Trick Turn

by Tom Barber

  ‘Yeah, just left,’ Vargas told them. ‘Their entire Department want a chunk of McGuinness now after what he did to Special Ops. Press got wind of the attack.’

  ‘What’s their Department’s response?’ Shepherd asked.

  ‘He killed a cop and blinded another, so they’re moving heaven and earth. They put out an APB, tracing every step he made in the city and interviewing anyone who might have come into contact with him, but the guy seemed like he kept to himself. What the neighbors said, anyway. They’ve had no real luck so far.’

  ‘Media?’ Hendricks asked.

  ‘Boston PD are keeping details from them until we can make progress in tracking McGuinness down. But they’ll push, so we gotta make start making headway. How’s Archer doing?’

  ‘He just arrived in New Orleans,’ Josh replied. ‘We called ahead and set up a meeting with a homicide detective. An old-time carny outside Lafayette told Archer someone who worked with McGuinness at the Bilodeau touring show went to NOLA looking for a job at an amusement park. If the guy’s still there, Archer thinks he’ll be able to provide more info than the people at Kemah or Bilodeau. This man and McGuinness grew up together as teenagers in the carnival, so the carny said.’

  ‘What’s the latest with you guys?’

  ‘We’ve been going deeper into the Carla Lombardi-Bianca Stefani feud,’ Shepherd told her. ‘Lorenzo Cortese offered up some more information, after we talked Natalie into allowing some potential visitation rights so he could see his kids. Said he heard about some woman with a scarred-up face being involved in a mob outfit from the Baltimore/DC area. Doesn’t know for sure if it’s Stefani, but a woman with facial disfigurement like that ain’t exactly common. Neither is mafioso activity in the capital region.’

  ‘Worth us going down to check?’

  ‘Worth you going, I think. I like the lead. Cortese didn’t have a reason to lie that I can see. He’s desperate to see his kids. If this was bullshit, he knows those visits won’t happen.’

  ‘I’m on it.’

  ‘Should she be so involved, Shep?’ Hendricks asked, once the call ended. ‘She saw the scene at Doctor Wyzyck’s place. Got burned with that acid shit. And Isabel is the target.’

  ‘Good luck keeping her off it,’ Marquez replied, picking up Carla Lombardi’s file and starting to read it again.

  ‘We’re in City Park,’ Bellefonte told Archer as they walked into New Orleans’ Carousel Gardens, the gate staff letting them through after seeing their badges. ‘Only major ride park inside the city center itself.’

  Including Coney Island, this was the fourth touring carnival or amusement park Archer had been to in the last week and he was getting a feel for the places. Carousel Gardens didn’t possess the grandeur of a larger site, but it had its own particular charm. It was also jammed like flies on sticky paper in the heat of the Louisiana summer, and Archer wiped sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt, keeping his sunglasses on to protect his eyes from the sun as he walked into the Gardens with Bellefonte.

  ‘The main attraction,’ Bellefonte said, nodding at the queues for a rollercoaster called The Heatwave. It was sizeable, with the carts going up a long incline before dropping down and gathering speed, culminating in an upside down loop that would no doubt empty the pockets of the unwary. ‘New ride. Ladybug was the only coaster here before, but they brought this one in from some park in Baton Rouge.’

  They’d asked the guard at the gate who let them in to call for a member of management to talk to and Archer spotted a man coming directly towards them. ‘Who’re ya after, Detectives?’ the manager asked, after shaking their hands.

  ‘Guy called Jackson Ruffalo,’ Archer said. ‘We think he came here from a family-run carnival across the State some years ago. Would’ve been a teenager or in his early twenties at the time. We want to talk to him about someone he used to work with.’

  ‘Ruff? Yeah, he helps run The Heatwave. This way.’

