Avant Guard: Murder Under the Big Top

[dans]

Finally after years of waiting and promotion, following an extensive advertising campaign similar to that of Kooba Kola... here it is!

Those of you who read the original posts back on Yahoo will recognize the story, though I have made some tweaks to the stuff that was already posted - and finally worked through to the ending. Scroll down to keep reading! And be sure and bombard me with comments. Thanks!

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 1 Welcome to the Circus

Introduction

A circus is fun, right?

Setting

Alex Silverstone's Apartment, San Francisco, CA, mid 1960

Circus Tickets

Alex Silverstone cursed when she heard someone pounding on her apartment door, loud enough to be heard over the hiss of the shower. "Hold on! I'll be right there!" Alex yelled crossly, while mentally swearing at the interruption. She was getting ready for early dinner and a show with her friend Donna Sparks, and maybe a little dancing and 'who knows what else?' afterward, and she was in a bit of a rush. But by the time she hopped out of the shower, wrapped herself in her big fluffy towel, and crossed the tiny living room, the pounding had stopped and someone had slipped a big, brightly colored envelope under her door. It had no postage, no return address, only a single word scrawled on the front: Alex.

She opened the envelope, shook out the contents. "Circus tickets?" A big smile crossed Alex Silverstone's face. "That can only mean Tammi. I can't believe it, circus tickets!"

She examined the tickets wonderingly; Alex hadn't been to a circus since she was in first grade. They were big, almost the size of her hand, and brightly colored, the front and the back jammed with text and pictures, and Alex realized that they were designed to serve not only as tickets for admission, but also as highly effective attention-grabbing advertising handbills.

Large bright letters shouted:

---

C.C. Haly and Norton Brothers Traveling Three-Ring Circus
The Biggest Little Circus on Earth!
Clowns and Acrobats
Exotic and Dangerous Wild Animals
The Funny Monkeys and GIANT Snakes
Fire Eaters
GIGANTIC Mideway / Games of Chance and Skill!
Amazing Rides
Daredevil Stunt Riding

---

The list was printed over a picture of an aerial act, showing a small woman, dressed in a glittering silver, barely-there leotard, flying between two other sparkling performers swinging from trapezes and then about two thirds of the way down the page, in text almost as large as the name of the circus,

FEATURING: 1960 US Olympian TAMMI PAIGE, America's Darling,
and
The First Family of the Air, the electrifying, death defying, Flying Flemings!

Alex looked closer, and of course, the flying figure was her friend.

"Always on the front page, eh, Tams? Typical!" she sighed in resigned amusement. "What a showoff!" She wasn't surprised; wherever Tammi went, whatever she did, she always found some way to be the center of attention. "You'd draw a crowd on the dark side of the moon!" she clucked at her absent friend with mock disapproval.

Below Tammi's promo headline was a schedule of dates and performance hours, and on the back was a list of the wonders available at the sideshow, written on a dramatic picture showing more spectacular acts - fire eaters, jugglers, contortionists, and knife throwers. All in all, a very tantalizing exhibit.

Also in the envelope was a note, hastily scribbled in Tammi's big, sloppy handwriting:

'These tickets are good any time until we leave Petaluma, but if you can come to the early show this Saturday, you might be able to get on TELEVISION! They're filming for our very first-ever TV commercial during the afternoon performance. Of course, they're mainly interested in me but I told 'em they have to get some of the other acts. And our audience, of course! See you soon, Love, Tammi'

It was a bemused Alex Silverstone who climbed on her bike Saturday morning and headed north across the Golden Gate bridge. 'I figured I'd never seen her again... she told me her circus always stuck to the north central part of the company. What are they doing on the West Coast? How is she going to turn my life upside down this time?'

As her big, silent electric bike whisked her easily through the light traffic on the Golden Gate bridge, she pondered today's upcoming event with a bit of trepidation. She was eager to see her friend, but she was also worried that her life was about to be disrupted again. Even from such a small prior sample, she'd come to the conclusion that even in small doses, Tammi always had that effect, wherever she went. Her friend had sent two tickets but she was alone, and she laughed ruefully when she realized she hadn't invited a friend with her because she didn't want Tammi to think she had either a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Outside of Petaluma, she passed a billboard for the circus displaying a giant close up of Tammi, a compact girl with long dark hair, in her skimpy silvery aerialist leotards. She almost didn't notice the text at the bottom of the sign, directing circus-goers to the fairgrounds, 3 miles straight ahead, until she was almost past the sign; by then it was almost too late to read the directions.

'Pretty damn dangerous distraction!,' she grumbled behind her silvery face shield. 'There really oughta be a law about putting indecent pictures like that on billboards!'

Show Off!

Alex was about an hour early for the start of the 2 PM performance. She thought there might be an unusual amount of people streaming towards the entrance this early. "Busy day?" she asked the barker as he punched her ticket.

"A little more than usual," he agreed. "Gonna be standing room only in the big top if you're late."

"I heard there's a video crew here filming for a TV commercial. I'd really love to watch," Alex continued - and thought: 'And of course, that's where I'll find Tams!'

"You and all the other rubes... er, sorry, make that 'all our other valued customers', will ya?" He winked at her. "They're filming in the midway now, until it's time for the main act. Just head over that way," he pointed across the grounds to a smaller gate. On the other side of that gate, Alex could see a crowded arcade with at least 20 booths and behind them a roller coaster and a half dozen smaller rides.

"Mother Gaia!" Alex exclaimed in mock dismay. "It looks like your sideshow is big enough to be a carnival in its own right! How am I going to find them?" Alex hadn't been to a big circus in a long time, but she went to at least one small carnival a year, and she always loved playing the games - especially ringing the bell on the high striker when all the big strong men around her failed. It was easy once you knew the trick!

"Natch!" the barker said proudly. "That's the 'Norton Brothers' part of the name. I'm one of the Nortons, came along for the ride after Haly bought the carny. As for the TV folks - head for the coaster and you can't miss them!"

And she couldn't. Near the scaffolding supporting the roller coaster, the busy arcade became an almost impenetrable knot of people. Alex was willing to bet her bike (well, definitely one of her paintings, not really her bike) that Tammi was at the center of that knot. Partially screened by the heads of the taller people in the crowd, she could make out the top of a big video camera, quite a bit bigger than a breadbox, but she'd have to get a lot closer to see what it was aimed at. When a wave of laughter and cheers arose from those in the center of the crowd, she was pretty sure she'd found the imp for whom she was searching.

'Sort of found her - it might take me hours to get through. Sort of searching? Hoping she'd be somewhere else? Too late for that, unless I turn and run right now,' Alex chuckled ruefully at her own thoughts.

A few seconds later, an observer with a good vantage point such as the top car on the Ferris wheel would have noticed an unusual phenomenon, as some kind of slow wave or ripple effect undulated from the outskirts to the center of that human knot. Someone in the path of that slow ripple would suddenly notice something vaguely ominous in his peripheral vision, and would turn to see what it was - and when he turned back, a slender blonde woman in a leather jacket would be standing in front of him - and the person in front of her would be turning to the side, leaving another small opening, which Alex would smoothly fill. It was very slow - sometimes she had to make detours, as some people stubbornly ignored (or perhaps couldn't see) those distracting peripheral flickers. But her progress was steady.

She finally reached the front row. The camera had a crew of five men. Two were operating the camera, and another was conducting an interview, while the two remaining men were struggling to keep the crowd back. Even though she had expected it, Alex sighed in exasperation when she saw half a dozen circus performers, all dressed in their circus, clustered around...

'Tammi. Of course. Who else would wear such a revealing costume, totally covered with glittering gold sequins?'

Even though the front row of the crowd was laughing at Tammi's last answer, her head snapped around at the faint sound of Alex's sigh and she instantly oriented on her friend as if she had sonar. "Alex! You came! I just knew you would!" Tammi yelled. "Gangway!! Comin' THROUGH!" she hollered as she launched herself toward her friend like a Nike missile.

"OH, crap!" Alex had time to mutter before the young aerialist leapt, arms out, and slammed into her like a miniature linebacker. Tammi wrapped her arms around her friend as Alex staggered backwards, and only the press of the crowd behind her allowed her to barely stay on her feet.

Alex hissed directly in Tammi's ear "I can't believe I'm being attacked by a half-naked narcissistic exhibitionist maniac in front of a crowd, you little bimbo!" She paused an instant. "Well, actually, I _can_ believe the crowd part. But the rest?"

"What a sweet thing to say!" Tammi laughed. "I'm happy to see you, too, Alex!"

Almost as abruptly as she'd initiated it, Tami ended the hug, releasing her friend and dropping to the ground. "Listen, I gotta go get ready for my act." She turned to a clown who'd followed her to the front row. "Bosco, show Alex to the 'friends and family' seats, will you?" She gave him a quick kiss, then turned back to Alex. "You'll really love Bosco, and he'll take good care of you." She gave Alex another hug, "See you after the show, OK?"

She turned back to Bosco. "Bos, gimme a step up, will ya? Don't miss this, guys!" she told the camera crew. The clown shrugged, then dropped to his hands and knees. Tammi backed up, took two running strides, stepped up onto the small of his back, and leaped!

"Gangway! Comin' THROUGH!" she screamed her battle cry again as the crowd scattered frantically in front of her, then caught one of the support stanchions for the roller coaster. She spun once around the pole, arms outstretched like a horizontal giant circle, pumping her hips to generate more power, released, did a half twist and a flip, and landed on the other side of the crowd, sprinting towards the big top. Well, sprinting and throwing in some tumbling moves and cartwheels as well.

"Show off!" one of the other performers muttered in a nasty tone, and the crowd started to disperse, also moving towards the big top, though much more slowly than America's Darling.

Spectacular Opening Act

Bosco showed Alex to the star backs, best seats in the house, chatting merrily about Tammi. His real name actually _was_ Bosco; both his parents had been clowns and he'd grown up in the circus. Alex got the strong impression that the young man was Tammi's boyfriend - or at least HE thought he was. He made sure she had a Bible (souvenir program), then had to run.

"Can't miss the charivari!" he told her. "Nice to meet one of Tammi's friends. See you after the show!"

People poured into the Big Top, and by show time, it was standing room only. A few minutes after 2, the main lights gradually faded to darkness. The crowd noise subsided, and for a few seconds it was almost spooky in the dark, silent Big Top, as the crowd waited expectantly for something to happen.

The suspense built until a spotlight snapped on, tightly focused on the center of the main ring. In the circle of brilliant light stood a tall man with wide shoulders and a paunch, dressed in the traditional Ringmaster's garb of long red jacket with black collar and lapels over a white shirt, black jodhpurs, high black boots, a whip, and, of course, a tall black top hat. He addressed the audience in a voice that sounded larger than life, speaking without a microphone or even a megaphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the C.C. Haly and Norton Brothers Traveling Three-Ring Circus... The Biggest Little Circus on Earth!" He continued, his voice filling the tent, reaching every ear without seeming to yell, his language bombastic, his movements flamboyant. He told them what they'd see, whipped them into a high level of excitement, and introduced the first act.

The spotlight on the Ringmaster snapped off and at the same time, another snapped on, aimed at a platform high on the king pole, pinning the Fabulous Flying Flemings against the dark!

Alex zoomed her vision in for a close-up, and noted the strong familial resemblance between Tammi and the two adults. She must be their daughter. 'I wonder which name is the alias, Paige or Fleming? Well, she wants to be a mystery hero, looks like she's already got the secret identity bit down!'

Tammi had revealed her sound-based powers and her secret desire to Alex in strictest confidence when they'd first met at the AAU Gymnastics National Championships/Olympic Tryouts in San Francisco late last year. When she'd learned that Alex also had unusual powers and had already used them to aid the police and decided on the code name 'Palette', the exuberant youngster had instantly decided that the two of them were destined by fate to be a mystery hero team:

"Miss Music and Palette! Just like Adventurine and Red Rocket!" Tammi had crowed.

"Sorry," Alex had laughed at her friend, "Age before beauty, you know. It'll be Palette and Miss Music!"

*see San Francisco Threat (This is a summary, the full story is yet to come)

Back in the present, she smiled again, wondering why Tammi had decided on Miss Music?

The Ringmaster's deep voice thundered from the dark, and the famous aerialists bowed as they were introduced, Fantasia and Frederich Fleming, and Tammi Paige. Then the lights went up so they could begin their performance.

