Catch a Falling Clown: A Toby Peters Mystery (Book Seven) Page 12

  “I am aware of that,” he said, his eyes watching Tino without moving his head.

  “You were near the cage just before it happened,” I said, fishing some peanut from between my teeth.

  Hitchcock glanced at me and made it clear, though he tried not to, that he did not approve of people picking their teeth in public. “May I assume, therefore,” he said, “that I am a suspect?”

  “No,” I said. “You’re not a suspect. You’re a possible witness.”

  “I was rather hoping for something grander than that,” he said, “but then it might mean an encounter with the police, a situation which I would do very nearly anything to avoid.”

  The Tanuccis were trying some switches and routines tentatively, with the older Tanucci shouting changes, suggestions in Italian, encouraging, discouraging, supporting.

  “Did you see anybody near the cage?” I went on.

  “The keeper who has such great difficulty with the human language,” said Hitchcock, “and one other person, a woman. A red-haired woman with a gaudy costume. She stood beside me watching the lions. We exchanged no conversation.”

  Agnes again, thought I.

  “I left before she did,” he added. “There certainly may have been others. I left just in time to see the show.”

  “Well,” I said, getting up, “I’ve got to get back to work.”

  Hitchcock put out his pudgy right hand, and I took it. It was deceptively firm. “Perhaps we will encounter each other again,” he said. “If you are in the directory, I may call you, if you have no objection.”

  “None,” I said. “And thanks for the theory.”

  Elder was still trying to introduce the shy Shockly to the weary tiger when I went into the light. I’d have to talk to Agnes again, but I wasn’t sure of how it would go. I didn’t have enough to turn her over to Nelson, and I wasn’t sure I could break her down. It would take a little thought. I headed for the animal tent. It was dark but full of sounds.

  Gargantua eyed me lazily when I came in. He was standing and trying to see beyond the bars to whatever strange events were taking place to his left, just out of sight.

  Peg and Shelly came toward me with the doctor. Behind them I could see Puddles lying in her cage while the other lion leaned over her with what looked like concern.

  “Did he kill her?” I asked Peg, whose hair was down completely.

  “Kill her?” said Shelly. “I saved that animal’s jaw alignment. Filed down the left number three and evened them. Damn, Toby, wait till I report this to the county society.”

  “He did a good job,” nodded the old doctor in what sounded like astonishment.

  “He’s used to working with animals,” I said. “Puddles is probably one of the tamest patients Shelly’s had in months.”

  “Just put her to sleep,” said Shelly with a gloat. “Easiest thing I’ve done. I’d like some of that stuff to put my patients out.”

  “It’d kill a human,” said the doctor.

  “Well,” gloated Shelly, “I could control it. Temper it, you know. Be careful.”

  “I’d advise against it,” said Doc Ogle, but I could see Shelly considering a nice dose of whatever it was for Mrs. Ramirez and Mr. Stange. We would need a long talk at some point in the near future.

  Shelly put an arm around the old doctor, who tried to shrink away, but Shelly wasn’t having any. Cigar in mouth, Shel was describing to the old man what he had done in terms which were far from technical.

  “You see the way I sawed that damn thing down? Then all it took was the file and a tape measure. If you know what you’re doing, it comes easy. Now, about that fifty dollars …”

  Peg, at my side, took my arm. “I’m sorry about last night, Toby,” she said. “It’s just that I’m …”

  I gave her a squeeze and suggested that we forget about it and find a killer. It seemed a good idea to both of us.

  Peg had to locate Elder. I told her where he was and left Shelly oppressing the doctor. I headed back for Agnes Sudds’s wagon, working out a plan. I didn’t have one quite worked out when I got there. I seldom did, but as it turned out, I didn’t need one.

  I started to open the door to the wagon with the snake’s face on it and heard a cry behind me.

  “No, Toby,” came Gunther’s voice. I turned to face him as he stepped out from behind a nearby wagon, but it was too late.

  “Ah, Mr. Peters,” came a voice which was far from back home or friendly. “Perhaps you could just step in so we can settle a few things.”