  ‘Gerry McGuinness?’ Jax Ruffalo asked five minutes later, inside the control room for the new ride. They were between breaks, people already filing in for the next one. The booth was undergoing some kind of repair, several strips of wood stacked in the corner, but Ruffalo was the only person in there when the two cops walked in. ‘Ruff’ as the manager had called him, was freckled with red hair and pale skin. He appeared older than Archer had expected, in his forties, and looked shifty, his eyes not holding his or Bellefonte’s gaze. Dusty had warned him the night before that carnies never lost their wariness around law enforcement, and in addition, Archer knew this guy had a history of taking amphetamines, which probably didn’t help. ‘Where’d you say I worked with this guy?’

  ‘For the Bilodeau Family touring show,’ Archer said. ‘Guy I spoke to said you and this man McGuinness did a lot of the gruntwork when you were both adolescents. Spent a few years doing it together, apparently.’

  ‘I never worked with no guy called Gerry. Who told you this?’

  ‘Chap called Dusty who’s still employed there.’ Archer made sure he made eye contact with the man. ‘He seemed pretty sure.’

  ‘Yeah, I remember Dusty. When he wasn’t paying for hookers, he used to spend his time chasing beer with cigarettes and the cigarettes with moonshine. Surprised he’s still alive.’

  ‘So you did work with him?’ Bellefonte said.

  ‘Sure. But I don’t remember no Gerry.’

  ‘You mean you don’t remember Gerry,’ Archer said, not liking the man and wanting to provoke him slightly. Get him to slip up.

  ‘That’s what I just said.’

  ‘Sort of.’

  An awkward silence followed. ‘I got a job to do here,’ Ruffalo said abruptly. ‘Ain’t got time for dumbass word games.’

  ‘Last thing’ Archer said. ‘We heard there was an accident at the Bilodeau Show, outside Shreveport, all the way back in ‘96. A coaster was missing some pins. Bunch of people died. You remember that?’

  The man didn’t reply and just looked away. Archer and Bellefonte both understood he was done talking. They turned and left.

  ‘He’s not gonna open up without persuasion,’ Bellefonte said, walking away from the booth for the coaster, out of earshot from Ruffalo. ‘Or without a lawyer present. Your carny said Ruff worked with your suspect when he was a kid. Ruffalo says he don’t remember him. Stalemate.’

  Archer nodded, looking back at the ride as the manager approached once again; he hadn’t gone far. ‘Get what you need?’ the man asked.

  ‘Can we take a look at his employee file?’ Archer asked, not answering the question.

  ‘To what end?’

  ‘Can we just see it?’

  The manager hesitated, then nodded. ‘Come with me.’

  ‘I’ll stay out here,’ Bellefonte said. ‘Might go have another word with our boy.’

  Inside the control room, Ruffalo had been watching the two cops walk away and started to breathe easier again until he saw the black one coming back.

  He’d always dreaded that the day of the accident, and the truth behind what had really happened would come back to haunt him.

  That time had come.

  He looked at The Heatwave, which was full now, the safety gates closed, ready to do a round of the tracks. He’d installed a contingency plan on the ride years ago, just in case he’d ever needed a distraction, one he’d hoped he’d never have to use. Ironically, or tragically depending on how you looked at it, the contingency was based around the same trick he and a long-ago colleague at Bilodeau had pulled that day in 96, where things had gone so wrong and those people had died.

  He knew his job would be over the moment he typed in those commands, and the cops would be after him. But at least this way he stood a chance.

  If he was going to get away, he needed the police to be focusing on something else.

  TWENTY NINE

  ‘You and me need to-’ Bellefonte started as he walked into the booth, but Ruffalo had been ready for him and smashed the detecti
ve over the side of the head with a piece of 2x4 a carpenter had left leaning against the wall.

  It wasn’t a hard enough blow to kill the man but had enough force behind it to put him down, and Ruffalo hit him again for insurance after Bellefonte dropped to the floor. A couple of young girls eating some cotton candy saw the first strike as they passed the door on their way to the next ride, and one of them screamed at the follow-up, dropping her food.

  As Bellefonte was lying stunned on the floor, Ruffalo saw the cop with the British accent react to the scream and swing round. The guy looked a good fifteen years younger and about fifty pounds lighter than the one on the floor; he was gonna be trouble.

