’ll be down there at some point.”
“Gotcha,” Fitzgibbon said, all smiles. “Thanks for the leeway to work this case.”
“Don’t make me regret giving it to you.” With those words, Cisco ended the call.