Tammi was an exceptional gymnast and might have won an Olympic medal in floor exercise if she'd had a chance to compete, but as a gymnast, she had been limited by the rules of the sport, the apparatus and the expectations of the judges. When performing with her family, their only limits were their skills and their bodies. The show they put on was incredible!

Sleek, fit bodies wrapped in glitter flashed through the air, spinning, twirling and tumbling, seeming to defy gravity, danger, and death. A half dozen times, the crowd gasped in awe as the Flying Flemings completed one seemingly impossible stunt after another. If their timing had been a hair less precise, or their coordination and conditioning even a touch less than perfect, at least one of them would certainly have fallen to the hard-packed ground far below.

They finished with their most spectacular stunt yet. Fantasia held the trapeze bar with her knees, hanging upside down, and Tammi held her hands, dangling beneath. At the height of their swing, directly above the center of the main ring, Fantasia let go, and Tammi continued to rise, spinning through several flips, and then began to fall - and there was nobody there to catch her! The audience was stunned - and then realized that while all eyes were riveted on the high-flying aerialists, a trampoline had been set up.

Tammi hit dead center, and bounced high in the air while performing acrobatics similar to those of a platform diver - in reverse! She bounced twice more, and at the top of the third bounce, her parents swooped in at precisely the same instant, released, and they all joined hands before plummeting down. They hit the trampoline in perfect synchronization, bounced once about half as high as their fall, and on the next bounce, instead of bouncing straight up, they flew toward the grandstand, did a synchronized flip, still holding hands, and landed perfectly on the soft mats, then took a bow together. No Olympic dismount could have been more spectacular, or more perfectly executed. To a thunderous standing ovation, they left the arena through the back door, as the lights dimmed and a spotlight focused on the Ringmaster again, to introduce the next performances.

Only the audience wouldn't let him. The already thunderous applause and cheering grew even louder and more intense, as the audience demanded a curtain call. The spotlight on the Ringmaster flicked off, and another speared Frederich, approaching the main ring in a tumbling run. He bounced off a springboard, did a flip with a full twist in a laid-out position, and landed solidly on his feet. The spotlight remained on him and another flicked on, and Fantasia entered the ring with a similar tumbling performance - except that she launched herself off the springboard, went even higher in the air, and landed on his shoulders. Then it was Tammi's turn in the spotlight. She cartwheeled, back flipped, and tumbled across the packed floor, hit a different springboard than her folks had used, and was flung even higher in the air. A couple of flips, and she landed on Fantasia's shoulders - and the human tower barely quivered. The deafening applause doubled in volume as Tammi and Fantasia dropped to the mat on either side of Frederich, took their bows and left the arena.

Once again, the Ringmaster fought the crowd noise. "If you think that was spectacular, folks, you ain't seen _nuthin_ yet! Tammi Paige and the electrifying, death defying, High Flying Flemings will be back later!" He waited for a few seconds for the cheers to die down and introduced the next acts.

The Main Events!

In Ring One, the smaller ring to the left of the main ring, the Great Houndini and his trained dogs strutted their stuff. In Ring 2, the tumblers and jugglers of the famous Crimson Sunrise Troupe competed for audience attention, as in Center Ring, Annie Oaktree demonstrated precision marksmanship and trick riding on the back of her dappled stallion Stardust. In the background, a very small car had just come careening into the tent, and was shedding clowns everywhere it went - way too many clowns to fit in a car that small! The camera crew feverishly swung the ponderous video camera back and forth, trying to catch as much of everything as possible.

The dogs performed incredible feats: walking upright, tumbling, jumping through hoops, strutting, among others. Houndini didn't speak much to his animal friends, other than to encourage and praise them, and led them through most of their stunts using a baton. The stunts were often difficult, sometimes requiring almost machine-like precision. When a dog had performed a particularly difficult feat, it would then eagerly approach Houndini, tail wagging, barking joyfully, almost as if saying "Look at ME! Look what I just did!" And he always rewarded each dog with a treat.

About 5 minutes into the set, just as the camera swung to cover Ring One and capture footage of Houndini's performance, several clowns converged in the dusk nearby and started to perform their own trained dog show. Bosco the Clown imitated Houdini, directing and encouraging the clowns in dog costumes with what appeared to be a femur from a dinosaur. Unlike Houndini, he frequently used his 'baton' to discipline a 'dog' who didn't perform well, always with comic results.

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 2 Disaster Strikes

Disaster Strikes the Big Top

Suddenly, things went horribly wrong.

Without warning, several of the friendly, playful, well-trained dogs, who had been happily following the directions of the Great Houndini, became a ferocious pack of vicious wild predators, as they raced out of the ring and attacked Bosco! He was down before anyone knew what had happened, buried under a mass of snarling attacking dogs. One went for the throat, two worried his arms and legs, and one attacked the bone he'd been using to direct his satirical show. For a few seconds, the audience thought it was part of the show, but Bosco's heart-rending screams of pain and terror convinced them otherwise. People didn't know what to do, and chaos started to arise in the stands.

Alex was watching Annie in the Center Ring when she heard the clown start screaming. She spun around and zoomed in on the dog attack. Realizing that the victim was Bosco, she leapt from her seat, jumped the small barrier, and rushed forward to help.

Houndini busted out of his shock and raced to the clown's aid, shouting "HEY, RUBE!!" between shouted orders to his dogs. Without hesitation, he plunged into the writhing pile, striking each of the attacking dogs on the head with his heavily-weighted baton, stunning them. Some of those he struck tried to attack him, and some of the others kept struggling feebly to reach Bosco. The band began loudly playing 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', and every cirkie who could hear the music streamed towards the Big Top. They went into action like a well-oiled machine, some screening the audience's view with a human wall, others assigned to audience control. The Ringmaster's loud, commanding voice rang out from Center Ring, directing the audience to exits, and the team of roustabouts began to assist and encourage the crowd to clear the tent as quickly as possible.

Alex reached the pile and wrapped her arms around one of the dogs on the periphery, restraining it, holding it tightly so it couldn't bite her or get away to join the attack on the bleeding, now unconscious Bosco. The dog had almost broken from her grip when suddenly the snarling dogs stopped attacking Bosco and Houndini, though the one worrying his bone baton continued until Houndini ordered him to stop. The dogs looked bewildered, and then became terrified as roustabouts armed with pistols and rifles started shooting them. Houndini screamed at them to stop, but they didn't listen. He wrapped his arms around as many of his beloved friends as he could reach, and wept as the rest of his animal friends were killed.

Around this time, the circus Gaffer arrived and started giving orders. "You!" he pointed. "Take charge of the guys working the crowd." His gaze swept across the group of roustabouts, snapped back to another. "Annie, you get something to cover Bosco. Bellini, you get some guys and get rid of the dead dogs. Ricardo, you keep everybody back so Sawbones can work! Yorkie, get the rest of the dogs into a cage, NOW!"

Sawbones, the circus doctor, was crouched next to the mangled body, and when he heard his name, he looked up and shook his head sadly. "It's too late for me to help him, Gaf, he's already gone to Windy's."

At that instant, large roustabouts were scattered like bowling pins as Tammi burst through the human wall as if shot from a cannon. She saw her friend lying in his own blood, screamed, and knelt next to him, holding his head and crying. A young man in a business suit pulled her away and wrapped his arms around her. "It's too late, Tams, he's gone," he crooned gently into her ear. Tammi looked up, and saw Alex nearby, tore free of the man's grasp, and rushed to her friend. Both women missed the young man's deadly stare at Alex as she comforted her small friend as best she could.

As Alex tried in vain to comfort her, Tammi's parents pushed through the milling crowd. Tammi released her death grip on her friend and ran to her parents, spreading her arms as wide as she could to wrap around both of them. Alex stepped closer, and Tammi must have sensed that they were about to ask this stranger to leave, as she looked up and said "It's OK; that's Alex,", then buried her head on her mother's chest.

Fantasia smiled wanly and said "We've heard a lot of nice things about you," and Frederich held out his free hand. "We have your beautiful painting of Tammi on the wall of our trailer, and we've wanted to meet the artist ever since we hung it. Sorry to meet you under such horrid circumstances."

Alex and the Flemings soon became aware that the local police had arrived on the scene. The first cop asked some questions and quickly made up his mind. He took Houndini's arm. "You're under arrest for murder, buddy. Come along quietly. Don't make us get rough."

The Gaffer pulled Houndini free and the Ringmaster stepped between the four cops and the dog trainer, and the cops suddenly realized that they were outnumbered and standing in a circle of angry roustabouts, most of the bigger than the police officers, and many of them armed. The Ringmaster spoke quickly to prevent any further violence.

"Officer..." he read the man's name, "Smith, I sorta agree with you that this was a murder... but I've known this man for almost 20 years, and he is NOT the murderer. Whoever did this had to have known that at least some of the dogs would be killed, and Houndini would sooner cut off his own arm than let one of his dogs be hurt. You find enough evidence to convince me that Houndini _might_ be guilty and you can take him away for trial. Until then, he stays with us!" There was a murmur of agreement from the crowd of performers and roustabouts.

The cops decided to defer any arrests for a while, so the most senior changed the subject. "You better make sure the dog guy sticks around while we investigate. Why don't you tell us what happened?" he asked the Ringmaster, whose commanding presence convinced the cops that he was in charge of the circus.

"We can do better than that!" a member of the camera crew yelled excitedly. "We got the whole thing on tape!"

Instant Replay

Everyone tried to crowd around the video camera, with the cameraman, the cops, the Ringmaster, the Gaffer, Haly Jr., the owner of the circus, and Norton Jr., Haly's partner and once owner of the carnival, all jammed together in the front. The cameraman had removed the hood from the viewfinder in order to make the video viewfinder/playback screen more visible, but only those in the front row could actually watch the replay on the small monitor.

Frederich had pulled some folding chairs as close to the camera as possible, and while Tammi sat dejectedly on hers, Alex was standing on her own. This put her high enough above the crowd that she could use her zoom-in eyes to watch the monitor. An instant before the dogs attacked, Tammi screamed, then clamped her hands to the sides of her head, squeezed her elbows together and dropped her head as if she was overcome with grief. As Alex clambered down from her chair to check on her friend, Tammi stood up, grabbed Alex and Fantasia by the hands, and pulled them toward the tent's back door.

As soon as were in the back yard and out of earshot of the police, Tammi stopped. "Bosco WAS murdered! I don't know who did it, but Houndini is NOT the murderer!"

"How could you possibly know that, Tams?" Alex asked curiously.

"I'll tell you when we get inside," the young aerialist whispered. "Nobody else will believe me - but you guys better!" She grabbed Alex's hand and practically dragged her towards the long trailer that was home to the Flying Flemings.

Frederich bowed and gestured as he held the door open to their guest. "Welcome to our humble abode, Alex. Again, I wish it were under better circumstances."

The four filed directly into the small, tastefully furnished living room. Hung prominently on the rear wall was a beautiful painting of a young woman stepping from a lake to the sandy shore. There was a small island behind her, and several otters were playing in the water around her feet. Fantasia gestured at the painting. "We tried to get Tammi to hang it in her room - but you know what a showoff she is. She insisted that we display it here - where all our guests can see it."

"I just want to make sure everyone can see what an awesome artist Alex is!" Tammi insisted, while the other three laughed. She changed the subject. "You guys know I can hear things nobody else can, right?" They all nodded; Tammi had already told her parents about her powers. "There was an ultrasonic signal like a dog whistle that caused those dogs to attack - and it got recorded by the TV equipment; I heard it when they were playing back the recording. Houndini uses whistles to train his dogs, but he never ever uses them in front of a live audience."


"He doesn't _usually_ use a whistle in a show," Frederich agreed slowly. "But he might have had a whistle with him during _this_ particular show. How can we know? We were all three of us in the dressing room." He was depressed; the Fleming family had been friends with Houndini for many years. He didn't want to doubt his old friend, but the dog trainer seemed the most logical suspect.

"I might be able to help with that," Alex answered diffidently. "Has Tammi told you about _my_ powers yet?"

"Now way, no how!" Tammi shook her head vigorously. "You know I pricked my finger with a pin, crossed my heart and swore on a stack'a Bibles. You can't break promises like that!"

"That is a pretty serious oath," Frederich said in his most serious tone, meanwhile winking at Alex. "Do Fantasia and I need to make vows like that too before you tell us more?"

"Well... Alex paused and cocked her head in thought. "Actually... nah. My powers aren't that big a deal, and I'm sure you guys can keep a secret." She wagged her finger sternly at her friend. "Even if I tell, though, that doesn't let you off the hook - remember you promised longer than forever!"

