Crossroads (3 page)

The weather-worn and rough-hewn, stone police station was abuzz like a giant gray beehive. A dozen cruisers were parked out front, some with their motors running and their lights flashing. Officers trotted up and down the long, poorly-lighted halls, their boots echoing on the dirty marble floors. A couple of cops stared at Kira as the deputy led the way through a set of swinging double doors into a sunlit space filled with desks and people talking on phones, arguing, more phones ringing.

The large airy room smelled of dust and a mixture of perfume and aftershave, of copy paper and coffee, but the tapping of a dozen sets of fingers on computer keyboards sounded far too much like the nasty clicking sounds from the night before, causing Kira to shiver. Then all the tapping rattled slowly to a stop, and everyone was staring at her. The deputy placed a hand on her shoulder and nudged her into a smaller but equally brightly lit space with only one desk. Slowly the typing resumed behind them, only slower this time like a funereal drum roll.

Especially there and then in that bright yet alien place, she just couldn’t get her mind to wrap around everything that had happened in the night. She and Jen were all alone in the world. They had no family and no friends. Although the sounds and images of the horror kept insinuating themselves into her head, they just would not beat themselves in.

"This her?" said a fat, balding man wearing a stained white shirt with a big badge hooked on his left breast pocket.

The deputy nodded, and the fat man sat down, but in a chair in front of-not behind-the desk. He offered her the chair across from him. When she glanced at Jen, Jen shook her head and remained standing.

"It's cop stations," Kira explained, reaching up to squeeze Jen’s hand.

The fat cop, frowned. "Would you like something to eat or drink?"

"Please. Do you have a Coke or something?"

"I think we could rustle up that and maybe some donuts."

The fat cop waved at the deputy, and he disappeared, closing the door behind him. The hateful clicking sound softened.

"Can you tell me what happened last night?"

"They came while we were sleeping," she muttered, dully.

"They?"

She nodded.

The cop shook his head. "Did you get a look at any of them?"

"I never saw one. I just heard them."

"What did they say?"

"They didn't say anything. They sounded like big bugs grinding their wings."

"Bugs," muttered the cop, and Kira could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t believe her. Maybe it would be better from now on to just not mention the sounds.

"I’m sorry," he said, frowning again. "Look. I’m Sheriff Coates. I know that you’re Kira Graves. Right?"

She nodded.

"We’re trying to find out who did this terrible thing, Kira. I want to catch them and punish them. You understand?"         

"Yes."

"Anything you can tell me will help."

The deputy stuck his head in the door and passed the sheriff a greasy bag and a can of Coke. The sheriff handed both to Kira.

"Sheriff," said the deputy. "Could I see you for a moment?"

The sheriff stepped outside while Kira dug into the bag that was half-filled with pastry donuts. She wolfed one down before opening the soda and passing it to Jen who gulped-and burped-with gusto but saved some for Kira. The two of them finished the donuts, and the cop had still not returned, so Kira eased the door open just enough to listen.

"Since her parents are both dead," said the deputy, quietly, "Human Services wants to take her now. They’re sending over one of their case workers."

"We need her to tell us what happened!"

"I know, sheriff, but she’s a minor. They want to make sure she wasn’t traumatized first."

"Traumatized! The kid is a basket case. She thinks bugs killed her parents, but she’s the only lead we have. If she can give us some clues maybe we can nail these guys."

"Then you’d better get them soon. The case worker will be here in ten minutes."

Case workers, cops. Whatever happened she and Jen were going to be locked away with people they didn’t know and didn’t care about for a long time. Maybe years. Kira closed the door.

Maybe she’d get a good towner family that wouldn’t be too stupid, but the government people would almost certainly separate her and Jen, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. Now that her mom and dad were gone, Jen was all she had, just as she was all Jen had.

"We have to get out of here," she said.

Jen nodded.

When the sheriff stepped back into the room, Kira danced on one foot, biting her lower lip.

"I need to use the bathroom."          

