Dark Carnival Murders (16 page)

"That was nice, do you
have an ulterior motive for such a greeting?"

"Lynn called and told me
about finding the boys. She asked if I would remind you to come in
tomorrow to file a statement about tonight and to bring
Earl."

"It was nice of Lynn to
spoil my surprise. So am I a hero now?"

"You’re always a hero to
me, Sweetie." She gave me a big grin then went off to the other
room. I heard her yelling, "I’m heading to the bedroom, care to
join me?"

I didn’t think
twice.

The next morning, Angelo
was back in the kitchen cooking up a storm, I had dressed before
going out because Penny warned me that Francis was here. I went to
the kitchen and over to Angelo.

"Thanks Angelo, for what
you did last night, it was really helpful in forcing Dark to give
out the location of the boys."

He smiled and said, "All
in a day’s work."

I turned to Francis
sitting at the snack bar with Penny, "Francis, you should be proud
of your son, he helped save the boys."

"I always said my son was
a good person. I’m very glad the boys are safe at home
now."

"Yes, they are. What are
you all plotting for today?"

Penny spoke, "We’re going
to my studio, I have a big name movie star on and Francis has
agreed to be interviewed about her life. I’m trying to convince her
to write a biography."

"Why not, everyone else is
writing a book," I said just as my cell phone buzzed. It was Earl,
I excused myself and went into the living room.

"What’s up?" I
asked.

"I came in to see Lynn to
make my statement about our part in this mess and there was a bit
of a commotion. Seems Dark was stabbed in his cell last night. Did
Angelo call Benny?"

"I don’t think so, but
I’ll ask. Is Dark dead?"

"Unfortunately no, he’s in
critical condition or so they are saying. Are you coming in
soon?"

"Yeah, I’ll be in shortly.
Talk later," I said and hung up. I called to Angelo and he came in
the living room.

"Yeah Mr. R.?"

"Angelo, you didn’t let
anyone know that we had Dark in custody did you?"

"No, never. You said to
sit on it so I sat on it. Why?"

"Dark was shived in his
cell this morning, he’s critical but alive."

"Wasn’t me who ratted him
out, although I would have liked to."

"Same here, okay I have to
go in and see Lynn. Take care of the women." I stuck my head in the
kitchen and said I had to go save the world and would see them
later. I went to my van and drove out.

Lynn and Earl were in her
office when I got there. "Did your mob buddies have something to do
with this?" she yelled at me when I got to the door.

"Not guilty, Angelo says
he was mum about it. Could be someone in there who didn’t like
child abductors?"

"We’re figuring that. They
put him in general population instead of in solitary. I didn’t
know, too late now."

"Whatever, they didn’t
finish the job, he survived," Earl said.

*

Chapter 22

We finished making out our
statements and then Lynn treated us to something out of the
lunchroom machines. Big spender.

"We went through all of
Dark’s office and found most of the jewelry. He really wasn’t all
that smart, but he had a track record of jewelry heists. From what
I hear from Bill Kestor, this is the only time he’s been caught.
Also seems they did slip in the little person and he hid in the
store until closing, then he would disable the alarm and open the
back door."

"See, I was right," Earl
beamed.

"Yes Earl, you were. It’s
good you’re on our side," Lynn mugged. "We got the two hikers in
this morning and they identified the truck from the carnival lot,
so we got Dark for the murder also. All nice and tidy."

"So what’s going to happen
to the carnival?" Earl asked.

"We let all the people go
who could prove they were just leasing space from Dark to set up
their rides and the rest of the equipment will stay until we can
figure out what to do with it. They pretty much pulled up stakes
this morning and are mostly gone, leaving only a few rides that
were owned by the business."

"Are the sideshow freaks
and geeks gone too?" I asked.

"All but Ben, the little
person, and a couple other carnies that Ben ratted out for a deal.
He’ll still go away for robbery but in a friendlier prison than
here, he wouldn’t survive in our jails."

Lynn’s phone rang and she
answered, listened and then hung up. "News flash, Clark County
won’t be footing the bill for Dark’s trial and his stay in jail, he
just bit the big ride in the sky. They said his internal bleeding
was worse than they thought and couldn’t save him."

"I’m not sad, he deserved
what he got," I said. "If we’re finished here, I need to go to the
office to see if Lacey is having fits because Mac got shot. I hope
she doesn’t tear the place apart too badly." I stood and Earl said
he was going also.

"Hey guys, thanks again.
It’s always a pleasure working with you," Lynn said.

We were back at the office
building and parked. Earl exited his car and followed me in the
back door. We carefully entered as the cow bell on the door clanged
and then I waved to the camera, but Lacey popped out of the
storeroom next to the back door with a scream and scared the hell
out of me.

"Gotcha!" she said with a
laugh.

"You’re in a good mood for
almost losing a husband," I said when my heart slowed.

"Yes, but I didn’t and
that makes it all the better. He came home last night and we
celebrated his victory over the bad guys. He’s resting today, I
wore him out," she said with a smirk.

"I’ll just bet he’s worn
out, three days without him must have been tough."

"I managed. Now you have
some people in the front who want to see you." She walked away and
Earl and I went up front. We came into the inner lobby and found
the Walkers sitting on the couches.

"What do we owe this
visit?" I said.

"Just stopped by to say
thank you again, and apologize for being pains in the neck," Mr.
Walker said as they all stood.

"Pains, never. Just
concerned parents." I looked to the boys who were a lot cleaner
than I last saw them. I turned to Lacey and asked, "Lacey, where’s
Willy?"

"He’s in your office
sleeping on your chair," she replied.

I turned to the boys and
said, "Go down that hallway to the second door on the left and wake
up my dog. Be careful he’s small and fragile." They both smiled and
went off.

"You may lose your dog,
but I’ll make sure they leave him here," Mr. Walker said. "We also
stopped to say we talked to a social worker who deals with abused
and troubled children, it won’t cost us anything since it’s
government funded and I qualify for aid. Thank Detective Carter for
recommending them. The social worker talked to the boys and they
seem to have taken it in stride, but we will be watching
them."

"Good, I hope it all works
out." I could hear laughter and little yips from my office and then
Willy came running out and over to me. I picked him up as the boys
followed him out.

Mrs. Walker reached over
and petted Willy and asked the boys if they’d like a dog also? They
bounced around and replied that they did.

"Well, you can’t have
mine. My wife would kill me if I gave him away."

Mrs. Walker looked to her
husband and said "We’ll go look in the pound and have everyone pick
out a dog."

We all said our good-byes
and they left. I watched them go to their car and the boys hardly
looked like they went through a harrowing experience. I put Willy
down and went to my office followed by Earl.

"I could use a nice
cheating husband case right now, the kind where I sit in a parking
lot spying on him," Earl said as he sat in my client
chair.

"You’d just fall
asleep."

"Me? Never, I do my job
and do it well. Do you think you’d be interested in purchasing one
used carnival?"

I gave him the finger and
he laughed, "You have no sense of adventure."

"You buy the carnival,
then you can be the whole freak show."

Buck popped his head in
the door, "Hey guys, what’s up?"

"Just unwinding, are you
getting out of your carnie mode and back into security?"

"I have to retrain my men,
they were all goofing off while I was gone, it’s good to be back,"
he said and went to his office.

"Yes, it’s very good for
everyone to be back," I said and sat back in my chair.

THE END

REV. 092211

Thank you for purchasing this book. I
hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing them for my
faithful readers. Please feel free to email me to tell me what you
thought about my stories. I can be reached through my website
at
murdernovels.com

Thanks again!

Please read more about Jim
Richards books on the website
http://murdernovels.com

Rev-092011sm

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