Chapter 2
As they climbed out of the Camaro in the parking lot of the festival grounds, Danny raised an eyebrow. "You're not gonna say it?"
"What?"
He made a sweeping motion as they headed for the entrance. "I may not be able to see them yet, but I know they're close." He shuddered slightly. "I can feel them."
Steve glanced at him. "The clowns?"
"Yes, the clowns. You know how I feel about clowns. I say we start with them. Rip off the band-aid. The sooner we find out who killed our vics the sooner we can get away from this den of evil clowns."
Steve smirked. "Come on, Danny. This is another opportunity for you to face your fear head-on. Just think of it as exposure therapy."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if any clowns come running at us with giant shoes and squirting flowers, that's all you."
As the partners arrived at the midway and navigated the colorful chaos the smell of popcorn and cotton candy wafted in the air, blending with the sounds of the old school barker and games.
Chin and Kono walked through the crowds, scanning their surroundings. "Remember taking me to my first carnival when I was six?" She nudged her cousin as they passed a candy apple vendor.
"I remember you ate two candy apples and were like the energizer bunny on a sugar high."
"I went home and told Mom and Dad we should dip all our vegetables in candy apple coating," She chuckled at the memory. "Didn't go over too big."
Chin smiled even as he pointed towards a tent designed to look sinister and said, "There's the House of Horrors. The tip said there are some weird things that go on in there."
They decided not to badge anyone so they bought tickets and entered with the other patrons, attempting to keep as low a profile as possible. The carnival workers were unlikely to recognize them but the same couldn't be said for the paying customers. Their eyes adjusted quickly to the dim lighting and they began to move down a narrow hallway. The air grew heavy with suspense as creepy laughter echoed from all around them.
Suddenly, a figure in full creepy-clown attire lunged towards them. Chin didn't startle at all and continued moving forward. Kono, on the other hand, paused and pinned the clown with a withering glare that had him retreating to the corner of the room. Happy to have turned the tables on the big-shoe-ed bozo she quickened her pace to catch up to Chin.
When they were three quarters of the way through they heard raised voices coming from behind a door with a sign proclaiming 'Employees Only'.
"Way to preserve the illusions," Chin snorted as they moved towards the sounds of yelling.
"You told me it was a sure thing. You said there was no way I could lose."
A sound both cousins recognized as a punch being thrown had them bursting through the door to find a large man dressed as a mummy holding a smaller man dressed as a vampire in a headlock.
"Let him go!" Chin ordered as he produced his badge and showed it to both men.
As the men separated Kono asked, "What's going on here?"
"I loaned him $100 to play poker with last night," the mummy spat out. "He said it was a sure thing. There was no way he could lose. And after he won he'd give me back triple my money."
"The other people in the game were total amateurs," the vampire argued. "There's no way I should have lost. I'm beginning to wonder if the game was rigged."
"Where was the game?" Kono asked.
The vampire hesitated.
Chin pulled out his cuffs and dangled them off the end of his finger. "You can tell me here or we can take a trip downtown and you can tell me there."
The man hung his head. "If I talk I'm gonna lose my job."
"We could always just leave you here and let your friend show you how unhappy he is that you lost his money," Kono suggested.
"Fine." The vampire sighed. "What do you wanna know?"
Meanwhile, Steve and Danny explored the grounds, eyes scanning the crowd as well as the employees. As they made their way towards the back of the main performance tent a woman in a sparkly leotard with heavy make-up and her hair pulled back into a tight bun looked them up and down.
"Uh-oh." She smiled. "Which one of us has run afoul of the local authorities?"
Steve stopped and faced her. "What makes you think we're cops?"
"I can spot one from a mile away," the woman said. "Besides, with everything that's been going on around here lately I figured it was just a matter of time."
"What's been going on?" Steve asked.
The woman looked at Steve, then lifted the tent flap and pointed to a food truck on the midway. "Delores has the best pineapple whips on the island. If you boys buy me one I'll tell you everything I know."
Steve held out his hand indicating she should lead the way.
"I'm not a snitch," the woman said as they walked. "But I've had some serious interest from a troupe in LA. No more traveling from town to town playing little dives with unsafe equipment. I'm not gonna let anyone ruin that for me, least of all the people who run this place. They don't care about their employees at all. I could break my neck any night on that trapeze they've failed to maintain and they wouldn't shed a tear."
