“Now, there’s an interesting character.” Tim Wilkes laid a file on the table. “A bit of a drifter, it seems, and he’s fairly new in town. A handful of priors, six months served on an assault charge four years ago in Seattle. Here’s the interesting part: Until it closed, he was a carny with Dr. Midnight’s Traveling Sideshow.”

Cody frowned. “Now, that does ring a bell.”

“They applied for a permit to hold a performance here a couple of years ago,” the chief said. “The town council turned them down. It wasn’t exactly, ah, family-friendly entertainment.”

I was intrigued.

Detective Wilkes nodded. “It was billed as an old-fashioned sideshow with live freaks and geeks. They traveled on a national circuit, but they were based in Seattle. Late last fall, the Seattle authorities shut them down on charges of abusing and exploiting the performers.”

“Whereupon this Dunham decided to move to Pemkowet and begin consorting with ghouls?” Chief Bryant said sourly. “It doesn’t add up.”

“Seattle has an underworld,” I said. “Where else did Dr. Midnight’s Traveling Sideshow perform?”

Wilkes checked his notes. “Larger venues, mostly. Chicago, New York, Denver . . . a few oddities, too. Fresno, Leavenworth. Nothing as small as Pemkowet.”

Cody and I exchanged a glance. “They’re all sites in the U.S. with functioning underworlds,” he said.

My skin prickled. “So there’s an eldritch connection. I bet there was something in that sideshow that wasn’t human. Oh, hell! I’m sure there was. It’s right there in the name.”

Everyone looked blank.

“Dr. Midnight’s Traveling Sideshow?” I said impatiently. “It’s a reference to The Last Unicorn.”

“Let me guess,” Cody said. “A movie?”

I successfully fought the urge to glare at him. “As a matter of fact, yes, but it was a book first. My mom read it to me when I was a kid. The Midnight Carnival was a traveling sideshow full of illusion, but it had one true thing in it.”

“What was it?” he asked.

“A harpy,” I said.

He raised his brows. “Now we’re looking for a harpy?”

“No. I don’t know. We’re looking for something.” Glancing around the conference room, I could see I was losing the crowd. “I’m just speculating, okay?”

The chief propped his chin on one meaty fist. “All right. Where are we on the aquarium angle, Tim?”

“Still tracking down leads,” the detective said. “We’ve got a possibility or two, but we’re waiting on the ichthyologist’s report on the scales found under the Vanderhei boy’s fingernails. That will help us narrow it down.”

“Okay.” Chief Bryant dislodged his fist from beneath his chin and looked at his watch. “Let’s run with what we have. Cody, Daisy, I want you to shake down this Dunham character, see what comes loose. Just be back in time for the funeral.”

Cody nodded. “Both of us?”