  Ruffalo went to the computer and tapped away, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he entered that contingency code.

  Once it was in, he locked the system with his password, then bolted out of the rear door.

  Before Archer could reach the hut, he saw The Heatwave move off, a fresh wave of people on the ride. When he made it to the door, he found Bellefonte struggling to sit up, but there was no sign of Ruffalo, who’d fled out the back.

  As he knelt to make sure the NOPD detective was OK, the manager joined them in the hut and looked around. ‘The hell’s he gone? He can’t abandon his position like this when the ride’s running. When I-’

  He cut off abruptly, staring at the screen that controlled the ride.

  ‘What?’ Archer said.

  ‘That looks wrong,’ the manager said, stepping up close to the ride computer. Archer rose and stood beside him; he watched as the manager pressed some keys, but the screen didn’t respond. ‘I should be able to override any command,’ the manager said, sounding worried.

  Archer looked back out at the ride outside, which was climbing the incline slowly ready to drop down on the corkscrews and the loop-the-loop. ‘What’s he done?’

  ‘I think he’s activated the emergency brakes. But I can’t get in to check for sure.’

  ‘The ride’s still moving.’

  ‘Not yet,’ the man said, a note of panic creeping into his voice. ‘For when it hits the loop.’

  Archer looked up at The Heatwave as the implication of what the manager had said hit him. The computer system malfunctioned on that main ride when people were cresting the upside-down loop. Locked up there, and part of the track fell apart, Dusty had told him at the carnival last night.

  Load of restraints broke and people fell out.

  Eight people died.

  ‘Can you shut it off?’

  ‘We need him to do-’ the manager replied, but he was already talking to empty space. With Dusty’s vivid description of the tragedy years before in his mind, and knowing time probably wasn’t on their side, Archer sprinted out of the booth. He vaulted the fence then threw himself to the ground, the ride whistling over him as maintenance crew members started shouting, ordering him to get out from the restricted area.

  Archer didn’t need to be on the ride to feel a huge surge of adrenaline, which helped power his legs as he raced up the catwalk running alongside the ride, seeing the cart rattling its way around the blocks of the track. It hit the loop, and rushed through, but he remembered from watching the ride with Bellefonte that the carts did two laps of the track per ride.

  He had a feeling whatever was coming, would happen on the second go-around on the loop.

  As the rollercoaster rushed on around the tracks, due to come past Archer in twenty seconds or so, he continued up the catwalk then stopped when something below caught his eye. ‘Untie that thing and try to get it over here!’ he shouted down to the gathered workers, pointing at a bouncy castle fifty yards away at a separate attraction.

  The manager saw where he was pointing. ‘It’ll deflate if we disconnect it!’

  ‘It’s better than nothing!’ Archer shouted back, as the ride thundered towards the loop. The manager called for several nearby workers to join him and they ran over to the inflatable, shouting at some children to get off it as the men started untethering it.

  Then, what Archer had feared happened.

  Just like years ago in 1996 at the Bilodeau show, as the ride hit the loop for the last time, the brakes started to screech and the ride slowed.

  It ground to a halt and stopped, almost completely upside down.

  Bystanders and friends and family of the people on the ride quickly realised there was something very wrong. From his position on the catwalk, Archer saw the terrified people suspended staring down at the ground below, locked in place as they started to shout for help.

  The screams of joy on the ride quickly turned into shouts of fear as they realised this wasn’t part of the experience.

  The manager and his men were in the process of dragging the bouncy castle across the ground, having secured the rope attachments on the inflatable to a park buggy, yelling at people to get out of their way. Moments later, the driver of the buggy carefully positioned it under the upside-down ride, while the other men tethered it in place as best they could. It had started to deflate as soon as it had been disconnected from the blowers, but there was still plenty of air left inside.

  Carousel Gardens had purchased The Heatwave for a winning price, but that was for a reason. Despite being sufficient to pass the stringent safety checks, the materials were aging, the safety features coming to the end of their life, most of the seat restraints having seen far better days. Their only concession had been to install new safety bars, the Gardens not wanting to get sued if anything happened.