"Why don't you tell us what you know about what's going on," Steve said. "And let us take care of the rest."
Thirty minutes later Steve, Kono, Danny and Chin stood near the gate that led to the employee area of the grounds comparing notes.
The costumed characters and the trapeze artists had had very similar stories to tell and the team was pretty sure they knew exactly what was going on.
They just needed to prove it.
They made their way through the gate that separated the carnival area from the employees' dressing rooms.
"I thought there was always someone on duty here," Danny said as they walked through the unguarded gate.
"There's supposed to be," Steve said. "They may have gotten word we're here. Chin, Kono, you circle around and come in from the back. Danny and I will go in from the front."
"Will do," the cousins said as they headed off towards the rear of the tent.
The tent in question was the largest one in the back part of the carnival grounds. According to both Zandra, the trapeze artist, and Chet, the vampire, that's where the illegal activity was centered.
Danny glanced at a group of clowns as they passed by, his voice barely above a whisper. "I swear those guys are plotting something. Look at their suspicious expressions."
Steve chuckled softly, a hint of amusement in his voice. "You can see that through the makeup, huh?"
"I can feel it. Evil. The whole lot of them."
The partners turned down a narrow passage and suddenly, two different clowns approached them, honking horns and waving rubber chickens while several others scattered and backed into a room off the main hallway, sectioned off by a large canvas tarp.
Both men drew as Danny said, "Freeze! Five-0," before telling his partner, "Are you happy now? We were almost clown-ambushed."
"Woah, guys," one of the clowns said while honking the horn again. "We don't want trouble with the cops."
"Good," Danny responded as the duo, hands raised, stood still. "Because if you blow that horn again I will shoot you in the face." He held his weapon up while saying, "Chin, Kono, we found them …" into his earpiece.
"What's in the room?" Steve asked, advancing towards the flap while Danny kept the men in place.
"Nothin'" the first clown, whose face was painted in a sad expression, said unconvincingly, even as scuffling sounds from inside reached their ears.
Steve stepped inside. "On your knees!" he told the men who were scrambling to hide the remnants of a poker game and loose bills in their costumes.
Later that evening, with the real murderers locked up, and the gambling ring disbanded, Steve wrapped up a call with Catherine. "The vics were killed by the carnival barker and his wife. They were using the floating poker and craps games to blackmail the clowns to cover money laundering activities. When two of their runners kept wanting a bigger piece of the pie or they'd tell the police, they killed them to shut them up. Anyway, I'll be home by midnight."
He couldn't help but smile at his partner's look. After ending the call he said, "I told you clowns weren't evil masterminds."
"They certainly weren't innocent," Danny said.
"No, but they were being blackmailed," Steve countered. "They were lured into an illegal poker game then threatened with exposure if they tried to get out. They didn't think they had any other choice."
"I do not want to hear you making excuses for the clowns," Danny said.
Kono grinned. "Never a dull moment. Besides, I think Danny and clowns have a complicated love-hate relationship going on."
Danny rolled his eyes, but a small smirk appeared on his face. "No, it's a hate-hate situation, two of them rushed us, and even if they were only trying to distract us while their friends cleaned up the poker game, I've had enough clown encounters to last a lifetime."
Chin raised an eyebrow, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. "It's funny how something as seemingly innocent as a clown can evoke such strong emotions from people. They're meant to bring joy and laughter, yet for some, they become a source of fear. It's gotta be a primal reaction, the exaggerated features, and the inability to gauge their intentions triggers something in certain people."
Danny was unable to resist adding his own sarcastic twist. "Or maybe it's just the fact that they look creepy as hell. I mean, come on, who thought oversized shoes and red noses were supposed to be funny?"
Steve nodded at his best friend. "You'll have to swallow your fear because the kids want Uncle Danno and Aunt Gabby to come to the carnival over the weekend…" He knew his best friend couldn't say no to DJ and Angie any more than he, himself, could say no to Grace.
Danny palmed his face and agreed with a sigh. "Of course Uncle Danno is coming to the carnival…"
Steve grinned. "So, how do you feel about juggling acrobats…"
# End thanks for reading
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