Children of the Carnival, page 17
“Hello, are you awake?” Justin asked when he reached the door of the mother’s cage.
There was no response. Justin unlocked the cage door and put the food down. Then he locked the cage door and moved to the daughter’s cage and did the same.
“I just moved them into the cages yesterday,” Justin said. “They were heavily sedated when I brought them from the other side of the tunnel. I guess they haven’t woken up yet.”
“How old is the girl?” Abby asked.
“I don’t really know,” Justin said. “She’s small. She was easy to move. I’d guess that she is around five years old.”
“And the other one is her mother?” Abby asked.
“I don’t know that for sure, but I’d guess she is,” Justin said. “Whenever the carnival moves to a town where tunnels are built underneath the haunted house, I move several mothers and daughters into the cages. Some of the ones that were able to speak told me they were taken from the street, that they were promised food, clean clothes and shelter. But when they got here, they were drugged and woke up in the cage. They beg me to let them go. I tell them that everything will be OK, that they will only be in the cage for a little while. But I know that that is not the truth. Some will leave. Some will not. The children almost always leave. But the mothers rarely do. I think the children are what the carnival wants. Normally within a few days, I receive a message with the food that is dropped down for me to take to the people in the cages. The message instructs me who to bring to the other side of the tunnel. The food given to them is drugged, and usually, they fall asleep within minutes of eating. When they are sound asleep, I move the person I am instructed to move. It is almost always the child.”
“What happens to the mothers that don’t leave the cage?” Dwayne asked.
“They stop moving soon after the child leaves. I think their food is poisoned. Then I move them to the room on the left. They never leave that room. It is where the creatures live.”
“How many people have you taken to that room?” Dwayne asked.
“I’ve lost count. Every time a tunnel is built, there are several people that I have to move to that room, mostly mothers, but some are children.”
“What happens to them when the carnival moves?” Abby asked.
“The tunnels are filled in. The people in the room stay underground. They become buried. But I believe some part of them continues on with the carnival. I think many of the creatures that roam the grounds at night are those people.
“Speaking of the creatures, we need to get going. They will all be back before the sun comes up outside.”
After saying that, Justin began crawling out of the room. Abby and Dwayne followed, holding onto each other’s feet as they went. As soon as the trio reached the tunnel and started back, they could feel a presence. A cool breeze went past them.
Justin moved a little quicker trying to get away from the room where the creature lived. Suddenly a flash of light came from the room, followed by the sound of someone moving near them.
Dwayne screamed. “Someone has hold of my feet. They’re pulling me.”
Abby began to cry. She could feel the pull of Dwayne behind her. He tightened his grip on her legs as something began to pull him away from her.
“Hang on, Dwayne,” Justin yelled.
Suddenly a strong gust of wind took hold of Justin and sucked him forward several feet taking Abby with him. At the same time, Dwayne was pulled backward, losing his hold on Abby’s feet. He became separated from his friends.
“Get out of here,” Dwayne screamed to his friends.
Justin tried to resist. He didn’t want to leave Dwayne there. But when he tried to move backward to go after his friend, another strong gust of wind pushed him farther away. Whatever spirits were in that tunnel would not let him go back for Dwayne. They made it clear that they wanted Justin and Abby to leave. So that’s what they did. Justin moved forward taking Abby with him.
As they crawled away, they could hear Dwayne’s screams as he was dragged backward toward the room on the left. He tried his best to resist, but it was no use. Whoever, or whatever, had hold of his legs was too strong to resist.
In just a few seconds, Dwayne was dragged back into the room on the left. Inside, were a series of flashes of light, and with each one, Dwayne saw a shadowy figure inside a glow of light. He couldn’t make out the figure. It was as if they were embedded in a fog within that glow of light.
Fear took over his body as he tried to resist the forces pulling him farther inside the room.
“Don’t be afraid,” a voice said. “You’re safe with us.”
There was something about the voice. It was soft and gentle with a tone that made Dwayne believe he was safe. He stopped resisting. The fear disappeared. The force that had hold of his legs let go. Dwayne turned over, lifted himself up and opened his eyes. The room was no longer dark. He could see everything in the room. There was a glow surrounded by a sort of fog at the far end of the room. It began to move toward him, but he wasn’t afraid of it.
In a few seconds, the fog had engulfed him completely. Inside, it was considerably cooler than outside the fog, but he wasn’t uncomfortable. It was as if his body had adjusted immediately to the change in temperature. The longer he was inside the fog, the more comfortable he became. It felt safe. It felt like someplace he belonged.
Then he saw a shadowy figure approach him from within the fog. When the figure got within inches of him, the figure showed itself in a kind of glow.
“Crystal, is that you?”
“Yes, Dwayne. It’s me.”
Dwayne reached out his hand to touch her. But he only touched air.
“I’m not alive,” she said. “You can’t feel me.”
“What happened to you, Crystal? I came to get you from the trailer, but you were gone.”
“You were too late, Dwayne. It’s not your fault. Your father had already decided to end my life earlier that day. There was nothing you could have done.”