"I remember..." Tammi said, like a little girl who'd just been scolded - even though she knew her dad and Alex were just playing with her. "But you're wrong, your powers are AWESOME!! Way better than mine!" she loyally defended her friend.

"Well, yeah, I think so too..." Alex said quietly after another few seconds of thought.

"Hey! Whadda you mean by that crack? My powers are better and always will be!" Tammi stomped her foot.

Alex laughed. "Are we going to stand here and argue, or are we going to clear Houndini of a murder rap? And maybe find out who murdered your boyfriend?" she asked sardonically. She turned to Tammi's parents.

"I do the same sort of thing Tammi does, except with what I see rather than what I hear," Alex explained. "It's easier to show you."

"It'll be like watching a silent move - in color!" Tammi explained to her folks.

Alex concentrated, and a moving picture appeared on the only bare wall in the trailer.

"I was watching the trick riding when I heard poor Bosco start screaming?" Alex narrated her 'movie'. On the wall, the tall, muscular, long haired red head Annie Oaktree was standing confidently on the saddle of her galloping horse, a pistol in each hand, when the point of view whipped around dazzlingly, swinging past Houndini - and stopped. The abrupt stop caused the acrobats to gasp and sway on their feet.

They were looking directly at Houndini, who was captured making a step - one foot suspended in the air, his mouth open to give a command to his dogs. The view zoomed in on his face, slowly, this time, as Alex tried not to disorient her friends any further.

"No whistle in his mouth now, but I didn't see him until after the dogs had already reached Bosco; he could have dropped it by now," she observed. "Let's check his hands." The view zoomed out a little, then dropped and zoomed in first on his left hand, which was near his side and wide open, and then on his right, which was holding the baton. The hands were not quite as crisp as the face had been, as if they were just a bit out of focus.

"OK, now the ground, but don't expect to see much." The farther their point of view got from Houndini's face, the less crisp it became, and when the ground in the ring came into the view, the small details were blurred beyond recognition.

"Best I can do," Alex was apologetic. "The farther something is from my center of attention, the less detail I can recall. So we can't really tell anything from my replay. But let's try the other." She had carefully avoided including Bosco in this playback; she didn't want to further traumatize her friends by making them watch the horrible death of their friend. She'd seen it, and she knew it was going to haunt her for a long time.

"HEY! Who said Bosco was my boyfriend?" Tammi sputtered, then shut up when everyone else ignored her.

The view on the wall flickered and changed. Now they were looking over the heads of a crowd of roustabouts at the small viewfinder screen in the video camera. Alex was tall enough that by standing on the chair, she'd managed to get an unobstructed view. Once again, the picture zoomed in slowly, until that small TV screen was blown up to be about 4 feet tall on the wall. "This time I was looking right at it," Alex explained, "and I had already zoomed in my eyes on the screen. So we'll see exactly what the camera saw."

"Hey! That camera records in color!!" Tammi blurted when she saw the close up of the picture on the camera's monitor. "So howcome all the TV programs I like are still in black and white?" she complained loudly.

Everyone turned to look at her this time, disapproval for her outbreaks showing on their faces. "Oops!" she exclaimed, then hesitated, then continued: "I guess that wasn't quite appropriate, was it?" Her voice grew smaller: "I'm really sorry! It's just that I can't stand to think about..." She ran down, gave a small gulp, and her mother gathered her in for a comforting hug.

Alex waited discretely until Tammi had stopped snuffling and turned back to the wall, then demonstrated another aspect of her powers. The view on the wall moved forward in time in slow motion, without the flickering and jerkiness that usually characterized slow-motion in the cinema. While it wasn't a generally-known concept at the time, Alex was proving that the resolution and storage capacity of the human eye and brain are many orders of magnitude higher than the best video camera and magnetic tape of the time.

"No whistle!" Frederich pronounced with relief, after they had reviewed Houndini's act several times, first focusing on his face, then his hands, then the ground in the ring. They even zoomed into his mouth; though it was difficult to see details, it was clear that his mouth was empty.

"Unless the whistle was in his mouth when he entered the ring, and then he swallowed it, it wasn't him!" Fantasia was relieved as well.

"It's not legal proof," Alex cautioned them. "Nobody but Tammi can hear the signal, and even if they could, we can't prove that it was the signal that caused the dogs to attack. And we still don't know who DID blow the whistle."

"So we're just going to have to figure it out by ourselves!" Tammi announced firmly. "Whoever the bad guy is, he better look out, 'cause now he's got Tammi Paige on this tail. GANGWAY, Comin' THRU!"

Investigation

"I think it was Annie," Tammi announced pompously. "She wants to spend all her time alone with me, but she makes me uncomfortable. So lately, I've been telling her... er..." she stopped and sobbed once. "I used to tell her that I was busy with Bosco. Sometimes she got really mad."

"Did Bosco know you were using him to keep Annie away?" Alex asked softly.

"I spent time with Bosco because I liked him," Tammi snapped out indignantly. "More than anybody else in the circus, except my folks. More'n any of my other friends." She bent her head, spoke the next words to the floor in a bashful whisper. "Except you." She turned her head and shyly looked at her friend, concealing a small smile.

Alex was stunned - was her friend just being a tease? "Thanks, Tams - I like you too." There didn't seem to be anything else to say. "So," she briskly changed the subject. "Annie has a motive for killing Bosco - so you'd be free to spend more time with her. Do you have any other admirers?"

"Of course!" Tammi preened. Recalling her many admirers seemed to cheer her up a bit. She held up a hand and started ticking off names on her fingers. "There's Annie, and Andy, and Tommy, and Cassie the Cannongirl, and Peter, the new appearance scheduler from the business office." She reached the last finger, and went back to the thumb, and gave an exaggerated sigh of feigned resignation. "You know, now that I'm counting, well, there's just about too many to remember them all - but only one of me, just not enough Tammi to go around, you know? Maybe there oughta be three of me, or I could just be bigger, like you?"

Alex couldn't scold Tammi for her self-absorption - she knew that Bosco's death had deeply affected her friend, and her brash words were just a front. Well, maybe; with Tammi it was difficult to be really certain. "That's a lot of jealous people to investigate. We better get started!"

*****

The police questioned everyone who might have been a witness, but they received little cooperation. Still, they felt there was enough evidence to arrest Houndini, as they told the owners, the Ringmaster and the Gaffer later that evening.

"You guys might not'a knowed this, being tha big muckety mucks'a dis here circus," the self-important police sergeant addressed the circus big wigs. "But Houndini hated tha Bosco kid for puttin' together that clown-dog act. Everbody knows they had a big fight the first time Houndini saw it. The dog guy, he even took a swing at the clown guy, and promised to 'get him' later on."

The four bosses were grimly amused at the cop's presumption that they might not be aware of circus goings-on; the circus was more like their extended family than their business. "I talked to them both right after that fight," the Ringmaster replied. "They shook hands and went back to being friends. Later on, Houndini told me he was starting to appreciate the act, and he even suggested some new stunts for it."

"Yeah, we heard that too," the sergeant agreed. "But we also heard that dogs can be trained to attack somebody 'cause of the tings he's doin'. So the dog guy told the clown guy some new stunts and then trained the dogs to attack when the clown guy waved his arm just right, or somethin', in one'a them new stunts."

It was a theory the four hadn't considered. "It's possible," said Haly slowly. "But whoever trained the dogs had to know they would get shot, probably killed. Houdini loves his dogs more than he loves himself, He would never let them get hurt."

"Not all'a' the dogs attacked," the cop objected. "He used a dozen dogs in that show, right? Some 'a your guys said that all the dogs that attacked are all new, that Houndinari picked 'em up since you guys left Seattle. He saved the ones he likes the best and let the new ones do the dirty work and get killed, see?"

The four were startled; they hadn't considered that the new dogs might have been purchased for just this reason. Still, Barry Houndini had been with the circus forever, and he had never hurt anyone; nobody believed this theory. "You've got nothing but circumstantial evidence," the Ringmaster, who was proud of his erudition, insisted calmly but forcefully. "Not nearly adequate to convict him."

"I thank we got enough ta get a warrant for his arrest," the sergeant shot back. "We 're gonna take him down to the station and check him inta his new room." He got up and turned for the entrance.

"No, you're not," the Gaffer insisted. "We keep him here until we see that warrant."

The two men stared lightning bolts at each other for a few seconds, as the cop remembered being surrounded by a couple of dozen malicious cirkies, many of them armed. "We'll be back tomorrah, see!?" the furious sergeant snarled. "And maybe we'll be bustin' some mor'a you guys fer obstructin' justice." He looked around, made sure each of the cirkies knew who was threatening who, here. "The dog guy better be here, and he better come along quietly, or you boys'll be up to yer knees in elephant $#!*, ya know what I mean?"

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 3 Nighttime Adventure

Eavesdroppers

"Once the police get hold of Barry, it'll be harder'n all get out to pry him free again," Alex mused to her friend. The two women lurked furtively in the deep shadows between two of the trailers near the trailer used as the main business office of the circus. Tammi eavesdropped on the conversation between the circus bosses and the police with her enhanced hearing, then instantly replayed that conversation directly into Alex's ear so that her friend could hear as well. Tammi was drooping and dejected - she'd recently lost her good friend, and now the cop's logic was starting to convince her that her parents' great friend Houndini was the murderer.

"Why'd Barry get new dogs in Seattle, little one?" Alex asked. She hoped the diminutive jab might cut through her friend's growing depression.

"How would I know?" Tammi asked tartly, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. "I don't keep track of his dogs. He's got about a million of 'em, you know; never uses 'em all at once in a show."

"A million is a lot of dogs, half-pint," her friend teased. "The police think Houndini bought those dogs and trained them to attack, but I wonder..." she mused, only half aloud. Her her manner changed abruptly. "Did anyone new join the circus since you left Seattle?" Tammi shrugged. "C'mon, munchkin, this might be important."

"If you don't cut out the 'little' jokes, for you, nothing will be important any longer! Just because you're tall and skinny doesn't mean I can't kick your ass all 'round the Big Top!" the Micromistress of Modulation snapped at her friend. "Look. There aren't any new performers, but roustabouts come and go like, well, raindrops on a windshield. I bet even the Gaffer doesn't keep track of 'em all, and he's the one who pays them."

"You know some of the roustabouts, right?" A rhetorical question, with guys nearby, Tammi was sure to know some of them! "Let's ask your folks to talk to Houndini and find out about the new dogs, while we talk to some roustabouts!"

"Sounds like a lot better idea than standin' around in the dark!" Tammi perked up. "Let's go!"

Beer Tent

"We're going in there? Gross!" Alex complained queasily. "What is this place?"

They were standing outside a large tent. The interior was noisy, poorly lit, and smelled of sawdust, smoke, stale sweat, stale beer and hot buttered popcorn. A steady stream of well muscled men, some of them without shirts, flowed into and out of the tent, though some of those exiting were not as steady on their feet as those entering. There were a few women in the stream, and they were as formidable as the men.

"It's one of the common tents, the one for roustabouts. The performers and staff have another tent. What's the problem? You afraid of a few guys?" Tammi teased sportively.

"My clothes will stink for days." Alex temporized, shuddering, her face twisted in a grimace.

"Look, it was _your_ idea, you know." Tammi tugged her hand; Alex reluctantly trailed her friend.

The inside was a lot like a run-down bar - a very large, crowded, bawdy bar with canvas walls and sawdust on the floor. There were groups of people, mostly men, sitting around tables, some playing cards, board games, or just talking. There were a half dozen dart boards, and people playing games that Alex didn't recognize, and empty heavy brown beer bottles piled high on every table. Tammi pulled two bottles out of a big cooler near the door, popped them open with the church key hanging from the cooler handle by a string, and handed one to Alex.

"Umm, are you even old enough to drink beer?" Alex kidded her friend. She looked at the bottle. "Blitz? Never heard of it."

"Hey, in the circus, we check our own IDs. And mine says yes." Tammi hummed a few bars, than sang "Blitz is Milwaukee's finest beer!" After she finished the jingle, she continued: "When I got back to Milwaukee after the Olympics, Blitz wanted to put me in some of their ads. I knew I was coming back to the circus, so I worked a deal. These days it's the only beer we serve at Haly's, and we get a big discount." She turned and scanned the room. Before she could continue, Alex asked a question that had been nagging at her for several days.

"So, oh Miss Checker Inner of IDs, Milwaukee reminds me - what is the Haly and Norton Traveling Circus doing on the West Coast, anyway? I thought you guys stuck to the mid-West?

