Send in the Clowns, a Detective Mike Bridger novel (24 page)

Chapter
Twenty Three

There was
another person in the darkness with him now. After they threw him
back in the cage, he had been sleeping, a fitful broken sleep. The
wind had been rocking the cage like a ship at sea and the noise had
been deafening, but at least it had drowned out the noise of the
animal. When he had woken the angry weather outside had subsided
slightly and he had heard the sound of stuttered breathing. It was
not the animal; he knew that, there was no menace in the sound. It
was not the Clown either. He had not said anything, he had not even
moved, just lying still, he hoped the person would leave him alone.
Reece Coster had been crying, he was scared, and he had shit his
pants. He did not want anyone to see him in this state.

The door at
the end of the cage opened and a dull light streamed into the
darkness making the cramped interior visible again. The restless
animal in the next cage lunged at the door, a sharp growl in its
throat. Cut off by the cold steel bars, it swiped its paws trough
the gaps. The man sitting a few feet from the animal’s claws did
not flinch. Reece looked at the man’s features in the dull light;
puffy and withdrawn eyes stared back at him. It was the man he had
seen with the circus slut the other night, standing over the dead
man.

“
Out…” The voice came from outside his cage, the Clown with
the eyes that spilled hate came into view. Reece did not move. He
did not want to play this game anymore. They had made him post
something on the P.A.A.I.N website earlier and he thought they
would let him go after that, but they had just put him back into
the darkness, next to the animal. They said ‘She must decide’, but
he did not know who ‘She’ was.

“
I said get out…” The voice was more forceful this time, but
the Clowns mouth had not moved. The voice had sounded female, was
this ‘She’

The other man
in the cage stirred and looked up “Maria? Maria is that you…? I’m
so sorry Maria. You have to believe me…” The circus slut stepped
into Reece’s view and addressed the pitiful figure sitting across
from him.

“
My whole life I have had this dream, a Clown that did not
care, a Clown that hurt. I did not know why until now. You took my
family from me…, you made a choice. It was you all
along.”

“
No Maria, Mick took it… he took anything he wanted, his
family have been doing it since this Circus started.” I was too
young, too immature to deal with it; I took it out on you… and your
mother.”

“
Bullshit… Anthony, you and Mick were as bad as each other…”
Maria’s voice cracked “I don’t have any memory of my mother, you
two saw to that.”

The Clowns
clambered into the cage exciting the animal next to them. They
dragged the man from his place. Reece looked into the man’s eyes as
he slid past where he was sitting. There was nothing there, a
reflection of how Reece felt. He watched as they shoved the man
from the cage and onto the ground. The Clowns turned for him as
soon as the man hit the dirt. The animal in the next cage was at
frenzy, pacing the wooden floor and swiping at the walls. He knew
his time would be soon, he would have his turn.

Reece found
himself standing outside the cage, the animal inside making it rock
back and forth. In the dim morning light, he could see that there
was a line of vehicles off to his right. There was no sign of the
Circus; packed into the trucks it was ready to move too another
town, where different set of eyes would watch the show unfold once
more.

He looked at
the circus slut wondering what was going to happen next, but she
just looked right through him, no recognition in her eyes, instead,
she focussed on the other man.

“
This life is so incestuous Anthony, and you took advantage of
that. Look at what you have been doing with Mick for the last
twenty years… You disgust me…” She went to walk away, but then
turned and faced him, her face inches from his. “Teaching me the
rope, was that your way of making things up to me? Your way of
penance, for taking my life from me? Why could you not tell me what
you did instead? You were weak Anthony; you took it out on a little
girl. You were Clown, but there was no jest with you. Well fuck you
Anthony Gonzales; all that did was, make me stronger, strong enough
to do this.”

The circus
slut that the man had called Maria, turned and walked away, Reece
watched as she climbed into the cab of one of the trucks. One by
one, the trucks started, shiny exhausts belching diesel fumes into
the air, and then slowly, one by one, the trucks drove
away.

The cage
trailer behind him continued to rock on its chassis, the angry
beast within wanting his time in the spotlight. The dead face of a
Circus ringmaster stared at their backs and Reece Coster found
himself standing beside Anthony Gonzales as four Clowns stepped
into view holding a large steel blade. Reece watched Anthony’s head
slump, just before his own knees went weak and his vision blurred
in panic.

The link
flashed up on the computer monitor, a large flashing icon, showing
a Lion roaring, repeatedly, demanding attention. Bridger saw it
from the corner of his eye as he made to leave the office following
Brian and the rest of the team. “Wait a minute Brian; something has
put itself onto the P.A.A.I.N website.”

The team
crowded back into the office and stood looking at the monitor.
Grant reached over and clicked play. A face they all recognised
filled the screen and stared back at them. His face was gaunt and
his eyes were bloodshot. There had been crude makeup applied to his
lips and eyes, almost Clown like. They all held their breath
waiting for something to happen. Anthony Gonzales began to
speak.

“
I am the one you seek. I started this, and now I must finish
it…” His voice sounded scripted “I am responsible for the death of
Michael Wilson… I am going to pay the price... I was once a Clown
and therefore deserve a chance… but it will be a proper ending
either way.” Anthony’s face disappeared from the screen and a shot
of a cage trailer in the darkness, lit up by a spotlight, came into
focus. There was something wild moving inside, and as the camera
panned in closer the beast’s eyes became visible, there was no
sound but caged hate was evident in the wild darkened pupils. Still
pictures of Anthony Gonzales and Reece Coster flashed onto the
screen for a short time before it went blank. Words scrolled across
the bottom of the screen.

Remember the
book of Daniel; the Circus is only for the Clowns…

Bridger
looked at the rest of the team; they all had confused looks on
their faces. He had already received that sermon tonight and now it
was going to become a reality. No matter what they had done they
did not deserve this.