"Right now?"

Kira nodded, and the sheriff sighed, leading them through the desks outside and around the corner.

He tapped on a door marked
Women
, peeked inside, then stepped back out. Kira closed the door behind them and quietly slid the latch into place. The room had one window with more frosted glass. Kira couldn’t reach the lock, but Jen released it and raised the window. Unfortunately there were heavy steel bars outside.

"Can you loosen them?" asked Kira.

Jen shrugged, gripping two of the black rods and grunting mightily. The bolts looked as though they were about rusted out, and Kira could hear them grinding against the stone, but when Jen finally shook her head and shrugged, Kira knew they weren’t escaping so easily. She sat on the toilet, trying to reason another way out.

"What do we do now?" she asked.                          

Jen was staring into the mirror.

Kira slipped over beside her, fear tightening her chest.

"Don’t do that," she whispered, fighting the urge for her eyes to follow Jen’s.

Finally Jen looked down at her.

"You scared me," said Kira.

Jen turned back to the mirror and pointed.

"Look closer," she said.

Kira frowned, refusing to be sucked back now that she had broken the spell.

"At what?"

Jen nodded toward the mirror. "Answers."

"Jen," said Kira, making a face, "we don’t have time for this. You need to help me think of a way out."

Suddenly all the grief and horror and exhaustion of the past hours crushed down on her fourteen-year-old shoulders. Jen rested her hands there, and Kira drew a little strength from them. Jen could do that, make her feel better even at the worst of times, but not nearly as good as her mother could, and not all that good right now.

"You okay in there?"

The sheriff’s voice rattled around the little restroom, shaking Kira out of her daze.

"Yeah. Just a minute."

She went ahead and used the toilet, not sure when she’d get to another, then nodded at Jen who opened the door. The cop let out a sigh of relief, leading them quickly back into his office, where he took the chair across from her again.

"Honey, I know this is hard, but you need to tell us why anyone would want to hurt your parents or anyone else in your show."

Kira shook her head.

"Then just tell me more about what you saw and heard last night."

"I didn’t really see anything."

"How did you get away?"

"My mother said to run into the swamp."

The sheriff nodded. "She knew bad people were coming?"

Kira nodded.

"The screams," she said, fighting a tight feeling in her chest, trying to hold the memories at bay. But the screams echoed inside her head, and the knowledge that somewhere among those shrieks
some of them
must have come from her mother and father...

"You heard a lot of screaming?"

Why did he have to keep talking about it? He wasn’t going to be able to fix anything. He was a cop not a magician. Stupid towner.

Kira nodded, staring at the floor.

"What exactly did your mother tell you?"

"She said to run and hide," said Kira.

"Why didn’t your mother go with you?"

Kira shook her head. "She tried to save my dad, and maybe some of the others."

The sheriff looked off across the room, and Kira could see that
his
eyes were damp now. When he turned back to Kira, she nodded again in understanding. Whatever had happened to her mother, and father, and Fat Alice, and all the others, it had been even worse than she could imagine.

"The screams stopped pretty fast," she said, hoping that he could affirm that.

"I don’t think they suffered long, sweetheart."

A knock on the door caused both of them to start. The sheriff grimaced as he rose slowly and opened it. A bulky, dark-haired woman in a knee-length, blue skirt and matching jacket stood there frowning, and the sheriff frowned back. The woman smiled when she spotted Kira, but Kira was reluctant to return it.

"Been giving her the old bright lights and rubber hose?" the woman asked the sheriff.

The sheriff sighed. "Doing my job, Roseanne."

The woman nodded, and her dark eyes gleamed. "You can do your job after I make sure this little girl," she glanced at a clipboard, "Kira, isn’t permanently traumatized by you and your cops. My department has gotten hammered enough for kids slipping through the cracks."

"And my department gets hammered all the time for people
slipping through the cracks
, and then other people get killed. Or haven’t you noticed what’s been going on around this county?"

