Eric entered Horatio's office with a proud smile; his waiting game had paid off, although it had been in a grim way. A fourteen-year-old boy had died after overdosing on heroin; the dealer was proved to be one Lucas Adams who was also suspected of dealing to a man in an odd hat and a white rabbit mask and he was ready to make a deal when he learned that the fourteen-year-old boy's father was a lawyer with connections pushing hard for a murder charge. Now he was going to do time but he wasn't going to get the death penalty.
"Adams talked," Eric announced, "and our potential suspect apparently wasn't quite the oddity we thought."
"Meaning?" Tim queried wearily as he rolled his tired brown eyes up to his friend. The papers had started to point out how it was now one year since the Suburban Legends killer had come to Miami and were drawing unfair and unfavourable comparisons to him and this new oddball, pointing out the unusual theme of the kills, the similar time of year, the fact that the Suburban killer had actually stopped over summer didn't seem to matter, and the fact that Detective Moon and Lieutenant Caine were on both cases. Tim couldn't be sure but he had a sneaking suspicion it was Horatio himself who had let his own name leak to the papers, as the higher ranking officer Horatio's name and photographs became more popular in the news than Ridley's and he had the pleasure of taking all the grumblings from his superiors. Tim highly doubted that Horatio had been seeking publicity, rather he was trying to deter it from Ridley, at least that was what Tim suspected but he knew better than to ask. Having Ridley in the limelight again had prompted Tim to work longer hours in an attempt to find a strong lead in this case and nip it in the bud before Ridley got dragged down by it but so far he had nothing.
"There's a circus in town, about twenty minutes from where Adams was dealing the night he met our friend, he says he doesn't know for certain but he assumed that's where our guy came from. He asked for enough LSD to supply ten people and paid in cash in full and nope, before you ask, Adams did not keep any of those notes around."
A wry smile broke out across Horatio's face. "Circo de Ammiratio."
"The Circus of Wonder," Calleigh translated as she looked at her superior curiously, "you know it?"
The redhead shook his head. "No but I think I would like to see the show."
"We don't exactly have enough for a warrant," Tim pointed out quickly.
Ridley looked at the traces expert curiously; he seemed to have a slightly nervous glint in his brown eyes.
"There's no harm in questioning, it's simply procedure," Horatio answered calmly.
"We might spook him," Tim retorted hastily.
"We might or we might learn a bit more about him," Horatio replied as he too looked at Tim with interest. "Calleigh and I can do it," he suggested, "less cops, less suspicion."
"It's meant to be a big circus," Eric was quick to argue as his eyes flickered over to the sitting blonde briefly, "and we can do low key. More importantly circuses are weird and there is no way our expert on weird is missing out on this." He grinned over at Ridley who gave a small smile back. "You're bound to like circuses, right Ridley?"
Ridley shrugged. "I've only been to one, Justin took me."
"Oh, a murder case?" Eric asked excitedly.
"Um..." Ridley glanced at the floor as she felt her cheeks blush slightly. "No, they were only in the city for three days but it was fun."
Tim scowled but said nothing, he doubted he would ever get used to Ridley talking about her dead partner with an inappropriate fondness but he was at least getting better at keeping his opinions about it to himself.
"Well we'll all go," Eric said happily, "except grumpy since he hates everything fun."
Tim's scowl deepened as he glared up at his friend. "I'm going, it's a public place, taking photos is perfectly legal and we both know your photography is dodgy at best."
"Hey," Eric protested defensively, "my photography is great and at least my interviewing skills are better than yours."
"Since when?" Tim demanded as he stood up from his chair.
Eric folded his swarthy arms and smirked. "Mrs Valesque Speed, that's all I'm going to say."
Calleigh let out a giggle before she was quick to clap a hand on her mouth to silence it as Tim gave her a dark look.
"Who's that?" Ridley queried with a confused look.
"Eddie Marquez's boss and mother," Eric informed her as his smile widened, "only Speed didn't know that when he phoned her up to bluntly tell her that her employee was dead and to ask if she knew where or who he was delivering to at the time of his death."
Ridley's eyes widened as she looked up at Tim in horror. "You didn't!" she gasped as Eric sniggered.
"He did!" Eric blurted out between laughs.
Tim shook his head with a look of annoyance. "You're an ass Delko," he grumbled.
"Anyway," Horatio chided, "we should go now, it's coming up to eight, they'll be closing up for the night in a few hours."
"Speed you're not driving," Eric was quick to say.
"Whatever," Tim dismissed as he headed for the door, "just let me grab my camera."
