Violets are Blue

Chapter 55

I woke several times during the night. I thought someone was in the house at one point. I felt someone there. Nothing I could do about it, though.

Then I woke again after fourteen hours in bed, and found that I was actually feeling better. I could almost think straight again. Exhaustion still had a hold on me, though. All my joints ached. My eyesight was blurry. I could hear music playing softly in the house. Erykah Badu, one of any favorites.

There was a knock on the bedroom door, and I said, "I'm decent. Who goes there?"

Ja

"I don't know if you can eat yet, Daddy. I brought you some breakfast. Just in case."

"Thank you, sweetie. I'm feeling a little better," I said. I was able to push myself up in bed, then to prop a few pillows behind me with my good hand.

Ja

"You're being so nice," I said to her.

"I am nice, Daddy," Ja

"Just what I need right now," I said.

Ja

"You just eat your breakfast while it's hot. You're getting too ski

"Yeah, you are," Damon agreed. "You are drawn and gaunt."

"Very good." I smiled between small bites of eggs and toast, which I hoped I could keep down. I kept ru

"Did somebody poison you, Daddy?" Ja

I sighed and shook my head. "I don't know, baby. It's an infection. You can get it from a human bite."

Ja

"Who am I to argue with Nana?" I said, and left it at that. "I'm no match for Nana Mama right now." Or maybe ever.

I looked at the puffed-up bandage and gauze covering most of my right shoulder. The skin was a sickly yellow around the bandage. "Something bad got into my blood. I'm okay now, though. I'm coming back." But I remembered what Irwin Snyder had said: You're one of us.

Chapter 56

I was able to make it downstairs for di

After di

I didn't sleep once I got up to my room, though. Too many bad thoughts about the murders were buzzing in my head. Right or wrong, I felt like we were getting close to something. Maybe I was just fooling myself, though.

I worked for a couple of hours on the computer, and my concentration was fine. I was pretty certain that something had to link up the cities where the murders had taken place. What was it, though? What was everybody missing?

I looked at anything and everything. I studied the schedules of airplane carriers that flew into each of the cities, then bus companies, and finally railroads. It was probably just busywork, but you never know, and I had nothing better to do.

I checked out corporations that had main or branch offices in the cities and found there were a lot of matches, but it wasn't likely to get me anywhere. Federal Express, American Express, the Gap, the Limited, McDonald's, Sears, and JC Pe

I had at least one travel book for each of the cities where murders had taken place, and I pored over them until it was almost midnight. Nothing came of it. My arm was throbbing again. I was starting to get a headache. The rest of the house was quiet.

Next, I checked on traveling sports teams, circuses and carnivals, author tours, rock and roll groups — and then I hit on something in the entertainment area. I had been ready to call it a night, but here was something interesting. I tried not to get excited, but my pulse quickened as I checked the West Coast information first. Then the East Coast. Bingo. Maybe.

I had found the kind of pattern that I was looking for — an entertainment act that worked winters and early spring on the West Coast, and then came east. Their tour cities and the murders were matching up for now. Jesus.

They had been touring for fifteen years.

I was almost certain I'd found some kind of co

Two magicians who called themselves Daniel and Charles.

The same ones Andrew Cotton and Dara Grey had seen the night they were murdered in Las Vegas.

I even knew where they were scheduled to perform next. They were probably already there.

New Orleans.

I called Kyle Craig.

Chapter 57

Eleven years of unsolved murders had come down to this.

New Orleans, Louisiana.

A nightclub called Howl.

A pair of magicians named Daniel and Charles.

I still couldn't travel, so I remained in Washington. I hated not being in New Orleans. I was missing an important time, but Kyle was there. I think he wanted to make this bust himself, and I couldn't blame him. This could help make his career, no doubt about it. The case was huge.

That night in New Orleans a half dozen FBI agents circulated through the crowd that had turned out for Daniel and Charles's early performance. Howl was located in the warehouse district, off Julia Street. Usually it featured musical acts, and even tonight zydeco and blues reverberated from the mortar-and-redbrick walls. A few tourists tried to bring "geaux" cups from Bourbon Street into Howl. They were denied admission "for life."

The used Cressidas and Colts and a few sport-utility vehicles in the parking lot were a tip-off to the presence of Tulane and Loyola college students packed inside. Smoke lay thick over the noisy and restless crowd. Several in the audience looked underage, and the club had been cited for serving minors. The owners found it easier to buy off the New Orleans police than to effectively regulate the club.

Suddenly, everything went quiet. A single voice punctuated the silence. "Holy shit! Look at this."

A white tiger had walked out onto the stage, which was covered in layers of black velvet.

There was no leash on the cat. No trainer or handler was anywhere in sight. The formerly raucous audience remained silent.

The big cat lazily raised its head and roared. A girl in a hot-pink tank top screamed in the pit seating area. The cat roared again.

A second white tiger walked out and stood beside the first. It glared down at the crowd and roared. The pit audience was situated directly in front of the stage. Men and women seated there scrambled away, grabbing their beer bottles.

An unmistakable tiger roar now came from the back, behind the audience. Everyone froze. How many cats were loose in the club? Where were they? What the hell was going on?

The lights onstage made the peripheral space a dark void. Any retreat to either side of the room was a gamble. There was a shift of the stage lights — left to right, then right to left. The lights were powerful, almost blinding. The lights created the visual illusion that the entire stage had moved.