The Clown on the High Wire: A Sherlock and Lucy Short Story (The Sherlock and Lucy Mystery Series Book 10) by Anna Elliott & Charles Veley

Author:Anna Elliott & Charles Veley [Elliott, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wilton Press
Published: 2019-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

Jack and I sped through the circus fairgrounds, weaving through the stalls where games of chance like Ring the Bottle were being set up and passing by coloured lantern shows and candy floss and popcorn machines.

“There’s one thing about this theory that doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t Linda have told the police about Murwald?” I asked Jack.

Jack’s expression was grim. His gaze, like mine, was moving rapidly across the circus grounds, cataloguing details and identifying any potential points of threat.

The gates hadn’t yet been opened to the public, but the hour for the afternoon performance was approaching, and there were far more people out and about than before.

The back of my neck prickled.

A single outsider could far too easily slip in and pass unnoticed amongst the crowds of performers and roustabouts.

“Maybe she was scared,” Jack said. “If she’s changed her name and identity and gone unrecognized all this time, it’s possible she was too afraid to let anyone know the truth about who she really was.”

“It’s possible. But she must have suspected James Murwald killed her husband. If I’m right about this, Murwald has been stalking her for weeks now. According to the circus’s costumes mistress, Linda was sent a big bouquet of roses and was seen crying over them. And that was around the same time that Sam took out his life-insurance policy.”

The evidence we had was all circumstantial, but it hung together.

“I was going through police training when James Murwald was arrested and charged,” Jack said. “I remember sitting in for one day of his trial. He sat in the dock and never showed a flicker of remorse. Just swore revenge on everyone who’d put him there.”

We walked faster.

“Why isn’t he still locked up, though—or dead? He surely can’t have been released.”

Jack shook his head. “Don’t know. It’s something we’ll need to find out—after we find Linda Sadler.”

We were within sight now of the Sadler’s red caravan wagon. The door with its bright wreath of painted flowers hung on its hinges, slightly ajar.

Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach.

Jack took the short flight of wooden steps two at a time and pushed the door fully open. I held my breath, my imagination painting images of Linda Sadler lying dead in her own blood.

“Empty,” Jack said.

I released a breath, climbing up the steps and looking past him into the caravan’s interior. The same chaos of crates and shipping containers I’d seen before reigned, but Linda Sadler was nowhere to be seen.

“Did she run away, do you think?” I asked.

Jack was scanning the inside of the wagon. “There’s nothing to say one way or the other. No blood or any sign of a struggle, anyway.”

“You’re right.” The caravan was a mess, but there was nothing smashed or broken as one would expect if there’d been a fight.

“I need to report this,” Jack said. “Let the Yard know that we suspect James Murwald might have had a hand in Sam’s death—not to mention find out whether Murwald’s escaped from prison.

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