The rest of the day couldn’t go fast enough for Lizzie. There was no chance to get away from the stream of clients, even for a moment. She had to tell someone about the Phantom. Someone who would listen.
Finally, she got her chance. Once the last of the spectators had been ushered out of the main tent, she met Malachy, Hari, and Nora there. Dru and Erin, who was understudying for Collette, cartwheeled through the air high above, cramming in some last-minute trapeze practice. Lizzie almost couldn’t bear to look.
Hari studied her. “You’ve had another vision,” he said.
Lizzie stared at him. “How can you tell?”
“You’re clenching your right hand. The one you use to do the readings. You did that last time too.”
Lizzie felt uneasy. She hadn’t known Hari very long, but it was alarming how easily her new friend could read her.
Once Dru and Erin had clambered down the rope ladders, sweaty and breathless from their practice session, everyone gathered in a circle. Malachy sat on top of a hay bale like a king holding court. He nodded for Lizzie to start speaking.
“This is going to sound crazy, but just listen, all right?” Lizzie said. When she had their attention, she continued. “I had a customer today — a man who watches over a posh house. I saw it in the vision. And I saw someone come along with a sack like they was going to rob it.” She took a breath. “It was the Phantom.”
“You saw the Phantom?” Erin leaned forward, excited. “What’s he look like?”
“Nobody knows,” Nora said scornfully. “He wears a mask, doesn’t he?”
Erin looked to Lizzie. “What’d the mask look like, then?”
“It was horrible,” Lizzie said. “Like a ghost, or a skull, sort of. I tried to warn the man, but he laughed in my face!”
Excited chatter broke out. Nobody even questioned the truth of what she’d seen. Lizzie felt buoyed up by their faith in her, as if she’d taken a jump into the unknown, only to be caught by a safety net.
“The question we ought to be asking,” Malachy said after the babble had died down a bit, “is why you had this vision in the first place?”
“So I could warn him,” Lizzie said immediately.
“But he didn’t listen, did he?” Malachy said.
Lizzie frowned. “Lay off! I did my best!”
“I know. But think,” Malachy said. “What if he wasn’t the one who needs to act?”
Lizzie held up her hands. “So who does, then? Me?”
A hush fell upon the gathering. They all looked at one another. Were forces beyond their control setting some great hunt in motion, some adventure beyond anything they’d ever imagined?
“It stands to reason,” Malachy said quietly, “that a power that can see the future would have known your client wouldn’t listen. So if the vision wasn’t meant for him, it must have been meant for you.”
“You reckon I’ve got this . . . this gift of mine so’s I can stop crimes happening, don’t you?” Lizzie said.
“I honestly do, yes.” Malachy jumped down from his perch. “You’ve already stopped one, haven’t you?”
“Aurora,” Erin said.
Lizzie remembered Aurora’s blood-chilling threats as she was dragged away. She hadn’t just stopped a crime, she’d made an enemy. Now Malachy was pushing her to confront the Phantom, who was far more dangerous. All of a sudden, Lizzie felt sick.
“Maybe I should just forget all about it,” she said. “It’s too risky. I don’t have to do anything, do I?”
“You can’t be serious!” said Nora. “What if you’d just let Aurora rob that man? You think she’d have stopped with him?”
“She’d have kept stealing,” Dru agreed. “And when she was finally caught, it wouldn’t just be her who got blamed.”
“It would’ve been the whole circus!” said Malachy.
Hari looked up. “If you are the only one who can stop the Phantom, Lizzie, then you have a duty to do so.”
“Why does it have to be me, though?” Lizzie complained. “Ain’t it the police supposed to stop criminals?” But even as she spoke, Lizzie remembered what the passing officer had said. “I suppose the coppers are a waste of time,” she said with a sigh. “At least, that one I saw today was.”
“You saw a policeman on the site?” Malachy frowned.
“He spoke to my customer. ‘Don’t ever believe a word those circus folk tell you,’ he said. Called us all cheats and liars.”