"I don't know the whole story, but while I was going to school in Muskrat Creek, apparently they hired a new guy in the 'business office' to do all our travel coordinating and scheduling, and this new guy, Peter Victors, convinced Haly and Norton that we ought to try some new states. So for the past 6 months, we started working our way west across the top of the country to Washington, and then down to Los Angeles, and then we're gonna go back East again." She clearly didn't approve of the new agenda.

"Pretty sure we won't be making any more grand tours - the carnies that normally play the West Coast aren't too happy with the new competition, none of the local cops know us well enough to trust us, and a lot of the crew miss friends they've made in the places we usually play. But, hey, I got to see YOU, so this West Coast thing isn't ALL bad!" She spotted who she was looking for and changed the subject, pointing to a table near the far wall. "Over there's the guy we want to talk to. He always knows what's going on."

Five men and Annie Oaktree sat around a card table that was littered with cash. Annie was sporting her performance outfit, a brown shirt with leather fringe, jeans, high-heeled boots, fringed chaps and her cowboy hat. And two pistols were holstered at her waist.

"Thought you said this was the roustabouts' tent?" Alex half shouted to be heard over the background noise.

"Hey! Not so loud! I can hear a ladybug sneeze at a hundred yards, remember! Anyway, Sheriff High Noon over there kind of enjoys it when things get a little rough!" Tammi answered, projecting her whisper directly into Alex's ear.

A crowd of over a dozen roustabouts stood around the card table, commenting boisterously on the play. Annie's back was to them and Alex zoomed in on her cards over her shoulder - nothing to write home about: 3 hearts, a club and a spade. As they approached, the stunt-riding sharpshooter discarded the black cards and drew 2 more. She opened the next round of bidding without even looking at her new cards. Tammi approached the player on her right, just as he threw his cards on the table in disgust.

"Alex, this is Andrew, Bosco's brother. Andy, this is my friend Alex," she introduced the short, wide-shouldered red-headed man, who didn't look anything like Bosco. He didn't look like a man who was in mourning for his murdered brother, either.

"Adopted brother, really," Tammi's voice whispered in Alex's ear, "And they never seemed to get along together. But Andy knows everything that goes on among the roustabouts."

Andy grunted "Beat it, runt, I'm busy," ignored Alex and turned back to the poker game.

Alex was inclined to ignore him as well, but being shrugged off wasn't Tammi's style. "Losin', huh?" she looked pointedly at the bare table in front of Andy. "Bosco always said, 'Never play poker with Annie Oaker.' Guess you didn't listen to him."

Andy snarled. At that moment, Annie picked up her cards, finally, fanned them briefly. "Raise twenty." That caused a commotion; it was more than a day's wages for most of the people in this tent. As Andy turned back to the table, Annie turned to the two women and smiled sadly. "I never won a penny from Bosco. I'm sorry about what happened, Tamette. I'll miss him, too." One of the other players dropped out, but the other two called. .

"Pair of bullets," the last caller said, proudly laying down a pair of aces. "Hah!" said another. "Wasn't bluffin when I didn't draw me none! Got me a straight." He showed a small straight, a 4 through an 8 of mixed suits. "Come to papa!" He reached out to pull in the pot.

"Not so fast!" Annie stopped him. "I got me," she paused dramatically, "a pair of hearts, another pair of hearts and a heart kicker to go along with 'em! Otherwise know as a flush. And we all know that a flush beats the crap out of a straight." She showed her hand, five hearts, to a mixed chorus of hoots and cheers from the spectators and boos and groans from the other players. She raked in the pot, while another player prepared to deal. "So what brings you two rannies ta this dive?" she drawled.

Before Tammi could say anything else obnoxious, Alex quickly spoke up. "We're trying to find anything that might keep Barry Houndini out of the electric chair. Like, have any new..." She hesitated for an instant, not sure about using the word 'roustabout'. Tammi said it often, and nobody seemed to object, but this was her family and home and Alex was a stranger, after all. To Alex the term felt derogatory, and she was very sensitive to derogatory. "...workers joined the circus lately?" she finished, stammering just a bit.

"Nobody!" Andy barked adamantly. A few of the men around looked doubtful, but sort of nodded their heads in agreement. "It couldn't have been anyone else, anyway - who else could'a trained them dogs?" None of the other men added to this, but Annie couldn't let it pass.

"Why, Andy, you know better than that!" Annie admonished. "There's a half-dozen other animal trainers and apprentices with us." She turned to Alex. "Including me," she added frankly. "But it wasn't me. Why are you looking for outsiders?"

"The dogs that killed Bosco..." Tammi started, then broke off with a sob.

"Houndini got those dogs in Seattle," Alex continued for her blubbering friend. "I was just wondering if the killer might have joined the circus in Seattle - and probably run away by now."

"Nobody like that," one of the players piped up. He looked at his cards. "We gonna keep jibber jabbing or play some poker?" He tossed a coin into the center of the table. "Open for a buck."

"No new roustabouts," Annie agreed. "But, in Seattle, a girl approached me about being a rider. Name'a Vivian Something like 'Bonner'. Wanted to be a Wild West star, just like me. She got along great with the horses, was a pretty fair shot with a pistol, and she looked real good in leather riding gear. So I hired her. But the $!^@# ran out on me 2 weeks later." She grinned knowingly at Andy. "You were pretty sweet on her, weren't you, Andy Dandy?"

"Just another circus tramp," Andy barked his denial. "Nobody keeps track of 'em." Several of the other players nodded in agreement. Annie looked at her cards and folded quickly. "Say, you boys mind if I make this my last hand? Been a long day."

One of the 'boys' snarled something about Annie not giving them a chance to win their money back. "Promise I'll give y'all another shot tomorrow." Nobody said anything else as she stood up to leave. "C'mon, girls, let me buy you a beer for the road," she nodded to Alex and Tammi and headed for the door.

"But, the beer's free!" Tammi complained.

"In that case, you're buying, and you can buy me two!" Annie laughed brazenly.

"That place makes me nervous," Alex observed with a sigh when they were finally outside. "Annie, aren't you worried that some of those drunks might get out of line?"

"The pistols I wear in the show aren't real, but everyone knows these are. And they know how fast I am." Her hands were full of pistols, but all Tammi had seen was a blur. Alex quickly replayed the scene in her mind, and even in slow motion, the pistols almost seemed to leap out of the holsters into her hands. Annie changed the subject.

"Andy's right, nobody keeps track of circus tramps - and there are a lot of them, of both sexes," she laughed. "But Vivian wasn't like the others. She didn't sleep around, at least not much. Shopped around for a few days, then she latched onto Andy. Then one day, she was just gone." She took a big swig of Milwaukee's famous beer. "Didn't seem to bother Andy none, 'cept he won't talk about her, and he's beat up a couple of other guys who badmouthed her. So pretty much nobody talks about her - and until you asked, most of 'em had probably forgotten her."

Midnight Adventure

They'd reached the trailer encampment; Annie bid them good night and headed for her own trailer, while Tammi led Alex through the dimly lit maze of mobile homes towards the Flemings' home on wheels. Alex had adjusted her vision to infrared in order to avoid obstacles, and she saw someone in front of them, just slipping out of sight behind a trailer on their path. She was reaching out a hand to stop Tammi when the smaller girl's voice whispered directly in her ear.

"Alex, there's somebody waiting for us ahead. I can hear his breathing."

Alex whispered back, so softly that only Tammi's enhanced hearing could make it out. "I saw him, too, for just a second. Can't see him now; he went behind a trailer."

"I can still hear him. Should we split up and get him from both sides?"

"It might have nothing to do with us, Tam. Maybe it's just some guy out to meet his girlfriend. We'll just walk a little more and see if he still seems to be interested in us." Alex didn't believe it either, but she wasn't worried. Their stalker couldn't know about their powers, but there was no way he could sneak up on them without them knowing.

"And if he is after us? How about the ol' Crash, Flash and Thrash?" Tammi asked eagerly. When she had first met Alex, the two of them had been mugged in San Francisco. They hadn't used their powers effectively, so when it was over, they had worked out some tactics to use in the future.

"Hold your horses, little one!"

They advanced another 15 feet. "Still there!" Tammi said. "And the breathing is getting louder and faster."

"OK, Flash, Crash and Thrash!" A tiny brilliantly shimmering red spot of light appeared on the wall of a trailer, very close to where their stalker was hiding. "That's the target. You count."

"OK, 3, 2, 1, GO!"

The wall of the trailer exploded violently with a brilliant flash of light and the roar of a gargantuan cannon. Blithely ignoring the explosion, Tammi and Alex rushed forward, barreling around the corner of the concealing trailer. Tammi went low and Alex went high and they slammed into the blinded stalker!

With a high-pitched shriek followed by a loud string of blistering Western profanity, the supposed stalker identified herself. Almost instantly, Tammi was yelling as well.

"Annie! I knew it was you!" the tiny acrobat hollered in a voice much louder than her size. At that second, powerful beams of light lanced from a dozen industrial sized hand torches and speared the three women. They were instantly surrounded by a growing crowd of cirkies, coming to aid their fellows after the explosion. Any interest in the confrontation between the three women was instantly swallowed up by the growing confusion of the crowd when no damage was found.

"There was a blinding flash and a deafening retort, right there behind the back of Mysterio's trailer!" Tam said, pointing at the spot where the two women had projected their Crash and Flash. Alex winced at her science fiction reference. "At least I think so..." she added doubtfully when the flood of flashlights revealed not even a burn mark or a smudge, much less any physical destruction.

"I was looking right at it when it happened," Annie agreed vehemently, "right there!" She pointed at the same spot Tammi had indicated. "I wonder if I'm going crazy?"

"If you are, we all are," Haly replied. "Damn near everyone heard the explosion, and anyone who was outside sure saw the flash!" He turned to the three 'eye witnesses'. "What were you three doing out here? If this is some kind of prank, it isn't very funny."

"We saw someone sneaking around through the trailers," Tammi explained. "We decided to grab him, just before that big bang, and Calamity Jane, here, is who we caught."

Annie didn't like this nickname. "You and yer pardner jumped me, ya puny witch!" She lunged at the acrobat, only to be grabbed by a dozen hands,

"Let them go!" a male voice from the back of the crowd cut through the commotion. "We ain't had a good catfight in a long time. Five bucks on Annie!" Other male voices started clamoring for a piece of the action.

"Better hold off, ya vultures!" Annie yelled at the crowd. "I ain't puttin' on no free show for you desperados!" She turned to Tammi and spoke more quietly. "Same thing happened to me as you. I saw some'un sneakin' around behind the trailers, so I went to check it out. I was right, too, some rip sucker punched me from a shadow, and then he shin out, and then there was that there explosion, and then you two Texas Twisters tackled me." She shook her head. "Pretty slick job, too," she added with rueful admiration. "But you'd'a never knocked me down if that other varmint hadn't bushwhacked me first!" She turned back to Haly. "I didn't mean to kick up no fuss, and I had nothin' to do with no explosion!"

"Us neither!" Tammi wasn't _really_ lying; after all, she couldn't have anything to do with an explosion that never actually happened. Alex felt a little uneasy hearing this partial truth. Did she really want to be a mystery heroine with a secret identity if she would have to lie to people?

Some of the crowd were muttering that the stalker and the "explosion" showed that Houndini was innocent, others that the three women were all in on it, while still others suggested the angry cops might be involved. The argument was getting louder and tempers were fraying when a baffled Haly broke it up and ordered everyone off to bed. “Maybe tomorrow we’ll be able to see somethin’ the torches don’t show us,” Haly said, as he urged the crowd back to their trailers. With no catfight in the offing and no evidence of an explosion, the crowd started to break up. The Gaffer assigned several roustabouts to patrol the grounds the rest of the night, and everyone else went looking for sleep or other entertainment.

We'll Figure it Out

Back in the Flemings' trailer, Tammi and Alex combined their powers in an unusual technique to see what else they could learn from tonight's adventure. Like Alex's vision and photographic memory, Tammi's phonographic memory recorded everything she heard, even if she wasn't paying attention at the time. Synchronizing their playbacks, they created a documentary of everything Alex had seen and Tammi had heard after they left the recreation tent with Annie.