  But Ruffalo’s diversion didn’t end with the brakes. He’d set the automatic release for the bars to open.

  And like in 1996, that was exactly what happened with it frozen at the top of the loop.

  Screaming, people plummeted towards the ground, but thanks to Archer’s quick thinking, landed on the half-inflated castle, instead of the ground, the inflatable still having enough air left inside to save their lives.

  Then Archer realised with horror that the rear seats weren’t over the castle. He jumped from the adjacent catwalk onto the upside down ride, a hundred feet in the air. A teenage boy was shouting for help, clinging onto his restraint, his arms hooked around it. Archer could see what was about to happen and anchored himself with one arm to the ride.

  Just as the boy slipped, Archer grabbed his arm when he started to fall, the teenager ending up swinging in mid-air, screaming. Archer could see the team below dragging the terrified people off the bouncy castle, desperately trying to clear it and drag it over but Archer knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold on long enough, as the teenager threw himself around in panic and started to slip.

  Despite their best efforts, he saw it was taking too long to manoeuvre the rapidly deflating inflatable castle.

  Then the rollercoaster started to move, just as he lost his grip on the boy.

  As the teenager fell, Archer turned, and using the car for resistance, jumped for the catwalk. He made it, falling as his foot was hit by one of the passing cars, but he rolled to the side and watched the rollercoaster pick up speed as it started to drop.

  ‘Get out of the way!’ he shouted to the people below. Seeing what was about to happen, everyone scattered, the ride roaring down towards them and hitting the top of the bouncy castle which was now lying over the track, ripping it apart.

  Across the Gardens, Ruffalo had been forced to double back to avoid police officers who were running into the site, but looping around, he ran out of City Park.

  He was just about to cross a road when he was hit over the head with the same piece of wood that had dropped Bellefonte in the control hut.

  Panting, the NOPD detective dropped the 2x4, pulled his gun and cuffs, and flipped the man over, handcuffing his wrists. ‘I already had a headache today, asshole,’ he said, hauling him up and dragging him back into the park.

  THIRTY

  Seventeen year old Jax Ruffalo felt cold as he stopped by a creek outside the Bilodeau family fair, still wearing the dirty jeans, t-shirt and sneakers he’d
been in all day, all week in fact. In the distance behind him, the blue and red lights on cop cars and ambulances lit up the dark field. The teenage boy withdrew a pack of smokes and sparked a cigarette with a shaking hand, inhaling deeply.

  Out of the darkness, he saw a figure approach. ‘What’d you tell them?’ the other boy asked harshly as he walked up, his tall gangly figure towering over Ruff’s much slighter one.

  ‘Nothing. I thought it was just gonna stop,’ Ruffalo said. ‘Like some of their wallets might fall out. That’s all.’

  His fingers trembled as he dragged on the cigarette.

  ‘I didn’t think them people was gonna spill out as well. We killed them, Ger. How’d they fall anyway? The tracks were secure.’

  The other boy had been reaching into his pocket, but hearing the tone of his friend’s voice, his head came up and Ruff found himself looking into those strange, vacant eyes.

  ‘I won’t say nothing,’ Ruff said nervously. ‘I swear.’

  Gerry pulled his hand out of his pocket, holding some missing safety pins.

  ‘You took ‘em?’ Ruff asked.

  ‘Made the loop collapse when they hit it,’ Gerry said, smiling.

  ‘You said when we messed with the computer, it was just gonna stall. You never said nothing about the restraints releasing.’

  McGuinness didn’t reply. Ruff stared at him, the reality of what they’d just done hitting him, as his fellow carnival worker knelt and started digging a hole with his hands.

  ‘They’re gonna blame it on Heywood,’ Ruffalo continued. ‘He don’t know what we did.’

  ‘So let ‘em.’ McGuinness stopped burying the pins, and raised his head, the look in his eyes chilling Ruffalo even further. This person was different from the one he’d worked with at the show for the last few years. Ruffalo had never seen this side to him, and he felt a wave of fear. ‘You gonna say shit?’