ClownFellas Read Online Free PDF Page B

was it?” Vinnie asked.
    Earl shook his head. “I don’t know. Some guy with a French accent.”
    Hats and Spotty looked at each other.
    “Le Mystère…,” Hats said.
    “Those motherfucking frog-eating bastards!” Spotty yelled, then he kicked the side of the carousel horse.
    “Who’s Le Mystère?” Earl asked.
    “French clowns,” Vinnie said, pulling a new cigarette out of his pack. “They’re a rival family who’s been trying to muscle in on our territory for the past year.” He paused to light his cigarette and take a drag. “Real nasty pieces of work.”
    “They’re the ones who have my wife and kids?”
    Vinnie put a cigarette in Earl’s mouth and lit it for him.
    “I’m sorry,” Vinnie said. “If it’s Le Mystère behind this, your loved ones are already dead.”

Chapter 13
    “Cut him loose,” Vinnie said as he returned to the storage room where they were keeping Earl Berryman.
    Captain Spotty pulled his candy knife out of his bow tie and did as he was told. Then the two clowns left the vet alone with the capo.
    “The boss agreed to cut a deal with you,” Vinnie said.
    Earl looked up at him, rubbing his wrists where his bonds had cut off the circulation. “What kind of deal?”
    “He still needs you to operate on his lion,” Vinnie said. “Save Happytooth and he agrees that we’ll save your family.”
    “But you said my family’s already dead.”
    “Not necessarily,” Vinnie said. “There’s a chance they’re still alive.”
    “But not for long,” Earl said. “The Frenchman said he was going to kill them if I didn’t send a picture of your boss’s dead body. I’m not going to be able to perform an operation before the time runs out.”
    “You have plenty of time. We already sent them this.” Vinnie held out Earl’s phone. It showed a picture of Don Bozo, lying on the ground with the syringe poking into his gag arm. It was staged, but looked real enough. “We also texted them a message saying that you got out of The Show alive.”
    “So you think they’ll let my family go now?”
    Vinnie shook his head. “Not a chance. But since they think you got out alive, you’ve become a loose end. They’ll be waiting for you back at your place. And if they’re smart, they’ll keep your family at hand just in case they need to lure you in.”
    “So there’s a good chance they’ll make it? You’ll be able to rescue them?”
    “First things first. You got a surgery to perform. If it goes smoothly, then we’ll talk about your family.”
    Earl’s eyes lit up with hope. “I can’t believe it…I thought I’d never see them again…”
    “Hold up.” Vinnie grabbed him by the shoulder. “I never said anything about you seeing them again. I said we’d save your
family.
You, on the other hand, are dead either way.”
    The vet heard what Blue Nose was saying loud and clear. He didn’t want to die, but Earl knew he was a dead man. He had to suck it up and move forward. If he didn’t want his family to die with him, the surgery had to be a success.

Chapter 14
    This time, the boss didn’t attend the surgery. Two clown women who ordinarily took care of the animals dressed up like nurses and assisted the vet. They batted their long blue eyelashes at him and honked their red noses every time they handed the doctor a tool. The vet told them it was unsanitary to touch their noses like that, but they seemed to do it impulsively.
    As he performed the operation, with the lion’s face peeled back, the meaty tumor exposed, it reminded him of the time his oldest daughter cracked her head open on the driveway. It was one of the most frightening days of his life. For a moment there, when he saw her lying in a pool of blood, he thought he’d lost her.
    “This is why I told you to wear a helmet!” Earl’s wife yelled at their teenage daughter as she lay in the driveway. “I told you this was going to happen. Didn’t I tell you?”
    Sarah was trembling. She gripped her father’s