When Tammi cranked up the volume, they could hear that someone had been shadowing them even before they had parted with Annie. Quiet breathing and footsteps continued to pace them; Tammi had become consciously aware of their secret admirer when she'd heard a muffled exclamation of pain and a hushed male voice cursing his 'G**damn knee!' and 'that f*****n' Mysterio'. Whatever he'd bumped into had caused him to stagger, which had caught Alex's eye. Alex had only had a glimpse, and no matter how she tried to enhance her memory picture, they were unable to recognize their stalker.

"So he hurt himself. Hah! Serves him right, the big creep!" Tammi crowed triumphantly. She played the accident back several times with a gleeful smile on her face.

"Tams, you know I taught you better than to take joy in the misfortune of others," Frederich mildly chided his wild daughter.

"I'm really not, Daddy," she pouted. "Just seeing if I could recognize him from the curse words he used." Frederich started - His daughter thought she could recognize someone by his foul language? The tiny American Dreamgirl smiled at him. "No such luck. Nothing but the same boring putrid epithets everyone uses."

"Putrid epithets?" Alex curiously queried her friend. It was definitely unusual to hear that phrase in a conversation. Particularly from Tammi!

"Hey, I'm edjumicated!" Tammi laughed. "Means 'swear words' to the rest of us. I said it just for Daddy." Frederich laughed too, reminded that it was futile to try to keep a girl who had grown up in a traveling circus away from offensive language.

No matter how Alex enhanced her memory, they couldn't learn any more about their male stalker. The augmented playback documentary apparently confirmed Annie's story, though; her breathing became audible just after the swearing, followed by a thud and a grunt from Annie, after which their male follower left in a hurry. Followed, of course, by the Crash and Flash.

“I wonder how they’re going to explain that explosion tomorrow, when nothing is damaged?” Alex wondered.

“Sounds like Annie was telling the truth,” Tammi admitted grudgingly. “We know Houndini isn't the killer," she continued. "Somebody else does too - I think that somebody is out to get us. But who?"

“That, my Lilliputian friend, is the sixty-four thousand dollar question!” Alex grinned at her friend. “I think this attack shows that we’re getting closer to the answer.”

"Alex, it's really late and it will take you at least an hour to get home. Won't you stay with us tonight?" Fantasia graciously asked her daughter's friend. "We don't have a guest room, but the sofa folds out."

Alex had passed a run-down motor lodge just outside of town, and she'd planned to go there and and get a cabin instead of returning home tonight. "I'll take it!" she smiled gratefully at her hostess. "I really want us to get an early start tomorrow!" Also, she hadn't been all that thrilled about the idea of registering at a motel this late at night; it wasn't all that long ago that she and her friend Donna had seen 'Psycho'.

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 4 A Quiet Morning

Morning Ride

Alex wasn't normally an early riser, but sleeping in an unfamiliar bed took care of that. The carnival was already coming awake, as well, and the unfamiliar sounds of the troupe getting ready for the day filtering through the thin walls of the trailer and the uncomfortable sofa bed mattress combined to convince her to get up. 'Seems like a good time for a skate,' she thought with a smile. 'Glad I brought them along!'

Alex had been roller skating since before she was five, and was very good at it. In 1956 she'd tried out for the "Dolls of Doom", a team she'd watched for years on the Saturday morning broadcasts of the professional Bay Area Derby Girls Roller League (BAD GRL). With her great skating speed, dancer's agility and a surprising wiry strength she'd made the team as the lead jammer - and she'd won the Rookie of the Year award for that season; the award had included a very expensive pair of hand crafted skates - the skates she was planning to use this morning. Unfortunately, not long after the season ended, her parents had passed away and she'd reluctantly given up her professional skating career. But she still skated frequently.

She dressed quietly and stole silently from the trailer, dug her skates from her bike's big under-seat compartment, and was rolling down one of the back roads near the fairground when she heard a bike bell ringing behind her. She didn't have to look to know it was Tammi, but she spun through a quick 360 and looked anyway, then for practice zoomed in on the memory in her mind, stopped motion and examined the details. Tammi's bike was impressive - it was just the right size for her, the frame was chrome mirror shiny, and there were 3 chain rings on the pedal sprocket and 7 on the rear cassette. She realized that she could see enough detail to count the teeth on the gears, if she didn't have other things that required her attention right now! She couldn't recall ever seeing a bike that small so impressively tricked out.

"Hey, Stretcho! You sure made a racket back in the trailer - sounded like a herd of elephants!" Tammi laughed at her friend. "So I figured I'd join you. You're still pretty fast, aren't you? 10 m p h, not bad at all - for a skater!" It wasn't the first time they'd taken a spin together.

Alex resisted the urge to speed up. She was nowhere near her top speed, but a country road wasn't the best surface for speed skating - and she wasn't out for a race anyway, she wanted to relax a little before the day got complicated. And it would, she was sure, since Tammi was part of it. "Thanks for joining me, Tams!" she responded. "Kind of like how we met, huh?" She instantly regretted saying that...

"Yeah, we even got a dead body, just like then... only this time, it's someone we know," Tammi replied sadly.

The two had originally met in San Francisco about a year ago, when Alex had been out for a skate with her friend Donna Sparks, and the two skaters had passed a dozen gymnasts on bikes getting in a ride before the afternoon's Olympic tryouts. Tammi's competitive instinct had been aroused and she'd streaked past Alex, taunting her as she flashed by. Alex was equally competitive; they'd flown down the paved path in Golden Gate park in a dead heat, zoomed around a corner - and barely avoided a nasty wreck as they frantically swerved to avoid a real dead body on the edge of the path.

"Well, we solved that case," Alex tried to brighten up her friend. "We'll solve this one, too!" She changed the subject. "Say, that's one fancy bike!"

"Thanks." Tammi tried to smile. "Tommy, the guy who builds all the mechanical stuff for the circus, like the trick car the clowns drive, and all the bikes the aerialists ride on the high wires, all the props and that kind of stuff, built it for me."

That sparked Alex's interest. "Tell me more about Tommy. Since he builds all your equipment, he could have planted that radio in Bosco's prop bone..."

"I hope not. I really like Tommy - everybody does. But I guess we'll have to talk to him. Everybody really liked Bosco, too - at least I always thought so." Tam was sad again.

It looked like every conversational topic would bring them back to Bosco, so Alex surrendered. "Tell me about Bosco," she suggested.

For the next half hour, she learned more about Tammi's friend. Bosco had been about 5 years older than Tammi, and she'd known him all her life. His parents had been clowns too; when they died a few years ago, Bosco had left the circus, a year before Tammi had moved to Muskrat Creek, but he'd come back shortly after she'd returned. And Andy wasn't really his brother; Andy was a runaway and once it was clear he was planning to stay with the circus, Bosco's parents let him live with them.

"Andy claimed he grew up in an abusive orphanage, and he'd run away from new abusive parents, but as far as I know, nobody ever retrieved his records. I think maybe he escaped from some house of corrections somewhere. He tried to be a bully after he got here, but he found out really quick that you don't bully roustabouts - they're a pretty tough crowd and they don't put up with bull$#!* - even from another roustabout. I think maybe Bosco kept him in line some, too... but if he did, it was always in private. Bosco always treated Andy right, even when Andy was being a jerk - which is most of the time."

That got Tammi gossiping about the rest of the circus, and she knew some pretty spicy tales, particularly one about Annie, but those are circus secrets so they won't be repeated here. Alex wasn't quite sure how she felt about hearing them... it was nice that Tam was accepting her as part of the family, but was she willing to live up to the obligations of being part of that family? What could she be getting into?

And she could tell Tammi had something else serious she wanted to talk about. Finally she couldn't stand wondering any longer. "So what else is on your mind, Tam? My powers don't include reading your mind, you know!"

"Funny you should put it that way," her friend replied. "It has to do with the powers we DO have!" She paused for a moment and then totally changed the subject. "I... I don't want to stay with the circus any longer...." It sounded like she was about to cry.

"Mother Gaia! Are you serious?" Alex was stunned. "The circus is your whole life!"

"That's actually part of it, too," Tammi agreed. "Ever since I didn't make the Olympic team, the circus HAS been my whole life. But life in the circus is too limited - it's not big enough for me."

'I wonder if even the whole _world_ is big enough for her?' Alex thought but carefully made sure she didn't even murmur. Instead, she replied: "I would have thought that life in a traveling circus is quite an adventure?"

"Umm... I'm thinking I don't want to stay with the circus any more after this..." Tammi replied hesitantly. Then, more firmly... "Everything around me reminds me of his death!" She sobbed a bit, then, "So do you think we could really be a great mystery hero team? Miss Music and Palette? Oops, sorry, age before beauty, Palette and Miss Music!"

Alex had to smile at that. The same topic had been on her mind, too...

"I think we could, Tams... our powers are WAY better than we used to think they were! Spy Smasher didn't even HAVE powers and look how awesome HE was! And that new girl in Chicago, Miss Victoria or whatever she calls herself - she throws a big patriotic discus at the bad guys, and they just waltz right off to jail for her. Whata they got that we ain't got?"

"Well, Spy Smasher had the Gyrosub, which is pretty awesome. And Lady Victory gets to work with that dreamy Tom Atomic guy, who has all sorts of powers. But our powers are pretty darn great too!" Tammi replied.

"Honestly, though, Miss American Darling, I wasn't looking forward to joining the circus just so we could team up. If you retire from the circus, it will make things a lot easier. But where would we hang our shingle?"

"You just bought a house in San Francisco, right? So I'll move there!" Tammi was exuberant. "Since you're a human movie projector, and I'm a human tape recorder, we'll call ourselves the Audio-Video Avengers! A V Avengers for short."

"A V isn't mach shorter than Audio-Video, Tams. Still, I was thinking along the same lines," Alex admitted. "What about AVant Guard? Sort of like 'avant garde' which means..."

"It means, the leaders in a field, particularly those who are trying out new things!" Tammi interrupted crossly. "I DID graduate from a good high school, you know! And it often gets applied to artists - and we're BOTH artists, you with your art, and me with my gymnastics. AVant Guard, the AV Avengers! I LOVE it!"

That seemed to settle it, at least in their minds. Though Alex wasn't sure how they were going to sell it to Tammi's parents.

Fantasia's List

Later at breakfast, Fantasia announced: "I had trouble getting to sleep last night, so I made a list of questions we need to answer if we're going to save Barry. Ready?" The other three nodded. Frederich and Tammi weren't surprised; Fantasia was the choreographer for the Fearless Flying Flemings, and she was expert at planning new routines down to the finest details even before they ever began practicing.

Fantasia's Questions:

1. Were all the dogs that attacked Bosco really the new dogs from Seattle?
2. How had Houndini acquired the Seattle dogs?
3. Could someone other than Houndini have trained them to attack?
4. Was it really the ultrasonic signal that had triggered the savage assault?
5. Was Bosco really the intended target?
6. Why did the dogs attack Bosco instead of one of the other clowns?
7. Who had wanted to kill Bosco and why? (Assuming he was the target.)
8. Was the 'circus tramp' from Seattle involved?

"I've got more, if you want to hear them?" she asked the amateur sleuths.

"Waah! Stop! My head is spinning already," Tammi complained loudly. "Can't we just work on those first?"

Alex nodded in agreement. "And let's hope the answers don't raise even more questions!" She thought for a second. "Have you ever considered being a detective. Fantasia? I've worked with some good detectives in the San Francisco Police Department and that's the kind of thing they think about all the time."

Stunning Announcement

"Actually... now seems as good a time as any..." Fantasia replied hesitantly and looked questioningly at her husband, who nodded. "Frederich and I are getting a little old for the trapeze. It's getting harder and harder to perform the stunts we're familiar with and practice all the time, much less come up with newer and ever more difficult routines. We've been thinking about retiring for a while. It's time to let America's Darling be the top star." She paused to examine Tammi's reaction, laughed at her daughter's twisted facial expression. "OK, OK, young one, leave us with SOME illusions! Anyway, I've been writing detective stories for years, and I think it's about time I started selling them. And Frederich has always dreamed of being in the recording industry. And Norton and Haley have mentioned that they think Kristen and Finley are ready for top billing now. We don't want to get demoted or stand in their way." Kristen and Finley Blair were a pair of young, very good trapeze artists who currently got second billing at the circus. They were already performing feats that the Flemings had never even attempted, and were definitely good enough to be the top stars. 

Tammi was now looking a little stunned - apparently she had never thought much about her parents retiring from the trapeze. Fantasia continued. "We had been planning to announce our retirement just before our next stop, which is in Bakersfield - and then look for someplace to settle down nearby."

"So you're just going to quit the circus and start living in California?" Tammi started slowly. Both parents nodded, not without a little trepidation.

