Why is my cycle plugin showing the background between images?

Why is my cycle plugin showing the background between images?

I've used the cycle plugin on several Wordpress sites and it works great, except that when I run it the background is visible between transitions. Instead of a smooth fade between images, there is a long pause between images. Even when I use the default values, there is still a noticeable delay between the slides.

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('.slideshow').css("overflow", "hidden").cycle({
        fx: 'fade', sync: 1, speed: 2000, timeout: 3000, delay: -2000,
    });
});

The current site I am using the cycle plugin on is http://www.rayjs.argentcor.com

If anyone has advice for solving this issue, please let me know.  I feel like it might be a wordpress/jquery issue, but I'm not sure.