It was hard to describe the corkscrew. Certainly the journals didn’t do the move justice. To watch a woman fly so gracefully across the stage like a spiraling bird was one of the most stunning performances she’d ever seen.

The crowd jumped to their feet, giving Cecile Cabot a standing ovation.

With a swipe of her arm, Cecile Cabot made everything—the audience and the entire spectacle—disappear.

Turning to Lara, she bowed. “That, my dear, is Le Cirque Secret—where nothing is as it seems.” This woman in front of her seemed so different from the shy, sheltered girl from her journals. As she walked toward Lara, she commanded the room, confident and sure, but wasn’t she dead? Lara couldn’t understand how a woman long dead could be standing in front of her.

Cecile smiled, apparently knowing Lara’s thoughts. “I’m not the naive girl I once was. True, I have been dead a long time, but this circus is primarily performed by the dead.”

Lara kept forgetting anything she thought here was basically broadcast on a goddamned Jumbotron. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

But Cecile shook her head. “Lara Barnes. I’ve been waiting for you a long, long time.”

Chapter 22

Kerrigan Falls, Virginia

July 5, 2005

Ben had been through most of the notes in Peter Beaumont’s file and hadn’t turned up anything he hadn’t seen before. From a stack of photos held together by a paper clip, he took one out and studied it. Whoever had taken the picture seemed to cause Peter’s face to light up, so Ben assumed it was taken by someone he’d loved, and yet his mother had said there had been no one special.

The only person Peter’s mother mentioned was Jason Barnes, who had been interviewed twice and said it was inconceivable that Peter had just up and left. The two had been planning to go to LA that November and try their luck. Yet Jason Barnes had not gone to LA after his best friend disappeared. Ben wondered about this detail. Why? Surely Jason could have made it on his own—eventually, he did succeed as a musician. Looking at the date, Ben did the math and realized that part of the reason Jason probably never went to LA was due to the fact that Audrey had been pregnant with Lara at the time. Jason and Audrey were married two months after Peter died. As much as he hated to do it, he would need to talk to Lara’s father.