“I’m sorry, Crystal. I wanted us both to leave the carnival that day.”
“It’s OK. I’m in a better place now.”
“Why are you here?” Dwayne asked.
“I’m here to give you a message,” she said. “Dwayne, it is time for you to go home.”
CHAPTER 14 - GINGER’S LETTER
Booger McLain took the letter from Ron Wilkinson’s hand. Then he made a promise. “I’ll follow up on this letter. If your daughter is being held at that carnival, I’ll bring her back,” he said.
The assurance, the confidence in Booger’s voice brought a smile to Ron Wilkinson’s face. He instantly knew that he had gone to the right person for help.
The next day Booger began researching the Fischer Family carnival. He went to the Cape Girardeau library and went through old newspapers looking for information about the Wilkinson girl’s abduction making a note of any interviews or information relating to the carnival and its owners. He found references to previous accidents and three notable disappearances of children that had gone to the carnival.
He researched the history of the Fischer family business. He read about the merger of the Brown and Fischer families into one large carnival business. The accidents and the disappearances had all occurred after the merger. That reinforced Booger’s belief that Dudley Brown was behind Abby Wilkinson’s disappearance.
He looked into Dudley Brown’s life. He read about the death of his daughter and son-in-law in the fire. That accident opened the door for Dudley to buy into the Brown Family carnival.
It was hard for Booger to imagine, but Dudley was the person that benefited the most from the death of his daughter. Sure, on the surface, it appeared that Justin and Bryan Fischer benefited the most because they inherited the carnival from their parents. But, looking a little deeper, Booger saw that Dudley was the one that gained the most. He had control of the carnival now.
It was likely that Dudley knew the Fischer twins were too young, too inexperienced to manage that carnival. It was palatable that Dudley planned to let them run the carnival into the ground so he could come in and take over, Booger thought.
The thing that was difficult for Booger to understand was that it was not what he did. Dudley didn’t wait for the carnival to completely collapse. He didn’t buy the Fischer twins out. Instead, he formed a partnership with them. He went to great lengths to be a silent partner. His name was not on any of the carnival’s ownership documents.
There had to be a reason for that, Booger thought. Why didn’t he want to be listed as an owner?
Booger looked into both the Fischer twins. He learned about Justin’s difficult birth and how it had affected his life. He learned how Bryan had protected his brother and how he was the face of the carnival. Then he discovered Justin’s death certificate. He had died in a small town in Western Kansas. The death certificate only said that he died of natural causes. He was only twenty-seven years old. Bryan Fischer and Dudley Brown had complete control of the carnival now.
Was it possible that both of them were involved in the abduction of Abby Wilkinson? Booger wondered.
Booger researched every city and town the carnival traveled to since their stay in Connorville. Then he looked for crimes and disappearances that happened at the same time the carnival was in town. It took a while, but Booger discovered a disturbing pattern. There were reported disappearances of women and children, mostly street people and homeless from larger towns and cities located close to the areas where the carnival was located. Witnesses reported seeing a man dressed completely in black talking to them. They reported the women and children got into a white, unmarked van willingly, and then the van drove away.
Booger was certain that the tunnel he had discovered underneath the haunted house was used to move Abby Wilkinson.
It is very likely that the tunnels have been used to move other people, women and children that have been abducted from the streets. Homeless people appeared to get in the van of their own free will, Booger thought.
He reasoned that the only plausible reason homeless mothers with their children would willingly get in a van with a stranger was if they felt safe, if they felt someone was going to help them, offer them food, shelter, and clothing.
Molly Baker was a name that Booger came across when he was researching homeless people that had gone missing in cities where the carnival stayed. Molly was a teenage runaway from a good home just outside Cincinnati. Her parents were distraught when she left home. They went looking for her on the streets of downtown Cincinnati. When they had no success, they hired a private detective to look for her.
According to a newspaper article written in the Cincinnati Times, Duce Buckner, the detective hired by the family, located two homeless people who remembered Molly being approached by an older, heavy-set man and after a brief conversation, she got in a white van with the stranger. They never saw her again.
Booger decided to travel to Cincinnati. He spoke to Molly’s parents.
“We haven’t heard from her since she left home,” her mother said. “She was upset with us because we wouldn’t allow her to see her boyfriend. He was bad news, involved in drugs, and a high school dropout. She ran away with him. A few days later, her boyfriend left her and came back home. We confronted him. He said they had an argument, and he decided to come back home. He didn’t want to stay on the streets anymore. We asked him to take us to where she was. He did. But she wasn’t there anymore. That’s when we hired a private detective, Duce Buckner, to look for her. But he had no success either.”
David Clark, Molly’s father, spoke up. “I’m convinced her boyfriend had something to do with her disappearance. I think the son of a bitch killed her and disposed of her body. That’s what I told the police. They brought him in and interrogated him. They even gave him a lie detector test. They said he passed. I don’t think they are looking at him anymore. Hell, I don’t think the police are doing anything to find her or find her killer.”
“David,” his wife screamed, “Don’t talk like that. We don’t know that Molly is dead.”
