Shadow in Serenity

thirty


The air was thick with tension as Carny and Logan took off Monday morning for Houston. Logan seemed preoccupied and pensive, and Carny couldn’t help wondering if this trip was proof of his legitimacy or just another con to get him out of town quickly.

While he’d loaded his bag into the cargo area of the plane, Carny had peeked into the appointment book he’d brought with him and laid on the seat. He did have appointments with bankers penciled in. Either he was really going to talk to them about the park, or he was going to rob several banks. Gloomily, she realized that the former would have surprised her more than the latter.

“So what’s this trip all about?” she asked him when they’d reached their desired altitude and were cruising south.

“Just an update meeting for the investors and potential investors,” he said. He pulled a calculator out of his pocket and began recomputing numbers that were listed on a computer printout.

“Are you going to see Roland Thunder?”

“Don’t know yet,” he said. “We’ll see.”

Carny didn’t believe for a minute that Roland Thunder had anything to do with this. It was ludicrous. Yet …

Logan seemed so serious, so intent on his work, preparing for his meetings. He wouldn’t take this so far if it was nothing but a con, would he? He would have just walked away with the cash he’d collected.

Trying to break the tension and still get some information out of him, she decided to make her own confession. Adjusting her microphone, she said, “I talked to my folks the other day. They want to retire from the carnival and settle in Serenity.”

Logan looked up. “Is that good or bad?” he said into his headset.

She sighed. “I’m ashamed to say it, but I think it’s bad. Don’t get me wrong. I love my parents. I really do. But they don’t belong in Serenity.”

“Because of their past?”

“No,” she said, “because of their present. Their lifestyle isn’t exactly compatible with small-town life. Besides, they want a piece of the park. They want to set up some booths and rides and run them.”

“And you think that would be a bad idea?”

She hesitated. “Brisco, the only way a park like this could work is if we can preserve the integrity and hometown sweetness of Serenity. As much as I love my parents, I don’t think we can do that if they come here with their entourage of carnies and try to run the show.”

“You’re right,” he said. “We’ll have to be strict about who’s involved in the park. In fact, we should probably have a park commissioner to ride herd on that.”

“Good idea.”

He looked at her then, grinning. “Do I detect a hint of faith in you? Are you starting to believe I’m not a liar?”

She sighed. “I don’t know what I believe.” She glanced over at him. “So what am I supposed to do while you’re meeting with the bankers?”

“Stay in the cockpit and keep the plane running,” he said with a wry grin.

She smirked. “I knew this was the getaway plane.”

He laughed. “That was a joke, Carny. Actually, you can do whatever you want. Stay in your room with Jack, or go shopping, or go sightseeing, or you could even come with me.”

The last suggestion wasn’t one she’d expected. “Really? Come with you?”

“Sure,” he said. “Of course, you couldn’t actually come into the meetings with me, since these are mostly old boys, and I’ll have better luck with them if I’m alone. But you could wait in the waiting area, if you want. I did tell you you could keep an eye on me, after all.”

Carny thought for a moment, then decided to call his bluff. “All right. I’ll do it.”

“Good.” He went back to studying his notes. “I’ll just leave Jack in the hotel room.”

The fact that he didn’t object or try to find some way out of it, surprised her again. This was getting too confusing. How was she supposed to figure him out, if he kept acting normal? She’d based her whole perception of him on his being a swindler. If he wasn’t one, then she didn’t quite know how to feel about him.

She’d get her mind back on track with the camera, she thought. She’d try to take his picture, and he wouldn’t let her. That would remind her that he was a crook. It would reinforce, yet again, what she already knew.

Somehow, she needed to hang on to that belief, because trusting him meant that she’d eventually have to deal with the feelings she’d been trying to deny — the feelings that had the potential to hurt her even more than his duplicity might have.

Logan got them adjoining suites at the St. Regis Hotel in Houston, a luxury hotel that made Carny wonder who was paying for it — the big investors from the banks, or the small ones in Serenity. He told her to take an hour or so to relax while he made some phone calls. He would come get her for lunch, and then they would go to his first appointment.

As she waited, she prayed that she wasn’t being set up for disaster.


The first call Logan made was to a limousine service, from which he ordered a chauffeured Rolls-Royce to pick up Carny and him at two o’clock to transport them to the first bank. It had worked for him before, when he’d opened accounts with bad checks, taken out loans under the guise of a wealthy New York businessman, and perpetrated more than a few cons of bankers. The first impression was the most important, and when the bankers saw him drive up in a chauffeured limo and walk in dressed like a Wall Street tycoon, they immediately believed he was someone whose business they wanted. The rest was just a matter of persuasion.

