Dark Carnival Murders Read Free

and I led them out on Industrial Road, and then snaked
the way down to Tropicana, cutting over the freeway to Las Vegas
Boulevard. I turned south and drove past McCarran International
Airport. I had always loved watching the huge passenger planes
coming in low across the highways landing from destinations
unknown. I drove down the two-way divided highway past the famous
"Welcome to Las Vegas" sign across from the airport; which was
technically the end of the Vegas "Strip" of casinos and hotels,
just south of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
    I continued down South Las
Vegas Boulevard passing small malls and restaurants, then past the
mammoth Las Vegas Premium Outlet Center where Penny dragged me to a
couple times a month. Although I did enjoy visiting this huge mall,
there were plenty of adult toy stores for me to explore.
    I drove on, Earl was
keeping up with my van and then about four miles from the end of
the strip we came up on East Silverado Ranch Boulevard and the
Cinemark Century 16 movie theatre, so I knew we were
close.
    I drove a little further
south to where the land was getting more open and less populated by
businesses. I could see ahead just past W. Frias Road, where the
cars were turning on to the desert land and up to the carnival. It
was a bit crazy for parking; they had no system for lining up the
cars, so people just parked where they could. Earl and Paula pulled
up next to me and they got out. Penny, Angelo and I got out and
went to our friends.
    It was hot on the dry,
dusty desert land, there was no breeze, just dry heat. Penny had a
two of those little handheld battery operated fans and gave one to
Paula.
    "None for me?" I
asked.
    "You can stay hot, I may
need it for later," she said with an evil smile.
    "Sure, that’s all I’m good
for, keeping you warm," I said as we headed for the
midway.
    We entered the edge of the
layout of rides and walked down one row watching all the people,
mostly kids, screaming as they were flying or hurtling through
space on an assortment of high-powered amusements. When I was a kid
I always enjoyed the Tilt-a-whirl, but as I got older I discovered
I would suffer from extreme motion sickness. So spinning rides were
out for me.
    We arrived at the end of
the row of rides and I said, "Angelo, would you escort the ladies
around the grounds while the super-spy and I go see if we can find
the missing boys."
    "It’d be my pleasure, Mr.
R.," he said with a grin.
    Penny gave me a kiss and
said, "Don’t go getting yourselves kidnapped."
    "I won’t, that’s your
job." Earl and I left our group and went in the direction of the
sideshow tent. We stopped outside the main entrance as I said,
"When you were a kid and went to the circus, how did you get in to
see the show?"
    Earl laughed and said, "I
snuck in under the tent in the back."
    "Good to see your
childhood wasn’t wasted," I said and he followed me off to the side
to see what we could find around the back.
    It was deserted and dusty
behind the tent looking out to the vast flat property only to see
the freeway in the distance with cars whizzing by.
    "The boys had to cross
over the freeway to get here from the subdivision on the other
side. Let’s see if we can find any footprints in the sand." We
walked away from the tent and did a sweep but there were a number
of prints in the sand, probably from the carnies working. I did see
a couple smaller prints that came in from the freeway and headed
straight for the tent, I pointed them out to Earl and we followed
them back.
    We were just up to the
back of the tent when we heard a voice, "I hope you two aren’t
thinking of sneaking in?"
    We looked over to see a
fairly tall man in a black topcoat, wearing a tall top hat. He
reminded me of pictures of Mephistopheles, one of the chief demons
of European literary. He was holding a flap to an opening in the
tent, where the footprints led to. "May I help you gentlemen?" he
inquired smoothly.
    He took both of us by
surprise; he made no sound to warn