Sooner glanced at the next card. “The Devil. You were seduced by a man and then by the material world.”
A smile, not so happy, tipped the edge of her mouth. “Guilty on both counts. Hence the thousands of bills.”
“How did your mother die?”
“She suffered a stroke.”
She drew in a long slow breath and then released it slowly. “At least you had her for thirteen years. My mother ran off and died right after I was born.”
Charlotte sat very still for a long moment. “What has Grady told you about her?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about Mariah. But on my thirteenth birthday I kept pushing. Finally he got angry and told me she ran off. He said she wasn’t right in the head. She said a lot of crazy things before she took off.”
“She wasn’t crazy. She was young. And she was scared. But she wasn’t crazy.” She pulled a picture from her pocket and laid it over the tarot cards. “That’s a picture of Mariah and me. We were about fifteen and sixteen.” A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed to keep her voice even. “We were sisters and best friends.”
Sooner’s body went very still. She carefully picked it up. A frown furrowed her brow as she studied the image. “Mariah looks like me.”
“And she looked like our mother. You look a lot like our mother. I nearly stumbled when I first saw you in court.”
Sooner traced her face. “What happened the night she drowned?”
“She had a date, but she never said a word about leaving. Grady sent out search parties for her. We were all worried. Grady told me they found her by the lake.”
“Where was the carnival then?”
“Here. It was very different then. More woods. Less houses. The carnival had two more nights to go before we wrapped and broke for the winter.”
Sooner stared at Mariah’s image.
“I was supposed to work the tent that night, but I was tired so Mariah volunteered. I tried to wait up for her, but I must have dozed off. I woke up about three in the morning.” No reason to tell the girl that she’d been awoken by a nightmare filled with Mariah’s screams. Or that she’d heard those same screams in recent dreams. “I got scared and went to Grady.”
“I’ve never seen a picture of her before.”
Charlotte tried to ease the tension in her chest with a deep breath. “Grady never told you about Mariah?”
“No.” She traced Mariah’s face. “Did she love me?” Her voice was a bare whisper. “Did my mother love me?”
Tears choked Charlotte’s throat and she couldn’t manage a single word for several moments. Finally, she nodded. “She loved you very much. She wanted the world for you.”
“Then why did she leave?”
“She was so young and so afraid.” The explanation sounded paltry. “I’m so sorry it couldn’t have been different.”
Sooner stiffened. “But it wasn’t, was it?”
“No.” Charlotte straightened. “I want to help.”
“Why? Why do you care?”
“Because we are ... flesh and blood ... all the family the other has.”
The young woman’s eyes glistened with anger and fear. “Maybe Mariah lied to you. Maybe she’d been planning to leave for a long time.”
As kids, Mariah had stretched the truth, but she’d never lied to Grace. “No, she didn’t lie to me.”
“Whatever.” She set the picture down on the table. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ve got to wrap it up for the night. I don’t want to dig into an old wound.”
“Maybe you should. Maybe I should.”
“Like I said, I don’t want to. Just back off. Leave my tent.” The last words were loud and tinged with so much anger.
Charlotte knew enough about people to know when she could get through and when she couldn’t. And right now there was no talking to Sooner. “Okay.”
She left the girl sitting at her desk, her gaze cast on the photo. As she walked through the carnival and listened to the organ music and the laughter, her anger grew.
She checked her watch. The carnival would be closing for the night soon, which meant that Grady was in his trailer getting ready for the final walk-through of the night. In long even strides she crossed the grounds to the black trailer that had been her home when she and her mother had first moved in with him.
Without knocking, she tried the door handle. It was locked. More frustrated and angry than she’d been in years, she pounded her fist until it hurt.
“Hold your damn horses!” Grady’s gravelly voice cut through the metal door like a razor. “Shit. Someone better be fucking bleeding.”
A little breathless, she stepped back. When he opened the door, his anger morphed to curiosity.