"YIPPEE!!!" their daughter cheered! There was chaos and confusion for a few minutes as Tammi revealed her own plans to quit the circus and settle down in California, a lot of sighs of relief, and then Frederich steered the conversation back to their current situation.

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 5 The Investigation Heats Up

Some Clues!

"Actually, young ladies, we got answers to some of my awesome wife's brilliant questions last night when we talked with Barry," Frederich began filling in the his daughter and her friend. "If he's telling the truth, he gave us the answer to her first three questions:"

"About midway through our Seattle stand a few months ago, he was approached by someone who offered him a good deal on some dogs. The man claimed his dog shelter had gone bankrupt and he was going to have to put away all the dogs if he couldn't sell them. Barry's always been a sucker for a sob story, and the price was right. So Barry bought 6 dogs and he'd spent the last few weeks working them into his act. He was really surprised at how easily they were to train - they were already very well trained. Too well trained to have been living in a shelter, in fact. Barry tried to get hold of the guy who sold them to to find out more about them, but the circus was already in Oregon and the phone number in Seattle was out of service."

"The dogs were already trained to respond to ultrasonic whistles, but none of the signals Barry normally used. He uses single Morse Code letters, so he had needed to do some retraining to teach the dog his own commands." Fantasia continued.

"The signal that I heard was definitely NOT a Morse Code letter!" Tammi interjected excitedly. She stopped talking and looked thoughtful, as Frederich continued his report.

"Of the six new dogs, only four of them took part in yesterday's show, and it was only the new dogs that attacked Bosco, not any of the dogs Houndini had before. And those four are all dead how, shot by the roustabouts. Barry spends a lot of time with his dogs. If he's telling the truth..." his hands came up to chest level and then turned out, "nobody else could have trained those dogs without him knowing about it. If he's lying, he's wrecking his own alibi." He paused, and Fantasia jumped in eagerly, anxious to defend her friend.

"But, dear, he said that even though those dogs were already well-trained they didn't seem to recognize any of the standard circus tricks." Tammy was nodding her head; this information fit in with her own evolving theory. "They were easy to train, so maybe somebody actually could have done it without him knowing, maybe when he was sleeping."

"I'll bet that guy in Seattle sold Houndini trained assassin dogs!" Tammi exploded. "There are two Seattle dogs still alive, right? We gotta see 'em. Let's go!" she insisted breathlessly, grabbing her parents' arms urging them them toward the door.

"We should probably look for a dog whistle first," Alex cautioned. "I'm sure Houndini must have several."

Tammi halted so abruptly her parents almost knocked her down. "We won't need a dog whistle!" she boasted proudly. "I heard that signal, and I can play it back."

"Since when can you make ultrasounds, little one?" Alex was surprised. She and Tammi had investigated their powers together when they'd first met, but it had never occurred to them to test Tammi's ability to make sounds outside the range of human hearing. "How, oh Tiny Terror?"

From somewhere nearby, an orchestra started playing the theme to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Theater. Tammi frowned at Alex's diminutives, but she explained her excitement to the others.

"As I'm currently demonstrating," she huffed, "my power lets me make sounds with my mind, not my voice. So why shouldn't I be able to make ultrasonics?" Her companions looked dubious. "OK, I'll prove it. Listen!" Her companions looked bewildered.

"Ooops! Of course you can't hear it," she looked a little abashed. "But I can, and the so will the dogs!" she finished impatiently.

As they trooped out of the trailer, Alex added Tammi's new ability to her mental catalog. Between them, she and her tiny, energetic friend were developing an impressive array of powers. When they'd first met, Alex had been skeptical a 'human movie projector' and a 'human tape recorder' could be successful mystery heroines. But she realized that utilized correctly, their abilities were more powerful than either of them had first imagined. Maybe they actually could make it as a successful heroic team.

"We're way more powerful than Mr. Scarlet and Pinky!" she murmured triumphantly. "Look out, Tom Atomic and Lady Victory!" Of course, Tammi overheard, and she gave her friend a quick thumbs up!

Scary Experiment

The experiment with the remaining Seattle dogs proved both very enlightening and very frightening. After they'd shooed Chanteuse des Chiens, Houndini's redheaded protégé and assistant, from the soundproofed tractor-trailer that served the master dog trainer as both a home and a dog pound, the four stood in front of an isolated cage that contained two healthy, well-groomed mixed breed dogs. One was as large as a German shepherd, though with much longer hair, and the other was somewhat smaller with big floppy ears. They looked as peaceful and contented as two sleeping kittens.

After they'd closely examined the cage and tested the bars and the lock, Tammi reluctantly faced the pair of dogs. "What if they get loose?" she asked fearfully. "What if they kill each other? Whatever happens will be my fault!" Her parents and friend took a step back, seemingly attempting to hide behind the Musical Mite.

"Oh, thanks ever so much, you guys!" Tammi barked sarcastically. "Good to know you've GOT MY BACK!"

"C'mon, Tams, this _is_ your idea," Alex chided her friend gently. This didn't seem to be the time for 'tiny' jokes. "We checked the cage - three or four times."

"Let's check it again, just one more time," America's Darling suggested in a tiny voice.

With big smiles, her companions stepped forward again, flanking her. Frederich brandished a fire extinguisher, Fantasia was holding a heavy baton, similar to a truncheon, that the big cat trainer sometimes used, and Alex's hands were glowing. Tammi knew her friend was ready to blind or dazzle any attacking dogs.

"Thanks, guys," she said gratefully, no longer sarcastic. "OK, here goes! Phase 1 - quiet like a mouse." They had discussed this experiment and decided that Tammi should start with a very faint signal.

Tammi concentrated on replaying the suspected murder signal as softly as possible, almost too quietly for even her own enhanced hearing to detect. The ears of the lounging dogs perked up, their heads came up, and they looked intently at the Tiny Tunester, but otherwise didn't react. Tammi realized that she had to get this over with quickly before she lost her nerve.

"I'm going straight to Phase 3!" she announced, and acted before anyone could question her. She projected again, using the same volume she'd heard on the TV tape.

Two beautiful, placid dogs suddenly turned into vicious killers, trying to tear through the bars of the cage and attack the Micromistress of Music. She yelped in terror, stumbled backward, and totally lost her concentration. The two dogs almost instantly stopped snarling and instead appeared bewildered, agitated and jittery.

Alex was now getting excited over the results of their investigation. "Tams, can you project that same signal, and make it come from me?" she proposed. "Uh... not yet!" she added hurriedly. "Wait until I give you a sign." She walked around to the opposite side of the cage. "OK, go ahead!"

A moment's concentration and the dogs were tearing savagely at the bars trying to get to Alex. Even though she knew she was safe, being the target of their terrible rage rattled her. "That's enough! Stop!" she yelled at her friend.

A malicious smile flashed momentarily across Tammi 's face and the dogs continued their frenzied attempts to reach the Princess of Projection for a few extra instants. "Why don't you try'n call me 'little one' again, Miss Lean and Lanky?" Tammi's self-satisfied voice whispered quietly, directly into her ear.

"Well, that answers questions 4 and 6," Alex whispered throatily as she struggled to regain her composure. "The whistle signal definitely triggered the dogs, and they attacked the source of the signal. Somehow, that signal came from Bosco!"

There was a hushed silence among the four amateur sleuths. The dogs in front of them were no longer just trained animal entertainers; they had been revealed to be weapons of assassination, deliberately launched against a member of the circus troupe - the Flemings' extended family. And expensive weapons, at that! What had Bosco done to make him a target of someone so powerful and vindictive?

"Let's go for a walk," Frederich suggested shakily. "I'd feel safer away from these dogs."

He reached out to take his daughter's hand, but she pulled away from him impatiently. She turned back to the canine assassins and glared at them with hatred. But it wasn't her glare that caused the dogs to start wailing in agony as they cowered at the far side of the cage. For just a second, they were unable to escape. Then Tammi turned back to her friends with a sob.

"I know it's not their fault, and I really should feel sorry for them," she began apologetically. Then she stomped her foot and her face clenched in anger. "But they deserved it for scaring me like that!" She resolutely turned her back on the bewildered dogs.

"We ever have any trouble with dogs," she said roughly to her future partner in heroics, "you just leave 'em to me. I'll blast them with a sonic scream and they won't know what hit them." She was trying to sound boastful, but another sob spoiled the effect.

Suddenly Tammi's eyes got really big, and before anyone could even ask 'What's up, Doc?' she raced out of the dog trailer, leaving behind a puff of dust that would have made the Road Runner envious.

Comic Book Clue

When they got back to the Fleming's trailer, Tammi was sitting at the kitchen table which was covered with piles of comic books. She was shuffling through the piles, checking the covers of every issue, and dropping most of them back into a box.

"Hardly the time for comic books, Tammi," Frederich sniffed with disapproval; he'd never hidden his opinion that comic books were a bad influence for girls. Alex noticed that Tammi was separating all the Bulletman/Bulletgirl comics and putting all the others back into the box. She picked up one of the Bullet comics and began leafing through it. As an artist, she was always interested in every form of art. She noted that the art in these comics from the mid-40s was better than in the comics she had read growing up in the early to mid-50s.

"You'll see, Daddy. Just hold your horses! I'm sure the Flying Detectives can help out the Flying Flemings, if I can just find the right issue." She turned to her friend. "Stop wastin' time readin' 'em, Stretch. Just look for issues with dogs on the cover." But even before Alex could even pick up another one, Tammi shouted in triumph. "Here it is!" She held up a comic. The cover blurb read 'Bulletman and Bulletgirl Battle the Canine Criminals!'

"Check this out!" she quickly paged through the magazine. "In this story, a pack of dogs robs a jewelry store. Bulletman figures out that they are receiving ultrasonic orders." She showed everyone a panel in which Police Scientist Carter Hall demonstrated an ultrasonic dog whistle to Police Chief Hall, father of his lab partner Shierra. "And those orders are transmitted through..." she paused to build up the suspense, then showed them another panel "tiny radio receivers that the bad guy planted on dogs! I'll bet something like that was planted on Bosco!" "And I'll bet I know where, too!" Alex crowed excitedly. "Watch this!" She projected a replay of something she remembered from the TV video tape. Three dogs had jumped on Bosco, and he had dropped his bone baton. While the first three dogs continued to savage the poor clown, the 4th had instead attacked the 'bone' “I’ll bet there was a radio receiver inside that bone!” Tammi shouted. “We gotta find it!” “We might find it,” Frederich noted sadly, “but even if we do, by now I’ll bet the radio receiver is gone. It probably got thrown out with the trash when they cleaned the tent yesterday anyway, but whoever planted it has had plenty of time to retrieve it by now.” “I think we ought to figure out who might have planted it in the first place,” Fantasia suggested. "And, to me, the big question is, why would someone at our circus have dogs trained to kill to radio signals – and the tiny radios needed to receive those signals?"

"It's like something out of the James Bond books!" Tammi yelled. When Tammi had lived with aunt, she'd discovered a stash of 007 books hidden away, as her aunt disapproved of a young girl reading such lurid adventures. So of course Tammi had read them all; her favorite was "From Russia With Love". "Do you think there are Smersh agents in the circus?"

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 6 Some New Players

More Eavesdroppers

Tammi wasn't the only member of the circus who had enhanced hearing - although in this case the enhancement was electronic in nature, captured by a tiny microphone which had been hastily placed inside the Flemings' trailer when Alex and the Flamings had started snooping around. Not far away, in a trailer that was a bit larger, somewhat newer, and much more well equipped with high tech gadgets than the trailers used by the other employees of the Norton and Haley circus, two men sat close to a complex radio set. One was dressed in a business suit, the other in dirty jeans and t-shirt. They intently listed to Tammi's comments - and laughed at her.

"Fleming's fictional Smersh is just a pale comedic shadow of the true KGB," the man in the suit noted in perfect Russian. We've seem him before; this is Peter, from the circus business office, who tried to comfort Tammi immediately after Bosco's death.

"Speak English, would ya?" the other snapped back "Y'ain't payin' me enough to learn to talk that jibber jabber!" We've seen him too before; this is Andy, Bosco's adopted brother.

"The gibberish you speak barely qualifies as rudimentary language, much less proper English," Peter replied scornfully, in a perfect Chicago accent.

Andy realized he was being mocked - but he didn't recognize some of the words, so he changed the subject. "What're we gonna do 'bout them two bimbos, anyway?"

