Luis grabbed hold of her. "You know what I was prepared to do for you? That inspector — when I saw him arrive, you know what I wanted to do? Say it was me, say I killed Kellerman! I was going to do that for you Ruda, because—"
Ruda let the shirt drop. "Oh God, what did you tell him, you fool!"
"I told him nothing. They were just coming to see the show, they had free tickets. I said nothing."
She seemed almost amused. "You were really going to do that for me?"
He pointed to the clock. "You got ten minutes. I'll get the boys ready."
She unzipped her pants slowly, never taking her eyes off his face. "He took a long time to die. I never meant to kill him — but he threatened me and... there was this big green ashtray, very heavy. I kept on hitting him and his teeth fell out. I remember seeing his teeth on the carpet. He was always so proud of his white teeth, but they were as false, as fake, as he was."
She took a deep breath. "Oh God, Luis. He took such a long time to die."
Ruda kicked her pants off. The terrible jagged scars were shining with sweat. She looked up to him and held out her arms. He hugged her tightly.
"Nobody will hurt you. I won't let them."
She stroked his face. "So if they come for me, you'll say you did it? You'd really do that for me?"
Luis kissed her forehead. "Yes, yes, I'll say it was me. Nobody will ever hurt you again, I promise."
She cupped his face in her hands and kissed his lips. Her eyes searched his eyes. She traced his lips with her fingers. "Be nice to her, Luis, she was always the weak one."
"Yes, I can tell."
She gave a strange smile. "Can you now? I underestimated you."
Luis tapped his wrist to indicate the time, and brought her the costume. He heard the shower being turned on, and eased the plastic cover from the white jacket, glad to be needed.
Outside, Rebecca sat hunched on the steps. When she heard Ruda call out for her costume, she moved away, afraid to be seen. She lost her footing, falling in the thick mud. She tried to stand, but she had slid halfway beneath the trailer.
The trailer door opened. She could see the polished boots, and hear Ruda telling Grimaldi to bring her to the ring.
"And Luis... no gun! Promise me?"
As Ruda hurried away, Rebecca could see Grimaldi's feet. She crawled a few inches, calling out to him. The mud oozed beneath her. She could smell the wet earth, and she was lost. The dank stinking tunnel, the stench of the sewers, the scurrying rats. Two tiny girls forced to stay silent. They clung to each other. Above them they could hear the clank of steel-edged boot heels against the rim of the manhole cover. They were waist deep in filthy water. Rats swam around them. They heard the echoes of boots and screaming voices.
The darkness began to swallow her. Rebecca's heart beat rapidly as she tried to force the memories away. She tried to concentrate on getting herself out from beneath the trailer, but the fragmented memories overpowered her.
Ruda snapped at Vernon that she could handle Mamon, all they had to do was their job, and she would do hers. Vernon backed off and looked at Mike. They were radioed up to the main soundboard, ready to start the second half of the show. Ruda asked Mike, "Where is she?"
Mike's thoughts were on Mamon and for a moment he looked blank.
"My sister. She was with you, wasn't she?"
Mike shook his head. "She went back to the trailer."
"Go and get someone to find her, she might have gotten lost. Tell her to stand by Grimaldi."
Ruda was pacing up and down as the orchestra started the second-half intro. "Mike! I don't want him with that bloody rifle. If he comes in with it, get it away from him. Don't let him go in the ring with that goddamned thing."
Mike nodded. He didn't even know where Grimaldi was, and he would not risk looking for him now. He signaled to one of the helpers to go and look for Grimaldi and Rebecca.
Ruda edged closer to the entrance. She stamped her feet. She was wearing her second costume, a white jacket, black trousers, and black boots, with black leather gloves. The white shoulders of the jacket were padded since she would be working with Wanton. He was very unpredictable and could give a nasty scratch. She was in fact always more worried about Wanton, though he was only a quarter of the weight of Mamon. Panthers were more difficult to train by far.
The release cages were lined up. Three male lions paced up and down, as eager to get into the ring as Ruda. Behind the lions came the lioness, behind them the tigers. The last two cages held Wanton and Mamon.
"Ladies and gentlemen — Please take your seats for the second part of the show. Take your seats, please..."
Ruda turned to the standby board. The red and green lights were not on. She looked back to the ring, and tilted her head from side to side. Her neck was tensing badly. "Come on, come on," she murmured, her hands clenched at her sides.
Mike received the radio signal that Grimaldi was in position on the far side of the ring. Alone.
Vernon came to Ruda. He pressed his earpiece. "Bit of a delay with a big party on the left bank of seats."
"Shit! Any money it'll be the bastards that haven't paid to get in anyway."
Ruda shifted her weight from one foot to the other and sighed impatiently, then gave a fleeting look around for Rebecca and asked again if Mike had located her. Mike smiled, gave the thumbs up. Ruda nodded. "Make sure she's okay, will you?" Again he nodded, and Ruda breathed in deeply.
Ruda closed her eyes trying to concentrate on the act, but she couldn't stop thinking of Rebecca. When she'd helped Rebecca change, she'd noticed her clothes, even her underwear, were of the finest quality. She had worn a big diamond ring. Ruda tapped her stick against her leg. Rebecca had four children, a rich husband. Her life must have been very different from her own. She wondered if Rebecca had tried to find her, tried as hard as she had... Ruda opened her eyes, forcing herself to concentrate. "Are the pedestals set up?" Ruda asked no one in particular. Vernon replied that they were. Ruda looked again to the lights. "What the hell's going on! Come on, light up. Red, come on red... green, red, green!"
Rebecca curled her body into a tight ball beneath the trailer. The colors came in rapid succession. She had to remember each color, she had to give them to Ruda. If she didn't give them to her sister, Ruda would be given no food, they would hurt her. She heard Papa's voice, saw the cards being laid out, red, green, blue...
The red light flickered. "Stand by, Miss Kellerman."
Ruda stood rigid. She didn't see the draped entrance to the main ring, but instead the dark green curtain. The hand that drew the curtain open was clean, with red painted nails; the woman had beautiful blond hair swept in a perfect coil. Her eyelids were painted, her cheeks rouged and powdered like an actress's. The dark red lips were often parted in a half smile. Ruda could see him behind the glass, just a fraction to the right of Red Lips, one of his gloved hands resting against the high dentist's chair. He had oiled, slicked-back ebony hair, chiseled features, and wore an immaculate uniform. They made a handsome couple. When he smiled his teeth were even and white.
Rebecca wore a frilly dress, white socks, and black patent leather shoes. Once, when the curtain was drawn back Ruda saw that she had been holding a doll, and she had held it up for Ruda to see. A doll with orange hair and a porcelain face, pink-cheeked, pink-lipped, with delicate china hands. Ruda had pretended that when they drew the curtain back she was looking into a mirror, seeing herself. It had calmed her and made the pain go away.
Papa made the unwrapping of a toffee into an art, holding each end of the wrapper delicately between finger and thumb, as if afraid to get so much as a trace of toffee on his white gloves. Ruda's mouth was always dry, tasting of metal. She longed for the sweet, watched the elaborate unwrapping of the treat with desperate eyes. When he smiled and touched Rebecca's chin to indicate she should open her mouth, when he looked through the glass to Ruda and smiled as he popped the sweet into Rebecca's mouth, Ruda could taste the sweet, soft caramel. The green film over her baby teeth became sweet and delicious.