  I considered running, but I knew I’d get a bullet in my back. The thought made my tender spine tingle. So I stepped into the wagon and grinned at Sheriff Nelson and Deputy Alex. Agnes stood back in the corner, drinking something clear and cool-looking.

  “Venom?” I asked, glancing at her glass.

  Agnes gave a nasty smirk. Alex and Nelson wouldn’t even give that.

  “You will hold out your hand,” said Nelson, adjusting his dirty white hat with one hand and leveling his pistol at me with the other. “Alex will affix a handcuff to your wrist, and we will go back to Mirador on this lovely morning to have that little talk that was interrupted yesterday.”

  “She did it,” I said, nodding at Agnes.

  Nelson sighed enormously. “Your hand, Peters, or I shall be forced to shoot you before Alex has the opportunity for further discussion.”

  I looked at Alex, who touched his right hand to his neck. Maybe a quick bullet or two would be better than a few minutes with Alex.

  Agnes, however, was more interested in what I was saying than what Nelson was going on about. “Me?” she said, plunking her now empty glass on the table. “I did it? I did what?”

  “You had something to do with letting the lion out, probably the killings of the Tanuccis,” I said evenly, holding out my wrist.

  “You bastard,” she shouted. Animals rustled throughout the room, and Nelson looked nervous.

  “Now, just a minute,” Nelson shouted. Alex clamped a cuff on my right hand and made it tight.

  Agnes moved to the trunk where Murray resided.

  “There’s a python in there,” I said to Nelson.

  He turned to the trunk, gun outstretched. “It would be best if you didn’t touch that,” he said. “I’ll blow a hole through you and it if I see any damn snake.”

  Agnes hesitated.

  “She had something to do with it,” I insisted.

  “Then we shall just take her with us too,” said Nelson, nodding to Alex. Alex dragged me across the small room to Agnes. He grabbed her arm and clamped the other end of the cuff to her wrist. Agnes and I were now hitched.

  “Now,” said Nelson, “we shall just leave quietly. I will brook no interference from the people here.”

  Agnes kicked me two or three times, and I told her softly that if she did it one more time I’d smash her face with my free left hand. She kicked me again, and I raised my fist.

  “OK,” she said, covering up.

  Alex pulled us out the door and down the stairs. Outside, Gunther stood helplessly.

  “Gunther,” I said. “Find Elder. Tell him Agnes and I are being taken to Mirador. I’m not going to cause any trouble, and I’d like a lawyer over there before anything happens to me.”

  “I understand,” said Gunther.

  “Call Marty Leib in L.A.,” I shouted back as Alex prodded Agnes and me forward. “Maybe he knows some good local lawyer.”

  “I understand,” he said sadly.

  Nelson was sweating as he got into the back seat of the police car. I saw the scratch on the police car as I got in. I had done a bit of damage to the Mirador police department and was, I expected, about to suffer for it. Agnes and I were crowded into the front seat next to Alex, who drove. Nelson sat in the back seat with his gun leveled at us.

  And off we went in the general direction of Mirador.

  It was difficult to enjoy the scenery on the trip back to Mirador. On my left, Alex drove slowly, savoring what he was g
oing to do to me when he got me alone. He gave my leg a loving squeeze. My brother had done that once when we were kids, and I had never forgotten the pain. Alex was going Phil one pain better. Behind me sat a now satisfied Mark Nelson humming, “Side by Side.” At my right sat Agnes Sudds, who was more than angry with me for dragging her into this and accusing her of murder. I avoided Agnes for a while and tried to see Nelson’s face in the rearview mirror.

  “Sit still,” warned Alex.

  “My wrist hurts,” I said.

  “Alex will soon take your mind off that discomfort,” said Nelson from the back seat. He had stopped singing “Side by Side” and had switched to the “Rickety Rickshaw Man.”

  “Doesn’t bother you that I’m not the killer?” I said.

  “Not a jot,” beamed Nelson. “The two victims, or one that I am sure of, were not citizens of Mirador. They are from the outside, and their killer, who I assume to be you, is also from outside our tranquil confines. When the circus goes tomorrow, the killer goes too, if you are not the killer. However, you are the killer.”