The woman’s frown spread, but she nodded. "I notice what’s going on around the world, but my job is just to take care of the little bit of it under my jurisdiction."

"Me, too," muttered the sheriff, sadly.

"I’ve signed all the forms," said Roseanne. "You can make an appointment with my office."

The sheriff nodded. "You’ll have to go with Roseanne, Honey. We’ll talk later. Okay?"

As Kira passed by him, she held out her hand, and he shook it.

"You’re okay," she said. "For a towner."

His smile turned into the smirk she’d seen on the faces of other cops, but it was soft and not malicious. "You’re not half bad yourself. For a carney."

She stiffened as Roseanne placed a guiding hand on her shoulder.  

"You won’t catch anyone," Kira told the sheriff.

"Yes, I will."

She bit her lip, wondering if she told him more, if she could somehow get him to believe, but she didn’t think so, and right now her priorities had to be her and Jen.

"Don’t go back out there after dark. Okay?"

After a moment, he nodded, and Roseanne ushered her and Jen through the doors and into the blinding sunshine.

Chapter 2

Roseanne drove a big, gray sedan with official Florida state plates, but this time Kira insisted on getting into the back after Jen. The interior smelled of cigarette smoke and some kind of industrial cleaner that only added to the toxic aroma. The plastic cover on the seat was hot as a griddle and sounded like popcorn when Kira slid her butt onto it. Roseanne made sure Kira was buckled, but Kira noticed when the look Jen gave Roseanne when the social worker glanced in her direction, and Roseanne said nothing about Jen's seatbelt. Jen had that effect on people.

Roseanne looked both ways before pulling out of the station parking lot and turning left.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Kira.

Roseanne didn’t answer, stopping at a light. She fumbled in her jacket, and Kira could tell she was reaching for a pack of smokes, but then her hand slipped back onto the wheel.

"You can light up if you want," said Kira. "I don’t mind."

Roseanne smiled. "I need to quit, anyway. My husband says I smoke like a chimney."

"Where?" Kira repeated.

"There’s a nice old couple down at Coral Isles you can stay with for a few days until we get things straightened out and find you a real home. Do you have any family other... other than your mother and father?"

Kira shook her head.

"No cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents?"

"No."

Her father and mother rarely spoke of family. Whenever Kira had asked, she’d been told that the carnival was their family. Now all the carneys were gone.

Roseanne nodded. "Don’t worry. You’re going to be okay."              

Kira knew that Roseanne half believed that, but
she
knew better. She and Jen had no one to turn to, and some old couple in Coral Isles wasn’t going to be able to fill the void that tore at her heart. She had never felt so alone, and even Jen-pressed beside her in the seat-exuded no comfort. It wasn’t just her mother and father, either. Everyone in the carnival had been a friend, family in their way, and it wasn’t just the mountain of grief that weighed down upon her. With each passing minute she was more and more certain that the terror that had found the show was still following them. For one thing the face in the rear view mirror-which she couldn’t avoid looking at-wasn’t always Roseanne’s. Kira squeezed Jen’s leg to get her attention. Jen shrugged as if to say
what did you expect?

Roseanne reached up to adjust the mirror and her palm rested across it for a moment, and Kira almost screamed. When Roseanne’s fingers finally fell back across the wheel Kira breathed a sigh of relief, although she noticed that  Roseanne massaged that hand as though she’d gotten a sudden cramp.

They passed quickly out of the city and onto open highway, headed north along the coast, and Kira frowned.

"Where’s Coral Isles?"

"About twenty miles north of here. It’s a little town right on the water. You’ll like it. You can swim in the ocean just a few blocks from the house."

Kira wasn’t as impressed by that as she thought Roseanne expected her to be. Swimming pools were okay. On those very rare occasions when the show had been in a town with a public facility her mother had taken her and taught her how to swim, but Kira had always harbored an instinctual fear of water that
moved,
or water where you might not be able to see what was under your feet, or where there might be things other than human beings swimming in it.