"Wow this is incredible," Calleigh marvelled as they walked along the sandy and dirty, barren land the circus was calling a temporary home. Sandwiched between the beach and the city it was a perfect point for business and had plenty of space for the numerous attractions, the impressive big top, transport and parking.
"It's kind of sad," Ridley murmured as she eyed the colourful cages tigers, lions, snakes, a bear and, less threatening, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs were caged in.
"I thought you liked the circus," Tim commented sardonically.
Ridley frowned up at him as he purposely avoided her expression by taking photos of the place. "The one I went to didn't have any animals and it wasn't so filthy, it just seemed magical."
"That sounds nice," Calleigh retorted wistfully. "I used to think circuses were magical too."
"Did you two also go fairy hunting in your youth?" Tim sneered.
"Ha ha Speed," Calleigh answered with a frown as she flicked back her platinum blonde locks.
"Remember guys low key," Horatio chided as he took a moment to survey the place. There was the big top, in the centre of course with the cliché red and white stripes that at this point could be considered both kitsch and vintage, smaller tents with old fashioned, colourful, wooden signs promising extraordinary performances and mysteries, many different caravans and cages both wooden and metal alike, stalls offering refreshments and fixed games, and a small collection of rides. Yellow and multi-coloured bulbs flickered around signs trying to lure people in and yet for all the lights and colour there seemed to be a lot of shadows and darkness too.
It was busy enough with guests and performers alike and full of noise, chatter, laughter, shouting, children crying, people arguing, animals growling, barking, whining, snarling and hissing, an unpleasant mixture of joy and despair. The air was sickly sweet, a combination of candy floss, popcorn, toffee apples, corndogs, vomit, animal faeces and urine. Horatio was starting to remember quickly just how much he loathed circuses and carnivals; they were a wicked deception, promising a moment of happiness for a steep fee all at someone or some poor animal's expense.
Tim visibly jumped when they walked past the guinea pigs and they let out several squeals. "Fuck!" he cursed eloquently as Eric started laughing.
Calleigh put her hands on her slender hips and looked at the dark haired male tauntingly. "Something wrong Speed?" she queried teasingly. It was rare to catch the ever sardonic male at a moment of weakness.
"Nothing," he grumbled as he scowled at the rodents, "fat mice."
Ridley gave a small smile as she paused to look in at the rabbits. She frowned at how cramped they were and how most of them seemed to be soiled in their own poo and were in need of a good grooming. "Poor creatures," she sympathised as she placed her hands on her knees and leaned into them. "This is animal cruelty."
"Well we can look into that," Horatio murmured, "but first thing's first."
Ridley frowned over at him thinking he sounded just a little dismissive of the issue. "I always wanted a rabbit," she commented as she stood upright again.
"Why?" Tim queried in disgust. "They shit everywhere."
"They're cute and fluffy," Ridley answered brightly.
"They taste good in stew, I'll give you that," the traces expert retorted teasingly.
Ridley rolled her eyes in disgust as she frowned at his retreating form.
"Should we split up?" Calleigh suggested as her clear blue eyes danced from the Hall of Mirrors to the big top itself.
"Okay, Eric, Speed, head round the right, ladies round the left and I'll go see if there are any particularly riveting performers. Please remember guys we can only pry so far without a warrant but if our guy's here we do have enough to bring him in for questioning however it's doubtful he's dumb enough to be wearing a white rabbit mask and black hat tonight, which means all we know for certain about him is he's about five feet eight, potentially Hispanic and somewhere in his forties. Of course this all comes from our very reliable drug dealer. That being said, find us something that will get us a warrant for this place and that would be great."
Horatio made a beeline for the big top, shamelessly using his badge to bypass the strongman who was also acting as a bouncer it seemed. The redhead stayed on the sidelines, standing at the bottom observing an electric performance by women in pale pink and lilac tutus on trapeziums. The audience gasped and cheered in awe and wonder as the women performed what appeared to be death defying stunts though the net below suggested otherwise. After five minutes of this the act finally ended and the ringmaster came out to the centre of the dusty floor as the net was pulled away.
Horatio arched a golden-red eyebrow at the sight of the ringmaster; she wasn't exactly what he would have expected. Tall, toned and tanned with dark, loose waves half-pulled up under a small, black top hat with a gold ribbon about it and a peacock's feather sticking out of it. She almost resembled a Vegas showgirl in her risqué costume and yet there was something about her that gave her an edge of classiness rather than tackiness. She was dressed in black shorts with gold cuffs and buttons, fishnet tights, glamorous, gold, knee high, leather boots, a white gypsy top sealed tight with a gold waistcoat, a ringmaster's long sleeved, vibrant red, velvet jacket with an open gold collar, gold shoulder pads, gold buttons and blue cuffs and finally a plush, blue bow at her throat with a gold centrepiece.
