The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers (the little red hen ebook TXT) 📕

“Wait! The haunted stretch of road that kids are told not to drive on?” Lara looked at Ben. “That Wickelow Bend? Why on earth would Todd have been there?” Lara eyed her mother suspiciously. Audrey had turned completely pale and seemed to be trembling. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“It was thirty years ago today.” Audrey directed the comment to Ben. “You remember that, don’t you?”

“I was there, Audrey,” said Ben. He put his hands in his pockets and seemed fascinated with his shoes. “It was my dad’s birthday. He always let me ride along with him in the police cruiser.”

“Oh, I keep forgetting about your father.” Audrey looked weary. “But you were just a boy.”

“What are you both talking about?” Lara was watching their faces. “You didn’t find Todd. That’s good, right?”

Ben hesitated as though he were parsing out unfortunate news to a child. “Back in 1974—October tenth to be specific—we found an abandoned car along the road. It belonged to a man by the name of Peter Beaumont. To be perfectly honest with you, Todd’s car was found in the exact same spot today.”

“We’ve all heard the story,” said Lara. “You’re telling me that it’s really true?”

“Yes.” Audrey’s voice was soft. “Peter Beaumont was your father’s best friend.”

“But Todd had no connection to Wickelow Bend or that missing man.”

“Peter Beaumont wasn’t just some missing man,” said her mother, a surprising tone of annoyance in her voice as she clutched at the collar of her robe, pulling it around her neck. “He and your father grew up together here. They started their first band together in Jason’s garage.”

Lara was confused. While she knew never to drive on Wickelow Bend at night—no one did that—she’d never heard the name Peter Beaumont until now. Kids told wild tales of Wickelow Bend, but there were no names attached. It was an anonymous bogeyman… a missing man. The idea that someone real had actually disappeared hadn’t occurred to her or her friends, ever. It was just an old legend. And Peter Beaumont? She’d toured with her father’s band for a year. No one knew her father’s musical career like she did. “And yet none of you have ever mentioned his name?” It was a sharp comment and she could see that it stung, but she couldn’t exactly figure out why this revelation was bothering her so much.

“I have to go tell the Suttons,” said Ben, excusing himself.

“Of course,” said Audrey, taking his jacket from Lara’s shoulders and offering it back.

He touched the doorknob and then turned back. “I’m sorry, Lara. I wish I’d had better news for you.”

“You’re still looking for him?”

“Of course we are,” said Ben. “Doyle has a team searching the woods. But…”

“But what?”

“They never found Peter Beaumont.” Her mother finished Ben’s sentence for him.

“That’s correct. Technically, the Beaumont case is still open,” he said. Ben tapped the front door with his finger, nervously.

The weight of what they were hinting at hit her in waves. This wasn’t some simple misunderstanding over their wedding. They were saying that she might never see Todd again. Pressure built up behind her eyes, and she fixed on something on the wall so as not to cry.

“I’ll be in touch.” Ben nodded at Audrey. Lara noticed the thick mud on the pants of his uniform and the dark circles under his eyes. It would be a long day. For that, she was grateful to him. He looked as miserable as she felt.

When she turned, she saw that her father had been standing in the doorway, listening to the entire exchange. It would make sense that he wanted to be here for Lara after what happened at the wedding, but she hadn’t known he was in the house.

“I guess you heard.” Audrey ran her hands through her hair, like she was trying to compose herself.

Anger rose up in her, but Lara wasn’t sure why. “Why didn’t either of you ever mention Peter Beaumont to me?” A name she had never heard until today had suddenly become significant. Now Peter and Todd seemed to be entwined by the same fate.

“I couldn’t talk about him.” Jason focused on Audrey.

Something occurred to Lara. She had been so stupid. She turned to her mother. “You knew.” The common blood that flowed between them told her this much. “You’d tried to talk me out of getting married yesterday. It was the date, wasn’t it? You knew something would happen on that day.”

“They thought Peter actually disappeared on the ninth and that his car wasn’t found until the next day. I’ve hated that day.” Her mother inhaled deeply. “I’d hoped I would be wrong.”

Lara shot her mother a disbelieving stare and laughed. “You’re never wrong.”

“No,” admitted Audrey. “I’m not, but for your sake, I wish that I had been.”

Kerrigan Falls, Virginia

June 20, 2005 (Nine Months After the Wedding)

After Todd—didn’t show, split, went missing, jilted her, bailed, was abducted by aliens, insert wild theory—Lara had contemplated moving away from Kerrigan Falls.

Nothing had prepared her for the aftermath. First there were people who speculated on the connection between the Todd Sutton and Peter Beaumont cases.

Reporters camped out on Wickelow Bend as though they were expecting something to emerge from the trees. They stalked her, trying to get interviews about the last time she saw Todd and if he believed in the supernatural. A television show, Ghostly Happenings, sent a team of “hunters” for an episode titled “The Devil’s Bend” that was the most watched show of the season, leading to odd phone calls at all hours from true believers in the occult. Lara had been so rattled by the intense attention that she didn’t put up a fuss when Audrey insisted she stay out at Cabot Farms. When cars began driving up to the house in the middle of the night, Audrey installed a gate at the bottom of the hill, then changed their number. Lara wasted the days away reading her horoscope, watching General Hospital, drinking Chardonnay, and