  “You don’t even really think I am,” I said. “You just want this wrapped up.”

  “Like a Baby Ruth candy bar,” he said.

  “Why don’t you tell him again that I did it?” hissed Agnes like one of her snakes.

  I was about to suggest just that when I looked at Agnes. I didn’t like the way she was smiling or the way she looked down toward her lap. I looked down at her lap too and saw Abdul curled there, gazing at me.

  “Holy …” I said with nowhere to go but through the windshield. I couldn’t even do that without taking Agnes and Abdul with me.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, Peters?” said Nelson.

  “The snake,” I said calmly.

  “Snake? What the hell are you jaw-flapping about? You hit the bottle this morning?”

  “In her lap,” I whispered to Alex.

  He looked toward her lap and saw the snake.

  “Coral snake,” Agnes said sweetly. “You’ll be dead in seconds if Abdul strikes.”

  “Listen, Agnes …” I began, looking from Alex’s suddenly white knuckles on the steering wheel to Agnes’ eyes of green fire.

  “What is going on up there?” complained Nelson, holding his gun up. “Alex, watch the damn road, and you two be quiet.”

  “What would I do now if I was the killer?” Agnes said between clenched teeth.

  I had the insane vision of my high school English teacher, Miss Routt. We called her Rutt. She prodded me to tell Agnes that she should use the conditional tense. “If I were,” I said to myself.

  “I’d let Abdul sink his clean little fangs into your dirty leg,” she said. “But I’m not the killer.”

  “I think I believe you,” I said.

  “We all believe you, lady,” said Alex emotionlessly. He was weaving back and forth on the road. Nelson said something like “What the hell” and leaned over into the front seat to see what was going on. He saw Abdul and let out a yell. His gun went off, turning the windshield milky white and full of threads before it crumpled inward. Alex lost control, and the car turned sharply to the right. Nelson tumbled into the front seat as Abdul went flying into the air. I saw a green streak go past my nose through the window. I think I was upside down at the time.

  Colors were flying together like blood or oil in a pool of water. A noise of metal against metal against metal against me stopped or almost stopped. Something was still grinding slowly. The car engine was turning over.

  Someone was on top of me. From the weight, I knew it was Alex. I pushed and pushed with my free left hand until something gave way, and Alex floated upward, which surprised me until I decided that the car and I were upside down. My foot was through the roof.

  “Nelson,” I croaked, looking around, but I didn’t see him.

  “He went through the front window,” said Agnes below me. We were still handcuffed together. “Abdul is out there too.”

  “Are you hurt?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, getting to her knees. “Is the deputy dead?”

  Alex was breathing evenly, and his eyes were fluttering. He didn’t look great, but he didn’t look dead or near it.

  “I think he’s just stunned,” I said. “How about pulling me down gently? My leg went through the roof.”

  We worked at it for a few seconds, and I came tumbling down. Alex broke my fall and groaned.

  “Come on,” I said to Agnes, opening the car door. It creaked and slumped open. She followed me out.

  “It will be easier if we hold hands,” I suggested. “The cuffs won’t rub us raw.” I took her reluctant hand. It felt comforting. Maybe Nelson, if he was alive, would hesitate to shoot us if we simply stood holding hands in the road.

  “Let’s look for Abdul,” Agnes whimpered. “The poor thing is out of his native environment and friendless.”

  “You just described Tobias Leo Pevsner,” I said. “Me.”

  We found Nelson sprawled on a grass embankment about ten feet from the car. The gun was gone, and he was sitting and holding his head.

  “Alex,” he groaned. “Where the hell is my hat?” He looked up at us standing in the road, and blurry hatred appeared. “I am going to find my gun and blast a hole in two escapees,” he vowed. On his knees like a mad animal, he began to scramble around, searching for gun, hat, and, possibly, Abdul.

  “I think we better get the hell out of here,” I told Agnes.

  She looked at the frenzied Nelson and nodded in agreement.

  “Nelson, we didn’t kill anybody,” I said, hurrying down the road, across it, and toward a clump of trees.

