Send in the Clowns, a Detective Mike Bridger novel (6 page)

Steve had been happy
enough to forego his training day for the chance of some
excitement; he was standing beside him and shuffling from side to
side. The rest of the Armed Offender Squad had dispersed themselves
around the surrounding streets, along with just about every person
they could round up from the Police Station.

“
I’ve shot a
couple of sheep before, and a horse once too, but never a wild
animal.” Steve’s voice was sombre but with a trace of excitement,
he found himself wondering just how much pleasure Steve actually
got from his role as a firearms officer.

“
Well you
might get your chance today Steve, I don’t think you can reason
with them, so talking them down is not really going to help
us.”

“
Those
pretend animals over there should be shot and all.” Steve indicated
the small huddle of masked protesters standing across the road.
“Either that, or leave them for the Tigers.”

Bridger could see a
couple of tiger masks and at least one horses head. “I would say
that it is a pretty good bet that it was one of our friends over
there that released the animals in the first place.”

A male approached them
from out of the huddle of caravans before Steve could
reply.

“
Excuse me
officer,” The male addressing Steve instead of Bridger “I hope you
won’t shoot any of the animals…” he paused at the stony look he
received from Steve “I see…, well if you find any, let me know
immediately and I can deal with it. They really are very tame. We
have lost too much already too lose the animals as well.” The male
looked like he was fighting back tears.

“
I am
Detective Sergeant Mike Bridger, I’m not sure that we meet this
morning.” Bridger held out his hand in greeting, and the male
looked at it as if he was inspecting it for germs before offering
his own weak grip in return.

“
Anthony
Gonzales… I am part owner… I’m…” A single tear leaked down his
cheek. “I’m the owner of this Circus.”

Bridger felt slightly
uncomfortable with the show of emotion. “We are doing everything we
can to find out what happened Mr Gonzales, and we will try not to
shoot any of the animals… if we don’t have too.”

A single shot rang out,
followed by two more in quick succession, and the colour drained
from Anthony’s face. He looked back at Bridger with obvious
distress but underneath Bridger could not help notice a slight
hardness that he did not see in him earlier.

“
Heads up…,
the Tigers heading this way…” Steve was listening too something
through his earpiece. “The lads took a shot at it, but missed. It’s
running back towards the cages…”

Despite Steve standing
there with a firearm, a chill ran up Bridger’s spine and he scanned
around in an effort to find the approaching threat. Mauled to death
by a tiger was not the way he wanted to go. The small group of
silent protestors standing across the road scattered, giving away
the path the Tiger had chosen in his bid to escape. They all dived
into the relative safety of nearby cars, all except one. This sole
figure remained motionless, face hidden behind the mask of a Zebra,
staring in silence back towards them. He raised his arm and pointed
directly at Anthony Gonzales, keeping his arm straight. The image
was slightly unnerving, only broken by the flash of orange brown
that ambled into Bridger’s peripheral vision.

He had not seen a Tiger
up close before, but this one lived up to all his frightening
boyhood images. It was a huge breathing mass of muscle, with a deep
angry rumble coming from its throat. It was standing between them
and the fake Zebra, its massive head switching between them both,
specks of animal saliva misting from its mouth as it breathed
heavily. He could not take his eyes off the massive beast. It gave
out a quick snort, making Bridger jump; he could feel Steve tense
up beside him and caught the barrel of his gun rising up out of the
corner of his eye. Anthony Gonzales saw it too.

“
Don’t do it,
he’s just scared that’s all, just give him room…” There was no
trace of fear in Anthony’s voice. The Tiger just stood there,
looking back and forth, snorting and growling at everything around
him.

“
If that
thing moves, shoot the bloody thing…” Bridger was talking out of
the corner of his mouth, trying not to make any sudden movements.
It was one moment in his life that he felt completely helpless. If
the Tiger took a liking to any of them, it would be all over
quicker than he cared to contemplate. He felt like a seven year old
faced with an angry dog, only ten times worse, a guttural fear that
he could not articulate, but it chilled him to the core. He just
hoped that the tiger could not tell the zebra mask across the road
was a fake.

Steve had raised his
Bushmaster rifle up too his shoulder and was pointing it directly
at the dirty orange beast. Bridger could sense that he wanted to
shoot, but something was stopping him from pulling the trigger. It
was then he heard it.

A strange clucking sound
came from behind them, he heard different noises on either side of
him, and then four partially dressed Clowns came into view. The
noises coming from the Clowns throats were alien too him but the
Tiger reacted instantly. Its regal head cocked too one side like a
curious cat and its breathing slowed. Friends were near. The Clowns
moved in from either side, one of them carrying a large leather
collar and leash, one of them held a bullwhip in his gloved hand.
The other two were making calming gestures with their
arms.

Bridger was sure that one
of them had said ‘Move back behind us’ as he passed, or that might
be what he wanted to hear, he couldn’t be sure. He moved backwards
anyway, Steve stuck close to his side and retreated along with him.
The Clowns moved forward as one, all speaking the strange
animalistic dialect. The Tiger crouched on its hind legs and then
lay down, submissive in its posture as the Clowns placed the lead
over his massive head.

“
See… there
was no need to worry at all, he’s not dangerous. They are just
misunderstood creatures really.” Anthony’s voice spoke up from
behind them. Bridger noticed he was using him and Steve as a
partial human shield, so much for being misunderstood
animals.

“
Is that all
the dangerous animals accounted for then Mr Gonzales? We do have
other business we could be getting on with.” The horses and
chimpanzees did not worry him too much; someone else could take
care of those.