"Did you enjoy the performance?" she called into her glittering silver microphone as she flashed her perfect white teeth up at the audience.
The crowd roared and cheered in response.
She let out a musical laugh that seemed to be contagious and had everyone smiling; even the Lieutenant gave a slight grin as he admired her ability to charm an audience. "Good, well the show's not over! Please give a big cheer for Circo de Ammiratio's clowns!" She turned and walked away as music started blasting and six clowns appeared on tricycles and unicycles, juggling balls and pins.
Horatio moved discreetly round the ring until he reached the exiting ringmaster. She paused and looked at him curiously, her smoky edged green eyes lingering on his gold badge pointedly. "It's about time you guys got here," she commented wearily.
"And why is that?" Horatio queried curiously.
She smiled politely as she stepped up to him and held out a gold gloved hand. "Apologies, I'm Nina Balksom, I'm the one who made the complaint."
Horatio accepted her hand, giving it a brief shake before he released it again. "Lieutenant Caine and I think there's been a mistake, I'm here following procedure on a case of mine, not a complaint."
Nina muttered a curse before placing her hands on her wide hips and shaking her head scornfully. "God you guys don't care do you? You probably hope the bastards succeed."
"Miss Balksom I assure you I care a good deal about a great many things and I'm not apathetic to your issue it simply has not reached my attention."
"Right," she grumbled, "and how do you know I'm Miss?"
"Call it a hunch," he retorted merrily as he pushed back the ends of his pale grey blazer. "How about we trade Miss Balksom? You help me with my problem and I will help you with yours if it is a police matter."
"It is," she retorted defensively, "animal activists, at first it was just vandalism, then they let the dogs out and last night they tried to free a tiger and shot at several of my colleagues, just blanks but dangerous enough. Your lot came by but by the time they made it here the little merdes, pardon my French, were long gone and no one made much of an effort to follow it up. Now we've seen them skulking about again, this is our last night here, they're going to cause trouble."
Horatio gave a small smile at her deliberately literal remark about French before he nodded sympathetically. "And what do they look like?" His smile vanished just as quickly and he looked suddenly to the open tent doors. He could hear screams.
Within seconds the big top erupted into chaos as two elephants came charging in, wild eyed as they waved their trunks and stomped in at a frighteningly fast pace. One smacked its trunk hard against the main post in the centre of the ring and that was all it took. Horatio was quick to seize Miss Balksom by one arm and start running for the open doorway he had entered through as the tent began to collapse around them.
Outside, in the midst of the chaos, Calleigh and Ridley found themselves caught up in a stampede of a different kind as people ran in a panic, colliding into them as they did. BANG! BANG! Ridley was quick to reach for her gun at the familiar sound as screams filled in the air.
"Ridley!" Calleigh cried out in alarm as she reached for her own gun and tried to spot her colleague in the chaos. "What in the hell is going on?" She glimpsed figures clad in black wearing animal masks and firing guns into the air, cheap pistols from the looks of it, the blonde thought it was a wonder none of them were misfiring they looked so shoddy.
She tried to fight her way back, elbowing and shouting out at people for order as she moved towards the perpetrators. Her clear blue eyes widened as she saw the small pack of poodles running about yelping maniacally. She let out a wince when she was shoved hard against an abandoned popcorn stall.
Ridley meanwhile found herself being pushed further and further away until the crowd finally dissipated around her and she found herself at the outskirts of the Hall of Mirrors where two young girls and a boy were standing looking up at her nervously. Ridley tensed when she saw their eyes go wide and their skin turn chalk white as a low growl called from behind her. Slowly she pulled back part of her navy blue blazer to give the children a glimpse of her silver badge before she nodded towards the mirrors. "Go," she ordered quietly.
The children exchanged several looks before another growl sounded out and they hurried on their way. Ridley glanced over her shoulder briefly and just managed to suppress a tremble at the sight of a very real, very large and very free Bengal tiger. When it made to pounce she didn't think she just ran, following after the children.
Ridley caught up to the kids hastily as she heard the tiger's paws scrape in the dirt behind them. "Left!" she snapped as she turned them that way sharply to avoid a deceptively clear mirror that seemed to suggest a path ahead of them.