“
We need to get down to the Circus right
now…”

Chapter
Twenty Four

It was only a
few minutes from the station, but Bridger had no idea how long ago
the clip of Anthony Gonzales was taken, and so did not know what to
expect. He saw Steve and Gillian’s patrol car parked on the grass
verge, lights still flashing. He got out of the car and pulled the
jacket he had on tighter around his neck, but it made little
difference with the damp shirt he was still wearing.

The early
morning sun was struggling to make itself seen and the air was
slightly chilled. It seemed a surreal ending to the last twelve
hours, the calm after the storm. The Oval was empty now, except for
the one lonely cage trailer, what was left of the green grass
framing it in the middle of the muddy grounds. The oversized
picture of Irish Mick attached to the front was staring back at
them, the same dead eyes he was sure he had seen last night seemed
haunted by something within. They were too late. He knew what had
happened.

The dark grey
clouds that came with the previous night’s thunderstorm had just
started to recede, and shafts of sunlight were pinpricking the
ground, highlighting the ruts and hollows left by the previous few
days of use. Bridger could see the scorched earth where the main
tent would have been. The memory of the two-headed beast lying in
the burnt out waste was still fresh in his mind, making him
shudder. He stood beside the car and took a breath.

“
Whatever you think about them, the Clowns have done a decent
job of packing and moving everything away” Becky was looking at the
now empty space as she spoke “I guess they are used to it though,
but the main tent was a real mess, that must have taken some time
to clear.”

“
Is that the trailer from the website...?” Brian paused as he
looked at the trailer again “Although, by the look of it, it looks
nothing like the Circus trailers that were part of the Wilson’s
outfit. It almost looks homemade. And that picture of Irish Mick,
it looks too staged… wasn’t that what you said you saw last night,
Mike?”

Before
Bridger could answer, Grant spoke up “Who’s that under the tree
over there?” He followed the direction of Grants finger, which was
pointing a little further away, nearer the pavilion. He could see
the person Grant was referring too, hunched over and shivering with
his head in his hands, he could have been anyone, but he recognised
him straight away. The small burst of adrenalin on finally locating
him was not enough to quell the doubts he felt about his
involvement in Irish Mick Wilsons murder, despite the confession he
had heard. However, his instincts had been wrong in the
past.

“
Take him into custody; I will deal with him as soon as I see
what we have got over here.”

Turning back
to the Oval, he could see Gillian and Steve standing on either side
of the cage trailer, a sombre look on their faces, like sentries
guarding a cenotaph.

“
What have we got Gill?” He could see the whiteness on her
face as he walked slowly towards them.

“
It’s not pretty Mike, I’m not sure who went first, but for
their sake, I hope it was them.”

“
Is it male or female?”

Gillian
shrugged her shoulders and looked at the ground. Bridger almost did
not want to look inside, but knew that he had to. He took a deep
breath and held it. Climbing up on the side of the trailer, he
leaned over the top and stared into the belly of the cage.
Separated into two compartments normally, the steel caged divider
in the middle was now wide-open, giving access to both sides. The
breath he was holding left his body in a rush and he felt the
contents of his stomach trying to follow. Gagging, he let his eyes
close in a protective reflex, but it was too late for the image to
be undone in his mind. Opening them again, he could plainly see the
carcass of the lion lying on the straw covered floor, blood seeping
from a deep gash in its stomach. Its dead eyes were staring out
from its toy like face and had turned a milky white. A torn Zebra
mask was partially visible under the dead lion. The rest of the
cage was a mess with the scattered parts of a human body, torn and
ripped apart by an animal who knew nothing else. The muscular arm
that still held the knife that had obviously delivered the animal
from its captivity, was lying beside it. The torso it belonged too
was on the other side of the cage, partially disembowelled, but
still held together by a sparkly white spandex suit. They had found
the lion from the P.A.A.I.N clip… and they had found Anthony
Gonzales. In that instant he knew, Anthony had killed his life
partner, and then found his own death inside the belly of a giant
Irish Mick. It was both a grotesque and grizzly way to die. Anthony
had lived and died within and because of the Circus. The irony of
his death did not escape him though, Anthony had found out the hard
way that this animal was not as domesticated as he had
maintained.
‘Man is the cruellest
animal’
Friedrich Nietzsche had penned his
insight in the eighteen hundreds, but it was proven true in this
moment.

Bridger had
seen enough, he was about to step down when something caught his
eye. A small piece of folded paper was pinned to the wall just
below him. Picking it up carefully, he unfolded the paper. Inside
he saw hastily scrawled writing.

‘
This is real P.A.A.I.N. Animals will always
do what comes naturally and they belong in the wild. It was too
late for this one; it would never survive outside of its captivity,
and so we gave this man a chance to set it free. We threw this
‘Daniel’ into the Lion’s den, as written in scriptures. If this
poor animal’s captivity were just, then no harm would befall him.
However, if you are reading this note and this ‘Daniel’ is no more,
then you will realise that the circus is only for the
Clowns…’

The biblical
reference to Daniel and the Lion’s den shot a burst of adrenaline
through his system. A feeling stirred in the pit of his stomach as
his mind flashed back to the Church he had woken up in. Something
was nagging at him but he could not quite place it. He looked back
at the note. The Daniel he remembered was supposed to be a
religious man, thrown into the den for praying. It was the praying
that had saved him from the Lions. His God had looked out for him.
Anthony was a murderer; he had no God, and so he had no chance at
all. They had not thought this through very well, but then in the
end no one would forget this statement in a hurry. Maybe that was
the point. The Lion may have been responsible for Anthony’s death,
but whoever had put him in this situation would have known the
inevitable consequences. It was still murder. The second in less
than four days, Bridger was beginning to hate the
Circus.