Behind him she could see the glow of a television set that he’d turned down. The scent of freshly brewed coffee and hot dogs wafted out of the room. “You’re about the last person I figured I’d see here.”
“I swear to God, Grady, if I had a bat, I’d knock you senseless.”
Her statement made him laugh. “So the cold and level Charlotte Wellington is getting closer and closer to her roots every day. You can take the girl out of the carnival, but you can’t take the carnie out of the girl.”
“Why did you tell Sooner that her mother abandoned her?”
The humor vanished from his gaze. “How do you know what I told Sooner?”
“I just went to see her.”
“I thought you were done with this place. I thought we wasn’t good enough for you.”
His attempts to make her feel guilty were a miserable effort compared to what she’d heaped on herself over the years. “I found pictures of Mariah and me. I thought she might like to have them. Seeing the pictures prompted her to tell me about her mother’s abandonment.”
Grady’s expression hardened. “You and Mariah were so much alike. Always wanting more. You wanted school and she wanted a man to save her. She couldn’t keep her legs closed for more than a few weeks.”
“She was just a kid and she drowned. Did you ever wonder what happened to her?”
“Fucking right, I wondered.” Energy rushed out of him like a tidal wave, leaving him drained and pale. “It was only a matter of time before that girl came to a bad end. She wouldn’t listen to good reason.”
“Good reason or your hard-ass rules and regulations.”
He shrugged. “One and the same.”
She pointed a shaking index finger at him. “You had no right to tell Sooner her mother abandoned her. She believes her mother did not love her.”
“If her mama had loved her, she’d have stayed close to home.”
Tears burned in her eyes. “Home? Or you?”
“One and the same.”
Acceptance seeped into her bones. “I think you are right, Grady. You can’t take the carnie out of the girl.” She leaned toward him, her voice low and determined. “Carnies are fighters at heart, and we can be dangerous. And I can promise you, if you do not treat Sooner right, I will track you down and make you pay.”
His face paled only a fraction. “What the hell could you do to me?”
“I’m not a kid anymore, and I swear I will crush you, old man. I will crush you.”
She turned and left the carnival. In her car, the adrenaline had ebbed from her muscles and her body began to shake. She tipped her head back and let the tears pool in her eyes and fall down her cheeks. All those years ago she’d left the carnival because Grady had sworn Sooner would end up with a real family. And the bastard had lied!
She pounded the steering wheel. “What the hell kind of angle are you working, old man? You never do anything without a reason.”
The air in the car grew hot and stale, forcing her to turn the key in the ignition so she could roll down the windows.
She’d been too young and afraid when Mariah had died to ask many questions. And then when she’d left the carnival, she’d been too busy running from her past to dare think about it.
&nb
sp; However, her days of running were over. She wanted to know what happened to Mariah. And fuck Grady, the past, and whoever didn’t approve of her.
Someone tapped on her window. “Charlotte?”
Hearing her name had her turning. There stood Levi with a woman and two young children, his family, she presumed.
Forcing a smile, she swiped her cheeks and got out of the car. “Levi. What brings you here?”
“Brought the family,” he said. He glanced fondly at a thin brunette standing beside him. “This is Marcia, my wife.”
Charlotte extended her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Marcia took her hand and Charlotte immediately sensed nerves and worry. Small, petite, blond hair, she was conservatively dressed. Her only bit of jewelry was an angel necklace. Hardly the type she’d have paired with the supercharged Levi. “Nice to meet you. These are our children. Bailey and Jefferson.”
The little girl, Bailey, was an eight-year-old version of her mother. And six-year-old Jefferson had his dad’s build but his mother’s nervous energy.
“Hey, guys,” Charlotte said. “Did you have fun at the fair tonight?”
Both kids smiled and dutifully nodded.
“They’re worn out,” Levi said. “We got a late start this evening because of my work but we’ve been here for a couple of hours. I had to bring them. I loved this place.”
She flashed to the moment she’d been pounding on Grady’s trailer door. “There is a lot to see and do here. Did you kids try the Ferris wheel?”