Eyes rolled and tongues tutted all around the circle.
“Comme toujours,” muttered Dru. “The police don’t like us, Lizzie. Whenever we come to town, we’re the first to be blamed if there’s a crime.”
“Heard it a thousand times,” Nora agreed with a sigh. “Thieving travelers, they think we are.”
“A policeman grabbed my ear once,” Hari said gloomily. “He warned me not to use my ‘Indian rope trick’ to climb into windows and steal. I laughed. I told him such tricks are make-believe.” Hari pointed at a white scar on his cheek. “He gave me this for talking back to him.”
“Safe to say we won’t be going to the police,” Malachy said. “Sorry, Lizzie. They’re always like that where we’re concerned.”
Lizzie rose to leave. If the police wouldn’t help and the adults wouldn’t act, then she’d just have to confront the Phantom herself. Once she’d figured out where to start, of course.
“So we’ll have to be the ones who investigate.” Malachy touched her arm, stopping her in her tracks. “You didn’t think we’d let you do this alone, did you?”
Lizzie stared at him. “Seriously? You’re all in? Every one of you?”
Nora, Erin, Hari, and Dru all nodded and grinned. Malachy tipped an imaginary hat in Lizzie’s direction. “All for one, and one for all.”
“Fantastic!” Lizzie cheered. “So . . . um . . . how are we going to catch him, then?”
“The same way we caught Aurora,” Hari said. “You recognized the gentleman and his watch, so you were able to act in time. We must look for something similar in this new vision.” He sat cross-legged, his eyes closed. Lizzie was sure he was building up a picture in his remarkable mind. “Tell us everything,” he said. “Take your mind back. Talk us through what you saw. Every detail.”
And that is exactly what Lizzie did. She described the tall house, the lion’s-head door knocker, the narrow alley, the church with the huge spire, and the flying golden dragon perched on top. Lastly, she told them about the stooped figure of the Phantom, clutching his sack.
Hari asked question after question in a low calm voice, like a hypnotist. “How many windows?”
“Nine or ten.”
“Was the sky light or dark?”
“Sort of halfway.”
“Was the sack empty or full?”
“Empty.”
The questions went on until Lizzie’s poor head ached with the effort of remembering. If Hari was growing frustrated, he didn’t show it. Somehow, that boy was always calm. Malachy paced back and forth while the others looked on tensely, waiting for the moment of truth.
“Did you hear anything?” Hari finally asked, trying a new tactic.
“Yes!” Lizzie burst out. “A voice, shouting out, ‘Last show, last show!’”
“But that’s us!” Nora cried, shivering all over. “That’s this circus!”
“I’ve got goose pimples,” Erin said with a shudder.
Malachy snapped his fingers. “That tells us when it’s going to happen! The callers call the last show at eight o’clock every evening.”
“When the sky is half dark and half light,” Dru added.
“Now we just need to work out where it’ll happen,” Malachy said. “Let’s get to work. We have a crime to stop!”
They all leaped up and began to rush from the tent, except for Hari. “One moment,” he said, still cross-legged, holding up a hand.
“Yes?” asked Malachy.
“If we are going to start investigating together, I think we should have a name.”
“Brilliant idea!” Erin said. “We should be . . . The Show Tent Irregulars!”
“I don’t want to be an Irregular,” Lizzie said. “Sounds like someone with an upset stomach.”
“Dru Boisset and the Human Oddities?” Dru suggested cheekily. Lizzie cuffed him around the back of the head.
“It needs ‘gang’ in the title. We should be the something gang,” mused Nora.
Hari brightened. “I like that! The Something Gang. It has an air of mystery.” He drew a question mark in the sawdust with a finger. “My calling card.”
“Too much mystery,” said Malachy. “No, I know what we should be. It’s obvious. It’s staring you all in the face.”
They all looked at him, questioningly.
“Well?” Lizzie demanded.
“The Penny Gaff Gang!” Malachy exclaimed.
Lizzie had to agree it was perfect.