"We have already had to postpone our assassination plans since most of our trained dogs have been killed. We were lucky that we discovered that Bosco was an FBI agent before he could report our plans to his masters. But it would have been better for our future plans if we had found another way to dispose of him. We will need to figure out another method of taking care of our final target now that the dogs are no longer available to us."

"Who woulda thunk Bosco was working for the FBI? I kinda 'joyed watching the dogs rip him ta shreds," Andy chuckled in satisfaction. "I've hated that clown for YEARS. And I don't really care 'bout your 'sassination - but I don't want dem bimbos figgerin' out who we are, neither. So whattawe do about em?"

"Tell me more about your contact with this 'Vivian' person," Peter seemingly changed the subject.

"How'd you know about that?" Andy was startled and suspicious.

"She called the circus business office and left a message for you with Marge yesterday. I'm part of the business office, you know. And you know Marge, she gossips about everything!"

Andy was mollified - Marge was well known as a gossip. Probably half the circus would know about that call by now. "Hey, a taste of Andy and now the broad can't live witout me! She left a number so I called her this morning. She's staying in one of the cabins at onea the cheapo local motels, and she begged me to come over; promised to be naked when I get there. So let's finish up here - I got me a hot date lined up!" He grinned in eager anticipation of his upcoming afternoon delight.

Peter already knew where she was staying, too - he'd traced the phone number yesterday and listened in on Andy's call earlier. "I doubt that she'll be be naked. She's FBI too," Peter said flatly. "And she's investigating Bosco's death too."

"How do you know that?" Andy exclaimed in disbelief. "And why didn't you tell me earlier? I mighta told her somethin' incriminal!"

"How do I know? You KNOW what I do for a living, Andy, and you know I'm very good at what I do, and I've got the best gear in the world." He pointed at the radio set they had been using to eavesdrop on the amateur investigators. "As to why I didn't tell you earlier, you would have given it away and let her that you knew. As long as you kept giving away incriminating information she was willing to use you as a resource, but as soon as you stopped she would have arrested you then and there for treason. But we can get rid of her today, and those two snoopers as well. Kill two birds with one stone, as you Americans like to say. Or in this case, three birds."

Andy wasn't happy when he realized he'd been played, but he eventually agreed to Peter's plan to dispose of all three women. Paige had turned him down more than once, more rudely each time, and Vivian had used him - but he was going to get his revenge on both of them!

After Andy left, Peter pulled something boxlike from a closet and attached it over the controls of the complex radio set - and voila, it was transformed into a standard desk top radio! He made sure the controls worked correctly by tuning in a couple of local stations, then turned to his adding machine and typed in a 7 digit number, seeming at random - and the machine started printing out what appeared to be the results of a complex series of calculations. When the printing had stopped, he tore off the paper tape. Pulling a book from his small bookshelf, he started leafing through it, frequently comparing the numbers on the tape with the page numbers of the book. In about 2 minutes he had decoded the secret message from his superiors. "Circus operation cancelled. Terminate your local accomplice and any accessories, destroy your equipment and return to HQW for your next assignment."

"Another operation cancelled before I can complete my conquest!" he snarled in Russian. "Damn that clown anyway. At least, though, we have disposed of yet another undercover FBI agent, and another one later today!"

Peter opened a closet and touched a hidden button on the back wall. Near the floor a panel opened revealing a suitcase. It was heavy; it concealed an impressive armory. He lugged it to his pickup truck and placed it behind the seat, then returned to the trailer and armed the self-destruct. If things went according to the standard evacuation plan, the trailer would fill with propane and explode in about 4 hours, and tomorrow his truck would be found wrecked a hundred miles from here, near where the KGB had hidden a car, totally untraceable to his current identity, and he'd be anonymous again. He would change cars one more time before heading for HQW - KGB Headquarters for the Western United States.

Betrayal

Over lunch the amateur investigators discussed their progress. "Looks like we're still left with 'who' and 'why', and whether Vivian is involved," Frederich summarized. "Fantasia and I will talk to the owners and bosses after lunch and see if they have noticed any unusual activities around the caravan lately."

"Say," Alex replied thoughtfully. "I wonder if it could have anything to do with the new travel itinerary for the circus? Have you guys noticed anything different since you've reached the West Coast, other than of course you've never played these places before?"

"We spend most of our time practicing, performing, or moving from one place to another," Fantasia replied, "But it's something we can ask the mucks about. They pay a lot more attention to things outside the canvas than we do."

"I want to talk to Annie again," Tammi insisted.

Alex sighed. "Of course you do. Well, let's get it out of the way first."

After the four left the dining tent and split up to continue their separate investigations, Tammi and Alex were approached by Chanteuse, Houndini's attractive female assistant. "After you guys left, the dogs from Seattle were acting weird. So I looked them over real well, checked them for fleas and ticks and stuff, and I discovered they both have some kind of scar like a cattle brand hidden under their fur on on their hind legs!" she said, sounding sad and tired."It looks like a hammer and icicle inside a star!" She showed them a hastily drawn image:

"WOW! That looks Russian! The dogs MUST have come from SMERSH!" Tammi was getting just as excited as the dog trainer. Then her face clouded up. "What kind of rotten person would burn a brand into a poor dog?"

"The same kind of rotten person who would teach a dog to kill, maybe?" Alex asked. She was just as angry as her friend.

C'mon, I gotta show you!" She grabbed each of them by a hand and started pulling them toward the trailers he and Houndini used as kennels for the dogs. They were some distance from the rest of the trailers so the barking dogs wouldn't annoy the other carnies at night, and Alex didn't notice anyone nearby. Chanteuse led them into the trailer, closed the door behind them, and led them to the cage with the Seattle dogs. They were reluctant to approach after their scary experiences yesterday, but both dogs were asleep on the floor. Alex was just realizing that all of the other dogs in their cages appeared to be asleep as well when Tammi collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Alex barely had time to be alarmed before she too passed out. Chanteuse stood behind them and laughed.

"The fools walked right into my trap! Good thing, too - I'm almost ready to change back. And before they come to, they'll be out of my hair forever!" She spoke perfect Russian! She turned on the trailer fan, then bound the women's hands and feet and gagged them, then sat down and sighed in exhaustion. She had almost fallen asleep when an intense pain shot down from her hips to her feet, and then the painful change started, and for a few minutes more, she endured the agony of her metamorphosis. When the change was complete, Peter tiredly carried each of the women out of the trailer one at a time and deposited each in the cap on the bed of his almost-new pickup trunk, then pulled open the door and struggled to climb into the driver's seat. He drove around to the lot where most of the roustabouts parked and pulled up next to Andy's beat-up old Chrysler wagon. He sat still behind the wheel for another five minutes, eyes closed and breathing deeply, then got out of the truck and walked off slowly to find Andy to carry out the rest of his plan.

He was moving much better when they returned to the lot together. Before the two got into their respective vehicles, Peter reviewed the plan one more time. "We'll grab the FBI agent at the motel, then shoot the three of them and toss them into the Petaluma River in the marsh over near Lakeville." What he didn't say was that he planned to shoot Andy and throw him in the river as well.

Peter's truck ran smoothly, but Andy had to crank the Chrysler repeatedly, and it coughed and belched smoke before he finally got it running. Peter sneered at the condition of his accomplice's car. They drove down a secluded dirt road into the marsh around the Petaluma river, and Peter finally pulled off where his truck was hidden from the road by the marsh bushes. He walked back to the road and got into Andy's car, carrying a small valise with him.

"Can't you afford something better than this wreck?" he snarled. "Even the peasants in Siberia have better cars than this!"

"Hey, do you know what they pay us?" Andy snarled back, then, "Of course you do; you work in da business office! Anyway, I can't spend da money you pay me yet; everyone'd wonder where I got it." Then he brightened up. "But, I'm Bosco's only heir, so after I see a lawyer tomorrah, all his stuff'll belong to me! And he's got a great car. Be sorry to see this one go, though. Me and Chrissie here been through a lot together! Bounced around with a lotta bimbos back there!" he pointed over his shoulder to the cargo space behind the rear seat.

He turned his attention back to the road, but before he could put the big clunker in gear, Peter reached over and touched his cheek. Andy slumped over the steering wheel, unconscious, while Peter felt his body begin the uncomfortable changes again. Changing to another male wasn't nearly as difficult or painful as changing genders; he'd been almost exhausted after changing to Chanteuse earlier, but when the change to Andy was completed, he felt pretty good. After a few minutes to recover more fully, he pulled Andy from the front seat and laid him on the back seat, then hopped behind the wheel and took off, back the way they had come, heading for the motel where Andy had planned to meet Vivian.

It was difficult to drive the old wagon; it shuddered continually, backfired regularly, and  often slowed down and almost stalled when he stepped on the gas. He was in a foul mood when he reached the hotel and pulled to a stop in front of the cabin where Vivian was supposedly waiting anxiously. He knocked on the door, Vivian pulled it open slightly and peaked out.

"Andy!" she gushed. "I thought you'd never get here! Hurry, I can hardly wait!" she pulled the door open more; Peter noticed that she was standing behind the door so he couldn't see either her attire or anything she might be holding. He slammed his shoulder into the door with all the force Andy's muscular body could produce, and Vivian was violently knocked backward and down. Peter took two steps into the room, revealed the weapon he'd been concealing behind his back, a futuristic looking pistol, and fired before Vivian hit the floor. The pistol produced only a faint buzzing, but Vivian was instantly unconscious. A pistol fell out of her right hand.

"How easy it is to dispose of these FBI fools!" he whispered softly in Russian as he closed the door behind him.

He bound and gagged her, then went back to the car, got his valise, and casually strolled to the motel office building. Around the back there was a small window, pretty high off the ground - perfect. He used a collapsible periscope to look inside; it was high up on the wall of the rest room, and it was empty. He pulled a small incendiary bomb from his bag, armed it, and smashed it it through the window, then hurried back to Vivian's cabin. When the bomb exploded and chaos erupted, he carried Vivian out and pushed her into the passenger seat, propped her up so she looked like a passenger, then started the car and headed back towards the marsh. He got more and more angry at the car as they drove - it shuddered constantly as he drove, and he had to baby the gas pedal. If he fed it too much gas, it started to flood and slowed down instead of sped up - he stalled it twice and had to pull off the road and wait before it would start again. Finally he reached the turn-off to the road where his own pickup was parked. He must have made the turn too quickly, as the wagon stalled again. He pulled it off the road and gave up on it - he'd walk to the rest of the way back to his truck.

He arranged Andy and Vivian in the back seat to look as if they were making out and then shot each of them with his stun gun, and then began hiking down the back road through the marsh to his truck. He came up with a good plan for his revenge on the car and its occupants: 'I'll put a small hole in the gas tank, then blow up the car. The fire will kill them both, and it will look to the authorities as if they stopped to do some necking and the old wreck of a car blew up and they got killed in the fire!' That was better than shooting them and throwing them in the river, which would lead to investigations. As he walked he tried to come up with some similar plan to dispose of his other two captives in such a way as to minimize suspicion. He was forced to stop once for a few minutes as his body reverted from the duplicate of Andy's to his own, then he resumed trudging toward his truck. Even though changing to Andy had been a lot less difficult than changing to Chanteuse, he was again close to exhaustion. He rarely changed twice in one day, much less twice in only a few hours.

A Rude Awakening

Alex normally woke up slowly; a gradual transition from fast asleep through slowly returning awareness of the world through groggy and finally to fully awake. Returning to consciousness after exposure to Peter's gas was almost the exact opposite - one instant she was watching Tammi collapse to the floor and the next instant she was someplace dark; it only took her an instant to realize she was in a lot of pain because her wrists were painfully bound behind her back, her ankles were similarly bound, and when she tried to scream in terror she discovered she was gagged as well. She squirmed against her bonds - and then stopped instantly when she heard a whisper.

"Alex, is that you? I hope so!!! The heartbeat sounds like yours. Where are we? I'm scared!!!" Tammi's projected voice sounded more than scared; she sounded as terrified as Alex was!

With something to focus on, Alex's terror receded to the point where she could act. She cast the illusion of pale white light on her face, and instantly the small space they were in was dimly illuminated. She didn't immediately recognize the things she around them. But her friend did.

"We're in a cap on a pickup truck," Tammi continued to whisper. She sounded a little calmer now, too, knowing that her friend shared her situation. They were both still terrified - but maybe there was something they could do. "A bunch of Halys have them. Say, I guess you're gagged too? What do we do?"

