Chapter Twenty-Six
“Fascinating,” Wenders growled with no sign he was fascinated. “But how does a questionable death and an insurance fiddle in Missouri three years ago lead to modern day murder in Chicago?”
“Because the principals in that tragic tale didn't really vanish from the face of the earth. They merely seemed to. Circus performers have always come and gone like gypsies. Small circuses have always done the same. No one batted an eye when, several years later, a tiny circus appeared out of the blue. It was owned and managed by its ringmaster, Karl Kreis, a fellow nobody had ever heard of before. He preferred to be called The Major. He called his show The Major's Major Circus.
“After the fire, Gunther Herman had no traceable future. He disappeared. Before the fire, Karl Kreis had
