Read mystic caravan mystery 02 - freaky lies for Free Online

we realized what was in the bag.”
    “What was in the bag?” Kade asked, leaning forward. “Did he kill an animal and leave it for you?”
    “Kind of,” I said, smiling at the memory. “He shaved his entire body and put the hair in a bag for Luke as a gift. He thought he could join the circus and come with us.”
    Kade ran his tongue over his teeth, tilting his head to the side as he considered the tale. “That was the worst story I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t even remotely interesting. I want the past five minutes of my life back.”
    “I’ll try better next time,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You asked.”
    “All you had to say was that Luke dated a hairy guy and doesn’t like them,” Kade said. “I just … what a stupid story.”
    I patted his shoulder as I pushed myself to a standing position. “I got you to forget that we’re expecting twenty clowns on the premises for auditions, though, didn’t I?”
    Kade’s normally tan face drained of color. “Twenty?”
    “Yeah, now the story isn’t sounding so bad, is it?”
    “Twenty?” Kade was beside himself. “I can’t deal with twenty clowns.”
    “Oh, don’t worry,” I said, smirking. “I’ll protect you if things get out of hand. Stick close to me. I won’t let any of the clowns hurt you.”
    “You might think that’s funny, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Kade said. “If one of them so much as honks a horn in my direction … .”
    “Oh, there are so many dirty thoughts going through my head, I don’t know which joke to lead with,” Luke muttered.
    “None of them,” Kade snapped.
    “Come on, Studmuffin,” I said, grabbing his hand. “I promise you’ll be safe with me.”
    “Until tonight when my story and today’s interviews collide in your dreams and you have a nightmare about hairy clowns,” Luke added.
    Kade’s eyes widened. “Oh, man! You just ruined my happy day. You know that, right?”
    “Glad to be of service,” Luke said, slinging an arm over my shoulders. “The story is a dud, Poet, but the outcome is pretty hysterical.”
    “Live and learn,” I said. “Live and learn.”
    “THANKS for coming in. We’ll get back to you as soon as we make our decision.”
    Ronald “Slappy” McGovern honked his horn in my face one more time for emphasis and then exited the main tent through the side opening. I waited until he was gone to make my disdain known.
    “I hate clowns,” I muttered. “We’re not hiring him. That horn is beyond annoying.”
    “I told you,” Kade said, shaking his head as he leaned back to stare at the ceiling. “I’m going to have nightmares. Big ones. And now that Luke has mentioned hairy clowns, that’s all I can think about.”
    “Oh, stop being such a baby,” Luke said. “It was just hair.”
    “I didn’t hear you saying that when you were convinced Randy’s leftover back hair was moving on your porch that night,” I pointed out.
    “It was moving,” Luke snapped. “I just know he had some poor misbegotten animal living in there or something. It was at least mutant lice. You have to admit there was something creepy about that hair.”
    “Are you talking about that guy in Minnesota who shaved himself and stalked Luke?” Raven Marko twirled a strand of her silver hair around her finger. As one of the primary members of the circus – and one of the people almost killed by our last deranged clown – she insisted on being present for the interviews. “That hair wasn’t moving. You kept kicking it, and that gave it the illusion of moving.”
    Luke screwed his face up into an annoyed frown. “No one asked you.”
    Raven’s disposition was hardly likable – or maybe that’s just me – and it was on full display today. “Stop being a baby,” she said. “It was just hair. You made that situation worse than it had to be. All you had to do was explain why you were leaving instead of sneaking out of that poor guy’s house. You created that