Alex had actually considered a way to communicate silently with the people around her. Glowing letters appeared on the ceiling of the cab. "We have to untie each other before someone comes for us. Can you move around?" Before Tam could answer, more words appeared. "Wait! Can you hear anyone?"

"As far as I can tell, there's no one nearby," America's Darling whispered back. "It's really quiet outside - we're not near the circus any longer - or anyplace with people nearby." As she projected her whisper, she squirmed violently - and managed to force her arms down and under her feet, so her bound hands were now in front of her. "Crap, that HURT!" she complained, still almost silently. "And my fingers aren't working so well. Roll over so I can get at your hands."

There were some thuds as Alex squirmed around. Some bad words appeared on the ceiling; Tammi actually laughed. "Wow, I never heard those words before! Where'd you learn those? I gotta try them out on some roustabouts!" Meanwhile, Alex was examining the interior of the cap as well as she could but it appeared to be empty of any tools that might help them escape. "I could use some more light here..." Tammi noted, "and, you know, a knife or even a scissors..."

The letters on the ceiling got a lot brighter. "Check the zipped pocket on my pants! If only they didn't search us too closely... and, btw, I wouldn't mind if you removed my gag. Not all of us can just say what's on our minds with gags in our mouths!"

Tammi squirmed around until she could reach the zippered pocket on the thigh of Alex's cargo pants. She could barely hold the zipper, but eventually was able to unzip the pocket - and when she pulled out all the junk Alex carried, her projected thought was joyous when "Alex! I love you! There's a keychain Swiss Army knife in here!" There was also a wadded up kerchief and a flat rubber change pouch.

A quick story was spelled out on the roof of the cab, but Tammi had already turned her attention back to Alex's bonds. "They gave my dad the keychain knife as part of his 15 year service award at Lockwood Martini, and my mom always carried it with her. Since their deaths, I ALWAYS carry it with me as a reminder of both of them. And it comes in useful a lot, too... Now, can you take my gag off?!"

With her fingers numb and stiff from cut-off circulation, it took Tammi's total concentration and several attempts to get the knife open. She was continually cursing in her thoughts, perhaps no longer aware that she was projecting also. Alex, who appreciated art in any form, listened intently, hoping she'd be able to remember some of the more creative expletives in the future.

"Boy, a girl growing up in the circus sure picks up an interesting vocabulary," the writing on the ceiling said, but Tammi by now was sawing at the cord binding Alex's wrists. "I'm not even going to complain because you jabbed me - and you haven't loosened my gag yet!"

"Say, Stretcho, can you stop with the flickering lights?" Tammi complained. "This is tough enough as it is!" She didn't even look up; Alex was sure she hadn't read the message. But then, it didn't matter - the rope was cut and her hands were FREE! And...

"OUCH! Mother Gaia, that HURTS!" the lights flickered again. Alex tried to stifle her moans as she quickly reached up and pulled the gag out of her mouth and down around her neck. "Good Work, oh Tuneful Titan!" she whispered to her friend. "Hold on, while I cut you free!" She pointedly did not remove her friend's gag, but of course it didn't matter.

"Um, Stretcho, maybe you better hurry. I hear someone coming!" Tammi whispered. Then her hands were free and she was stifling moans as well, as she hurriedly pulled her own gag down.

Alex switched to cutting the bonds on her feet. "Flash, Crash and Thrash!" she whispered as she frantically sawed, stabbing herself in the ankles more than Tammi had done freeing her hands. "The loudest Crash you've ever made! You'll fit through the door better - you go first!"

She switched to sawing the bonds on Tammi's ankles, and then she could also hear someone walking towards the door of the cap. She ripped with the knife; Tammi's bonds were cut! She could feel Tammi adjust her position; she was going to use Alex as a springboard to smash through the door as soon as it started to open. Alex braced herself, the door started to open....

Peter was greeted by an impossible There was an explosion inside the cap. A flare of light as bright as a spotlight, the roar of an explosion louder than standing next to a 707 with all engines going, and then the door smashed into him like a 100 pound cannonball had just hit it from behind! He staggered backward and Tammi pushed through the door, exploded another burst of 707 jet engine noise against the side of his head, and then launched herself at him in a flying tackle. Her shoulder dealt him a foul blow, a few inches below the belt-line, and when he fell backward, she landed on top of him, quickly jumped to her feet, and landed another foul blow, this time kicking him viciously in the same spot.

By now Alex had climbed out of the cap, and she projected the illusion of total blackness onto the spy's face. He had dropped the ray gun when Tammi hit him; she picked it up, stood well away from him, and pointed it at him - not that he was able to notice at the time. Tammi got to her feet and almost fell, then determinedly hobbled off the road and came back in a few seconds carrying a rock the size of her fist.

"I hope this works the way it does in TV and the movies!" She carefully approached the writhing, blinded villain, and with one hand pressed his head into the ground, then slammed him in the back of the head with the rock. He stopped moving.

"I hope I didn't kill him... I guess," she said hesitantly, with a stricken, haunted look on her face. Then, "But it would serve him right for killing Bosco!"

"Hmm... I hope you didn't kill him too, Tams," Alex agreed. "We don't even know if he's really the bad guy in all this!"

"That's his pickup truck we were trapped in," Tammi pointed out. By now she was sitting on the ground, massaging her wrists and ankles, occasionally making small moans. "And if he's not a SMERSH agent, what's up with that gun he was carrying? It looks just like the ray guns the bad guys in the Captain Video serials used all the time!"

"He must have been working with Chanteuse," Alex agreed reluctantly. "We'll have to be very careful of her when we go back to the circus. But for now, let's find something to tie him up - and make sure he can't get his hands on a knife!"

They found a lot of evidence in the cab of the pickup that Peter was indeed at least one of the bad guys. A suitcase full of guns, knives, bombs, restraints, ropes and other scary things convinced even Alex that he was an enemy spy - though she doubted he was really with Smersh. Soon Peter was bound with his own restraints - hands cuffed behind his back, then bound to his ankles in a really awkward position ("I hope it's PAINFUL!" Tammi had announced as she'd applied the ropes). Then they'd wrapped a few turns of rope around him, just in case. Finally they dumped him into the cap and Alex drove the pickup back toward the circus.

When they found Andy's station wagon and the two still-unconscious lovebirds seemingly necking in the back seat, it had taken some discussion, but finally the two were bound with the rest of the restraints and dumped into the cab, along with Peter - who still seemed to be unconscious. And then they were off again...

[dans]

Murder Under the Big Top

Part 7 That's a Wrap!

The FBI Steps in

Back on the circus grounds, Tammi went to find her parents while Alex stayed near the truck, one of Peter's conventional pistols in hand, in case somehow the bound prisoners were able to free themselves of their bonds. Alex didn't think it was likely, but who knew what tricks an enemy agent might have up his sleeve? It didn't take Tammi long to find her folks, and then there was a period of chaos, which eventually wound up with Peter, Andy, Chanteuse, and Vivian each locked up in a separate cage, cages normally reserved for some of the circus's larger animals.

Of course, they all protested their innocence. People stopped listening to Peter when his trailer exploded and burned violently. Several people who had been nearby were injured in the explosion or the fire, but at least no one was killed. Chanteuse was bewildered - she remembered hearing somebody in her trailer and then she'd fallen asleep; when she'd awakened all the dogs were acting strange, and she'd spent several hours tending to them, and then a couple of big roustabouts had pulled her away and stuck her in a cage. She sounded sincere but the stories of Tammi and Alex were definitive about who had gassed them - and several other people recalled seeing the three women together just after lunch. Andy was sullen and mostly silent, and when he did speak, he spewed nothing but the most vile epithets anyone could remember hearing.

Vivian's story was the most compelling. "Call long distance information for San Francisco, get the phone number of the SF FBI office, and ask for Chief Burton Hightower. Tell him Agent Vivian Redraven needs him to send a team of agents here to wrap up Operation Circus Snake." Reasoning that long distance information would give them the FBI's real number and not some spy headquarters, Haly himself made the call. Hightower verified Vivian's identity and promised that an FBI team would be there within the hour. After they released Vivian, a small, select group, including the Flemings, Tammi, Alex, and the circus mucks gathered in Haly's office to listen to Vivian's story.

"Your friend Bosco joined the FBI a few years ago, and after training, he was assigned back to your circus when Peter, a suspected foreign agent, was hired to work in the business office. I was assigned to the same investigation for a few weeks, then recalled and reassigned. I thought Andy might be working with Peter, but I never proved anything. Apparently for quite some time, Bosco didn't note anything suspicious, either. Then apparently he DID note some suspicious activity a couple of days ago and phoned HQ Saturday morning. And then he was dead Saturday afternoon. The Bureau called me back in then. I haven't really had time to learn anything more. I'd hoped to pump Andy for information today - but somehow they were suspicious of me, and instead I got knocked out and captured and woke up in one of your cages alongside Peter and Andy and Chanteuse. And that's pretty much all I can tell you; everything else is classified!" She thought for an instant. "How did you guys catch those guys? That was _very_ slick. Peter is supposedly very dangerous." She was alternately admiring and curious.

There was incipient babel as several different people all started on their own versions of the story, but suddenly Fantasia's voice cut through the noise in a commanding tone. "Quiet!" She was so loud and compelling that everyone shut up instantly. "For now, that's classified too! We'll tell Hightower, after he shows ID, and then he can decide what you need to know." Tammi squeezed her mom's hand while Frederich and Alex nodded in approval - the two young women weren't ready to reveal their powers publicly just yet.

The FBI took Andy, Peter and poor Chanteuse to the local police station for interrogation. Houndini insisted on staying with his protege, and Vivian returned the two dog trainers to the circus a couple of hours later.

"We got nowhere with Peter - but when Andy was threatened with treason charges and the death penalty, he sang like a magpie! Peter has a super power - he can change his form to look like anyone else, and it was Peter, not Chanteuse, that gassed you guys. Andy doesn't have all the details, but he knows Peter has been using his shape-changing powers to steal classified US defense information from some defense industry companies that were located near some of your West Coast stops - hence the reason Peter originally suggested that the circus tour the West Coast. And there was some kind of assassination plot involving the dogs, though Andy was never given any details. He has no idea who the target was, or when it was supposed to happen." She didn't tell them that her next assignment was to retrace the circus's West Coast itinerary, visit all the defense plants near their stops, and see if anyone had noted any unusual occurrences when the circus was nearby. But we have secret access to the FBI's records!

"How as Annie involved?" Tammi demanded.

"There's no indication that Annie ever was or is involved in any way," Vivian replied, a little mystified as to why Tammi brought it up.

"I KNEW it!" Tammi replied earnestly. Her friends laughed!

Last Call

That night, the circus finally presented their final show in Petaluma. It was a sell-out; the gory death of Bosco had made the front pages and given the circus more publicity than they had ever had before - even more than the day the commercial was filmed, the day Alex had arrived. Somehow the news that Peter and Andy had been spies, and that Bosco had been working for the FBI, had spread throughout the circus and all the performers gave the best performances of their lives in honor of their dead, heroic friend and comrade.

The next day, the circus began breaking camp for the trek to Bakersfield, their last stop on this, their last West Coast tour. The Flemings and America's Darling gave notice: after Bakersfield they would be retiring and remaining in California to pursue new careers. While the tear-down was still going on, Haly, Norton, the Ringmaster, the Gaffer, the Flemings, Tammi, and the High Flying Blair Pair, were already meeting to design the performance after which Frederich, Fantasia and Tammi would retire and Kristen and Finley would be announced as the new headliners.

Alex's motorcycle ride back to San Francisco took longer than her earlier trip - she had a lot to think about. When she'd first met Tammi, within an hour, they'd discovered a murder victim; in the hectic days that followed Alex had seen her new friend get disqualified from the Olympics by a dishonest judge, they'd been captured and almost killed by a smuggling ring who thought they'd been actual witnesses to the murder, each had discovered that the other had secret powers when they'd escaped, they'd solved the murder case, and Tammi had decided that someday the two of them would team up as mystery heroines. This time, within an hour, they'd witnessed a murder, then been captured and almost killed by an international spy, used their powers again to escape and solve the murder case, and Tammi had announced that she was moving to San Francisco - where she could disrupt Alex's life on a daily basis.

"Mother Gaia, what happens next?" Alex thought she should have been apprehensive - and then realized she was really looking forward to her new future!

[johnreiter902]

Wonderful

[dans]

Thanks, John! Now I have to work on the story of how they first met - and when that's done, the first Avant Guard ebook / print on demand trade paperback won't be far behind!