Mirrors everywhere, Ridley glimpsed a hundred warped images of herself as they moved further and further into the Hall of Mirrors. Three children quickly became a dozen, a blonde girl with blue eyes who looked a little like a miniature Calleigh, a rosy cheeked, sandy haired boy and a quivering redheaded, freckled girl.
Left, right, bang! Ridley swallowed a curse as she banged up against a mirror and turned quickly searching for an exit.
"Are we going to die?" the redhead queried through a sob.
"No," Ridley assured with a forced smile. "Come on I bet you kids have done this maze a hundred times, it's easy, we'll be out of here in no time."
"And the tiger?" the boy choked out nervously.
"He'll be trapped, he probably thinks there are a hundred tigers in here with him, he's stupid but you guys are too clever to be tricked like that, right?" The words died on her lips as they turned a corner and she looked ahead.
There were twenty men there, all clad in black and all wearing hawk masks. She lifted her gun before letting out a curse, it was impossible to tell which was the real one and she knew all too well how deadly shooting a mirror could be. Besides, what had he done? He seemed to come closer and the image of the hawk grew large and deformed in six of the mirrors, forming a ring about her. "Get out of here!" she snapped angrily as she felt her heart pounding hard and loud.
She took a chance and moved with the kids, her arms spreading around them from behind as she tried to keep them close and in front of her, all too aware of a tiger potentially behind them. "Almost there," she assured the children as they whimpered every time they seemed to run into a dead end, "it's just a game. The tiger's long gone," she lied, "now we just have to get out of here but I know that's no problem for you guys."
Right, left, fat images, small images; it was a nightmare, a dozen images of Ridley looking unsure, weak, endless reflections taunting her. 'No,' she thought to herself firmly, 'it's just an illusion. Come, on, keep the kids safe.'
The screams erupted out of them all at once as they saw six tigers ready to pounce. Shards of mirror flew everywhere as the one real tiger crashed through one unexpectedly as it tried to grab for the reflection of the boy. "Cover your eyes!" Ridley snapped as she immediately stepped in front of them and raised her gun. Thousands of tiny images of a tiger and herself rained about her as she tried to spy the real thing before it spotted the children. There to the right, that was no illusion! BANG!
It turned with a wild roar and sprang for her; she feinted to the left and let out a scream as its powerful claws managed to catch her right arm, dragging a deep wound down it as the power of its attack forced her to the ground. She banged her head hard and only just managed to yell, "RUN!"
It turned as the children started to flee; the distraction was what stopped it from pinning Ridley down and ripping her to shreds. She rolled, lifted her gun and fired swiftly. No hesitation, no time, if she failed then it could cost the children everything. BANG! This shot seemed to take forever to hum through the air and slam point blank between the tiger's eyes. It reared with a roar of pain, making to swat at its face before it keeled over to the left.
Ridley looked at the twitching body with unease as several pants escaped her. It was a tragic and unnecessary waste. 'What madman let that thing out?' she wondered as she forced herself to her feet, gasping at the pain that sang through her arm. She realised that it was trembling again and guessed it had been adrenaline that had kept her hand straight when aiming. Despite the pain and quivering she refused to sheathe her gun as she could still hear screams singing through the night air.
She moved forward at an agonisingly slow pace, leaning against the mirrors for support, smearing her blood along more than a few of them. She was bleeding out fast and beginning to feel dizzy. 'One more step,' she urged herself, 'just keep going. Got to make sure the kids are alright.'
Tim and Eric weaved through the crowds, caravans and stalls anxiously, their eyes going wide at the sight of llamas, camels, dogs and ostriches running amok.
"What the hell is going on?" Eric shouted anxiously.
Tim was too busy wondering what else was loose to contemplate an answer as they moved. He could see masked figures clad in black running about waving items. He squinted through the dust and the chaos, wondering if the figures were armed.
Eric let out a curse and moved forward frantically and almost violently as he spotted Calleigh crumpled to the left, motionless as she was propped up awkwardly against a caravan. "Calleigh!" he called out to her anxiously as he shoved people out of his way forcefully, terrified that she would be swept up in the chaos.
Tim found himself on the edge of the skirmish, moving around abandoned balloon stalls and game stands. He froze as he came face to face with an eerie looking white rabbit masked man. The black eye sockets seemed to turn down to Tim's badge glinting silver in the light and his hand reaching for his gun.
BANG!
The CSI filled with shock as his chest seemed to explode in pain and his body went falling back with the force of the blow. He had been too slow to go for his gun.
"TIM! TIM!" Ridley shrieked as she saw the dark haired man collapse after the sound of gunfire. She made herself move, breaking out into a run and shoving her way through the throng of people.