He then called all the bankers he’d made appointments with, confirming that they would see him and reaffirming the fact that he was shopping for investors, but that he was choosy about who he went into partnership with. That, he hoped, would set the tone of urgency and of competition. Nothing made a banker want a client more than the possibility that he may not be able to have him.

After the phone calls, he sat staring at Jack, who looked a little queasy and tired after the flight. “That was nothing, boy,” he said softly. “The real ride’s about to start.”

Could he really pull this off? Getting real investors would take all the talent he had as a con artist. That it was for a legitimate venture wouldn’t matter. His powers of persuasion would still be sorely tested. He’d have to pit one bank against another, drop lots of names, and look uncommitted to whatever bank he was visiting at the time. And it would all be done in the name of the town of Serenity.

He’d done his homework. He knew the age of every banker he had targeted, how long they’d been running that bank, what other banks they’d worked for, where they’d gone to school, whether they were married, their spouses’ names, how many children they had, what big ventures they had funded …

But he didn’t plan to use that information today. The background was just so that he could read them more accurately, judge them, gauge them. It was only so he could determine what kind of pitch they would respond to.

He hoped Carny wouldn’t throw a wrench into his plans. Even though she would be waiting in the lobby, one wrong move on her part could blow his cover. One wrong word from either of them, and he wouldn’t be able to make these investors give him the time of day.

When he stopped by her room, he was pleasantly surprised at the way she had transformed herself. As if she realized the importance of the meetings, she had twisted her hair up and donned a little yellow suit that looked expensive enough to suit the bankers, though he suspected it had come from the sale rack at Miss Mabel’s. Her high heels emphasized her shape and made her look sophisticated. She looked the perfect match for a man who could afford a chauffeured Rolls. He relaxed, reassured. It was all going to work out as fantastically as the scam would have, if he’d gone through with it.

“You look perfect,” he said, stepping into her room.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” She reached into her bag for the camera she’d brought, and waited for him to blanch. “Smile and let me get a picture.”

Logan grinned his best grin and allowed her to flash three pictures right in a row. “Now, are you finished?” he asked. “We’ve got a lunch reservation.”

She set the camera down, apparently pleased. “Sure, I’m ready.” She followed him out, locking the door behind her.


She hadn’t expected to eat a five-course meal in the hotel’s fanciest restaurant, but Logan’s tastes were evidently more opulent than her own. Not certain whether it was his investors or the citizens of Serenity who were financing this trip, Carny ordered only a salad and glass of iced tea.

“Aren’t you hungrier than that?” he asked as she eyed the steak the waiter had brought him.

“Not hungry enough to pay what that steak costs.”

He laughed. “What do you care? I’m paying for it.”

“With what?” she asked. “My in-laws’ money, or the Trents’, or Brother Tommy’s?”

He sighed. “You’ll never give up, will you? For your information, I’m using my own money for this.”

She smiled then. “Oh … well, in that case, what do they have that’s really expensive?”

When she’d ordered, he slid back his chair. “Well, then, if you’ll excuse me for a minute, I’m going to find the men’s room. Don’t eat my lunch while I’m gone.”

Smiling, she watched him walk out of the restaurant and wondered if the restroom had windows. Any minute now he was going to escape and leave her holding the bag for lunch.

No, she was being silly. Logan wasn’t going anywhere, except to the restroom. Maybe it was time she ignored her suspicious instincts and just enjoyed this. After all, he had let her take his picture. He wouldn’t have stood there and let her take it so easily if he’d had anything to hide.

Sighing, she finished her salad. Things might be on the level, after all.


Logan bypassed the men’s room and rushed to the elevator, rode up to their floor, and trotted up the hall. When he’d checked in, he had gotten the desk clerk to give him two keycards for each room, just in case he needed to get into hers for something like this. Fishing hers out of his pocket, he opened her door and slipped inside.

The camera was sitting right where she’d left it. Deftly, he clicked through the digital images and deleted the ones of himself. Then he put the camera back exactly where he had found it.

Chances were that she wouldn’t know she’d lost the pictures until they were back in Serenity. Hopefully, she’d think it was her own error.

Smiling, he slipped out of her room, hopped the elevator, and cut back across the lobby to the restaurant, where Carny was waiting.