Dangers in the Dark

A Blind Man's Ramblings 16.2

Haly's Circus

After some more convincing on my part, I was able to follow dad and lee as they went after the ringmaster who was leading them to where they had found Lila. As there wouldn't be another body there dad didn't seem fazed about me coming along. The ringmaster expressed his concern but dad was quick to brush his concerns aside and insist he get on with showing us the location they had originally found Lila.

We had made sure to take Jerome over to the paramedics so they could help him with the shock of his mother's death. I'd let him keep my packet of tissues cause let's be honest, he needed it more than I did.

The ringmaster led us away from the main circus and all the way up to a small hill about two hundred yards away from the commotion. When we reached a halt on top of the hill, there was a bloody pool left embedded in the grass. They can't have found her that long ago, the blood still looked wet. The murder must have happened while we were here!

"A couple of riggers found her right here," the ringmaster told us. "We decided to hide her on the truck. We were going to give her a proper burial as soon as we got back on the road."

"How decent of you," dad remarked sarcastically. "Who's 'we'? Who else knew?"

"Just me and the head of the families," the ringmaster answered. "If an outsider killed her, what can you do? An act of God? If it was one of us, we always find out. And we make sure they're punished."

"How?" dad asked.

"We have our ways," the ringmaster said simply.

My eyebrows rose slightly at his comment as I looked over to Lee, wondering what the hell those ways could be. Part of me didn't want to know actually. And what did he mean by always? Surely, this couldn't have happened before.

"And we have ours," dad countered. He then looked to the cop behind us. "Hook him up."

The cop handcuffed the ringmaster's wrists behind his back before we made our way back down to the main circus. It wasn't long before I found myself in the back of dad's car again and on our way to the precinct. He'd offered to drop me off on the way back home so I could go to sleep but I don't think I'd be able to even if I tried. Not to mention I couldn't wait to see Harvey's reaction when we rocked up with the circus right behind us. Dad had taken no risks and had brought pretty much the whole circus back for more questioning. This was going to be great!

As we walked back into the precinct, I immediately noticed the familiar face of Harvey, staring at all of the clowns and the acrobats that were being separated by different groups of cops. Smiling at him, I could see the disbelief on Harv's face.

"Morning, partner," dad said cheerfully. "Gonna need a little help here."

"No kidding," Harvey replied. "I mean, you're kidding, right? This isn't an elaborate prank or ...?" Dad simply smiled and walked straight past him so Harvey turned to me. "Kid, what the hell is going on?"

"A clown and an acrobat got into a fight and then there was a murder at the circus so now ... now you've got a busy morning," I told him.

"Clearly," Harvey muttered, looking around at everyone again. "I'm gonna need a coffee and a whisky but without the coffee."

"Holly!" dad called over to me, making me turn to look at him. "I'm going to go and do a couple of interviews. Just hover and help out where you can. Lee will stay with you."

"Okay. Have fun," I replied.

Dad gave me a sarcastic grin before he turned to go to the interrogation rooms. Harvey hesitated for a while longer and then dragged his feet along to go and interview some of the clowns. Rather he did that than me.