Page 78 of Deadly Misfortunes

“I’m on it.”

She knew the fairgrounds coordinator was calling his fairground security police to take care of it. Henry, Nick, and Omar stayed put, making sure it wasn’t a distraction so someone would go after Gregory.

It didn’t take long for the fairground security officers to rush to her booth and begin investigating where the fireworks had come from.

“I had only envisioned the rocket or whatever it was spinning around the booth and trying to create a fire,” Kat told Gregory and her family members, since no customers had stayed for any more readings.

“Did anyone see who shot off the firework?” one of the officers asked.

“No. Everyone was crowded around the booths and beyond that,” Gregory said.

But Kat said to one of the officers, “I didn’t see who shot it off, but a guy wearing a clown outfit—orange wig, big red nose, orange, yellow, and red striped one-piece suit, oversized black shoes—caught my attention. Three of them had come by earlier to make animal balloons for kids. He probably was just one of them.”

“Your bodyguards didn’t see anything?” one of the officers asked.

Henry shook his head. “As Mr. Landry said, there were people all over. We were watching for anyone who might be wearing a gun. Though it seems this guy's method of operation is to try and kill Mr. Landry by hitting his vehicle with a bigger one.”

Omar agreed. “Do you have security videos?”

“Not everywhere. Mostly at the entrance where people are purchasing tickets, and at the food vendors who handle a lot of money. We have a few scattered about the fairgrounds, but we don’t have one specifically watching this area,” one officer said.

Police officers arrived at their booth a few minutes later and helped the security officers ask fairgoers if they had seen anything. But the people in line to see the fortune tellers had been focused on reaching the front of the line so they hadn’t seen anything.

Red hurried to join them. “What do you want me to do? Henry texted me about the situation. I was watching to see if anyone fled the fairgrounds at the ticket booth, just in case the person who had shot off the firework was trying to leave in a hurry.”

“Why don’t you and Nick post yourselves out back of the booths?” Gregory asked. “Omar and Henry can continue to watch the front.”

“On it,” Red said.

Nick quickly went around the back of the booth and stationed himself there until Red joined him.

Gregory glanced around at the thinning crowd and wondered if the ladies would get any more business after what had happened.

But then some newcomers hurried to get in line, and he figured they hadn’t heard what had happened, but had seen that the ladies didn’t have a long line and were eager to get their fortunes read or visit with a dearly departed.

He was glad that business was returning to normal for the ladies, though he and Prescott were on high alert, watching for any unsavory characters who might suddenly intrude on their space.

The thing was that this could have just been some stupid prank and had nothing to do with the attempted murderer. It just happened to be near the ladies’ booths, setting everyone on edge.

When they finally finished the day and left their booths to grab desserts before going home, they ordered fried cookie dough, fried double stuffed cookies, and key lime pie bombs. They ate them and met up with the security officers to see if they had learned anything.

“No one saw who set off the fireworks,” one of the officers said. “It could have even been a teen. We talked to some of them who were there in groups, none of them with adults, but none of them appeared to have had any fireworks with them.”

Another of the officers said, “We talked to the clowns to see if anyone had been dressed like the description that Ms. Worthington gave us. They said Matthew had stayed home sick with the flu. His costume was at the fairgrounds so he could change here. Somebody must have borrowed it.”

“Was it returned?” Sascha asked.

“Yeah, but it did smell like burning sulfur, or rotten eggs, and smoky.”

“So someone had used his clown costume to shoot off the missile,” Gregory asked for confirmation.

“Yeah. It appears so. No one saw Matthew come to the fairgrounds, so that’s what his friends assumed,” the officer said.

It was disappointing that they didn’t know more than that, but the fact that the person had hidden his identity to shoot off the missile and aimed it in Sascha’s booth’s direction didn’t sound like it was accidental or just a prank.

Later that night, they had a fireworks show at the fair, featuring pop music, dancers, and acrobatics. Gregory wondered if someone had stolen one of the fireworks from the people in charge of them, then used it near Sascha and Lucy’s booth. The ladies were ready to go home after closing their booths. It would have been harder to keep everyone safe as it grew darker, and the pops of fireworks were going off, disguising gunshots fired if anyone tried to shoot Gregory.

They all headed out to their cars, with Omar, Gregory, and Sascha escorting Lucy to hers. And once she had driven off, they said goodnight to Kat and Prescott. Then they went to Gregory’s car, Omar driving, and Nick was in the front passenger seat. Henry and Red followed behind in another vehicle.