Booger left the Clark home and headed to Duce Buckner’s office. The private detective had an office on the second floor of a strip shopping center near mid-town. The area was run down. About half of the stores in the strip center were boarded up. The anchor store was a gun shop. At the other end was a liquor store. Just above the liquor store was Duce’s office. Booger climbed a flight of stairs and knocked on the door.
“Come in. It’s open,” a woman’s voice said.
“I’m Booger McLain. I’ve got an appointment with Mr. Buckner,” he said to the woman behind the desk.
“Yeah, he’ll be with you in a second, hun,” she said. “We saw you come up the stairs.”
The woman behind the desk was a young, Hispanic woman who was attractive but wearing too much make-up and a skimpy dress that showed off her cleavage. A large tattoo of a snake with a rat in its mouth was on her left arm.
“Damn it, Lucy. Let the man in my office,” a deep voice screamed from behind the door.
“Alright, hold your horses, chief,” she yelled back.
Then she stood up and walked over to the door, and opened it.
Booger couldn’t help but notice her legs. Her dress was short and entirely too tight. It ended just below her butt cheeks, and both legs were completely covered in tattoos, colorful words, symbols and drawings that were too numerous to decipher from a quick glance.
“Sit down, Mr. McLain,” the man behind the desk said. “I’m Duce Buckner,” he said, holding out his hand to shake it. “What can I do for you?”
Duce Buckner was a large man with dark, bulging eyes and short, wavy brown hair. When he stood up, Booger guessed him to be about six foot, two inches tall. He was wearing a Cincinnati Reds tee shirt and blue jeans with white socks and tennis shoes.
His desk was messy, papers everywhere and a fifth of Black Jack was nearly half empty. Two paper cups were sitting next to the bottle.
“I understand you were hired to find Molly Clark?”
“Are you a drinking man, Mr. McLain?”
“Yes.”
“Well, good because I sure as hell can’t finish off this bottle by myself,” he said, pouring two paper cups of Jack Daniels whiskey.
“Here, Mr. McLain, bottoms up.”
Booger took a drink. Duce downed his in one large gulp and then poured a second cup for himself.
“Do you mind if I call you Booger, Mr. McLain?”
“Yes, please.”
“Booger, yes, I was hired to find Molly. But I didn’t have any success. I looked for her for nearly three months until her father got tired of paying me. She just vanished off the streets. Her father and the police, for a while, were certain that her boyfriend had something to do with her disappearance.”
“What do you think, Mr. Buckner?”
“Call me Duce.”
“OK, what do you think, Duce.”
“I don’t believe that kid was involved. He passed the polygraph. He seemed genuinely concerned. I was a cop for nearly twenty-five years before I retired. I’ve interviewed a lot of guilty people. Their eyes always give them away but not this kid. My gut told me he had nothing to do with her disappearance. But you couldn’t convince her father of that.”
“Well, Duce, what does your gut tell you happened to her?” Booger asked.
Duce downed another cup of Jack Daniels and then looked directly into Booger’s eyes.
“I believe she is dead. I think she was taken by someone that promised her something, maybe food, a safe place to stay or something like that. They had to present themselves as someone she could trust because she was seen willingly getting into a white van. I think maybe her abductor was a minister or a policeman, maybe a social worker. Whoever it was, she trusted.”
“I read that two people witnessed her getting in the van. Did they give a description of the person that took her?”
“They both gave slightly varied descriptions, but one of them heard a name. One of the homeless men heard him introduce himself as Dudley.”
Booger’s eyes got big. “I know that name. I think that I know who abducted her. Did the police ever track down that person?” Booger asked.
“Are you kidding? Do you know how many Dudleys there are? They didn’t have a last name. They only had a vague description, and although both of the witnesses agreed about the white van, neither got a license plate number, and neither could even tell the model of the van. The police had nothing concrete to go on. Booger, you said that you think you know the man that took Molly. Who is he?”
“His name is Dudley Brown. He works for a carnival that was set up on the outskirts of Cincinnati when Molly was taken. I think he is responsible for several abductions, including one that occurred in Connorville, MO, in 1993 when I was a detective on their police force.”
“Shit, we need to call the FBI. You need to tell them what we know.”
“Yeah, but not now. They’ll interview us. Then they’ll investigate, get search warrants and by the time they do anything, he’ll have time to dispose of any evidence. I need to go after him now.” Booger stood up and began to leave.
“Just a fucking minute,” Duce yelled. “If you’re going after the man that took her, I’m going with you.”
“No, I don’t need any help.”
“Damn it. I didn’t offer. I’m coming with you. I got paid a lot of money from that girl’s parents, and I’m sure as hell going to provide them some answers. Besides, you can use someone to watch your back.”
“OK, but we’ve got a long way to drive. You’re going to be gone for a while.”
“No problem. Work is a little slow right now anyway.”
The Fischer Family carnival had spent nearly three weeks in Topeka. They would be pulling up stakes and moving to a new location in less than a week. The tunnel underneath the haunted house had served its purpose. There were only two people remaining in the cages in the room on the right.