  “Stop,” he shouted, postponing his search and getting to his wobbly legs. He took a step toward us and toppled over. My last look back showed me Alex crawling out of the wreck. We ran through bushes, trees, scrub, and stones. No bullets followed us. I wouldn’t have heard footsteps over my own heavy breathing even if they were there. We ran and ran. I prayed for Agnes of a Thousand Snakes to ask for a rest. That was the way it was supposed to go, but she wasn’t even breathing hard.

  “OK.” I stopped. “That’s it. I need a rest. You win.”

  “You should stay in good condition,” she said.

  “I thought I was.” I looked back the way we had come, but there was no sound and no sight of pursuit. We had done some zigzagging, and now I was sagging. I staggered to a rock that looked like a buried brown egg and leaned against it.

  “Congratulations,” I said. “I think you just introduced the coral snake to Southern California. He’ll be right at home.”

  Agnes looked at me coldly. “Tell me something,” she said. “Why the hell am I running?”

  “Easy,” I said, trying not to sound winded because she didn’t. “You’re handcuffed to me and I’m running. If we can get you loose, you can run right back to those two. They’re going to have some questions about Abdul, me, and a couple of murders.”

  “I didn’t murder anybody,” she screamed.

  After pleading with her to keep her voice down, I went over her story. Actually, she didn’t have a story, just answers to my questions, and they were pretty good answers, which meant I was getting confused. I was also getting worried. Alex or Nelson could come crashing through the trees, guns ablaze, any second.

  “So what do we do?” Agnes asked reasonably. “Where do we go?”

  “That way,” I nodded, “and then south. They expect us to head north up the coast toward Los Angeles. Nelson will probably look for us himself for a few hours and then call in the state police. He won’t want to call them in, but maybe he’ll have to. They already know he’s an idiot. Then I’ll have to think of something. Like who the hell the killer is.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?” she said reasonably.

  “Of course I do,” I said, pushing away from the rock, my right hand still clutching her left. “I’m wearing a jacket that doesn’t match my pants, holding the han
d of a snake charmer in a sweat shirt, and running away from a sheriff who wants to blow my head off. How many people in the world can be that specific about what they’re doing?”

  We went more slowly, but we didn’t stop until we came to a ridge. About fifty feet below us were jagged rocks, and just beyond them were the beach and ocean. There was no path, but there was enough brush to hold onto as we made our way down, which wasn’t very easy with one free hand each. Once Agnes slipped and let go of my hand. The cuffs cut into our wrists but kept her from going backwards while I clung to a rock. When we finally made it to the beach, we were both exhausted.

  “Do you do things like this a lot?” she said.

  “Not a lot, but it happens,” I admitted, looking out at the waves.

  “Am I nuts, or do you look like you’re having a good time?”

  “Maybe not exactly a good time,” I said, “but it beats sitting in the front room, reading the Times and watching the clock take your life away. I’m scared a lot, but I’m alive more than other people too.”

  “Like snakes,” Agnes said sympathetically. “You know what they can do, and that’s why you want to be with them, show other people you can be that near death and like it.”

  “Kindred spirits,” I said, helping her up.

  She stood looking into my battered face with an amused smile. I kissed her nose.

  “Your name really Sudds?” I asked as we started down the beach, walking on stones to keep from leaving prints.

  “Would anyone make up a name like that?” she said. “It’s Sudds. In my act, I’m Helene of Nepal, whose parents were killed by bandits during an exploring trip of Tibet. I was brought up by snake worshippers and became their princess, but I found their sacrifices of travelers to the snake god repellent and escaped to a Jesuit missionary.”

  “And people buy that?”

  “No,” she admitted, “but they like to pretend they do or make fun of it. They mainly like to see someone doing something they wouldn’t dare do. That’s the story of the circus.”

  We kept walking, did a little talking and a lot of thinking, but the thinking wasn’t getting me anywhere. If I went back to the circus with Agnes, it would probably be knee deep in state police by nightfall. If I went to Los Angeles, I’d have nothing to work with. I’d be picked up in a few hours. If I went to Mirador, I wouldn’t even get a chance to explain.