“
All the
animals are domesticated, Sergeant, not dangerous at all, but yes
we have the elephant, lion and now both tigers back. But they would
not have been in danger in the first place if it wasn’t for those
bloody silent protesters.” Anthony was glaring in the direction of
the sole protestor still standing silently over the road. “They
will be the ones responsible for this; I hope you will be speaking
with them as well.”

Anthony’s demeanour had
gone from distraught at the loss of his former business partner too
outright rage, it was a strange distinction in such a short space
of time, and Bridger wondered which show of emotion was more
believable. He had a sixth sense, which he had learned to rely on.
He liked too think he could tell when someone was hiding something,
or trying to deceive him in some way and something was not quite
right with Anthony Gonzales. He made a mental note to explore his
theory further.

“
We will be
speaking with them Mr Gonzales, in the course of our enquiries into
Michael Wilsons death.” He did not think the release of animals
from the Circus was quite as important. “And we also need to
re-interview quite a few of the people here at the Circus,
including you.”

There was a flash of
something behind Anthony’s eyes, “We can make ourselves available
for you any time you need Sergeant, but you should be concentrating
on those idealistic waste of time protesters over there. They have
more to gain by hurting us, as they have just proved…” Anthony
indicated in the direction of the silent protesters again, most of
them had come out of the safety of their cars and were now standing
in a solemn line, staring at the circus from the safety of
distance. Bridger did not take the bait and Anthony continued. “I
have cancelled all the remaining Dunedin performances but we won’t
be leaving just yet. It seems somehow inappropriate to go while the
killer is still out there somewhere.”

“
Thank you Mr
Gonzales, we will be speaking with the protesters this morning, so
how about we arrange it for about one o’clock this
afternoon.”

“
That’s fine;
I will make sure everyone is available.”

Bridger noticed a strange
indifference in Anthony’s tone as he spoke, no real trace of grief
now for his lost partner, cementing his doubts about Anthony’s
emotional responses.

“
Mike…, the
Clowns are going to kick off…” Steve was pointing in the direction
of the protesters. Somehow, the Clowns had materialised across the
road and were lining up, almost nose to nose, with the masked
group. Bridger had not noticed them walk past him.

The Clowns looked
hopelessly outnumbered against the cast of fake animals who were
standing their ground in silence, but their posture was menacing
and confident. It was a surreal standoff; the faux jolly faces of
the clowns now looked threatening, destroying any boyhood images he
may have had of fun loving jesters. These Clowns were serious.
Bridger did not fancy getting between them, but did not want it to
escalate any further, whatever he thought of the reasons for both
parties’ actions.

Walking slowly towards
the standoff, he could not hear anything passing between them;
everything displayed in their stance. The Clowns were not going to
back down; they had one group in their sites for releasing the
animals and they looked like they wanted to make a point. The Zebra
mask stepped forward, chest puffed, and stood right in front of the
middle Clown. He saw the Clown lean forward slightly, his bushy red
hair obscuring his face so he could not see if the Clown spoke or
not, he would still be too far away to hear anyway. Whatever it was
that had passed between them, it had an effect on the Zebra mask,
as his chest deflated a little and he took a step backwards. One by
one, the fake animals turned and walked away, watched by the
Clowns.

Bridger and Steve reached
the line of Clowns just as the last protester got back into their
vehicle. The Clowns did not speak. Turning, they walked back
towards the Circus in silence. Steve shouldered the rifle he had
been carrying at the ready and stood beside him.

The protesters got back
out of their vehicles, removing their masks in the process. A
diverse group of people stood before them, with sweaty hair pressed
to their scalps. Bridger could see them glancing nervously between
Steve and his gun and the Circus tents behind them. The Clowns had
disappeared; almost as if they had melted back into the world they
lived in, within the various tents and cages. He looked at the
group; all but the Zebra mask had revealed their identities to
him.

“
Right…, who
wants to start?”

Chapter
Seven

No one had confessed to
releasing the animals. It had taken less than ten minutes to
determine that all but one person from the group that called
themselves P.A.A.I.N had an alibi for the time of the murder. They
had tucked themselves away in a small suburban house in the
northeast valley, which doubled as a makeshift headquarters. They
all affirmed that they were planning their next move when someone
was attacking Michael Wilson, and they all swore blind that it was
not releasing the animals, as had happened. As hard as Bridger had
pushed them they were not willing to say what it was they were
planning. He was not sure about the animals, as that was
P.A.A.I.N’s main purpose, but it was very unlikely that the murder
would have been a group effort.

The person they had all
noted for his absence at their meeting was now sitting across from
him in the stuffy interview room. He was a very entitled, smug
looking, twenty something male. He was dressed in jeans and a
leather jacket, the irony of him wearing an animal skin not
escaping his attention, but without the Zebra mask, which was
sitting on the desk in front of them. He looked like the type that
would make a stand on anything that might end up in a
scuffle.

The Clowns had tried to
sort him out today though. He would have thought that having a
something with a smiling painted face put him in his place with
nothing more than a short interaction would lessen his stature a
little, but it did not seem to faze him at all.

Reece Coster now had a
smirk on his face that was trying for nonchalant, but Bridger saw
right through it. He saw the nervous twitch next to his right eye.
What was he hiding?

It was not implausible to
link what had happened that morning to the events of the other
night. Releasing the animals and the death of Wilson achieved the
same outcome. Both of them had an effect on the Circus, however,
the question would then have to be, why? What did this arrogant
young man sitting in front of him have to gain by killing someone,
and why did it happen back to front? Normally these things would
escalate, ending in a death, not the other way round. This one made
no sense. Nothing surprised him normally, but he did not like the
timeline.