The reception was in honour of Professor Reed’s daughter’s wedding. It was taking place in the garden of the family house, an imposing victorian manor. Not the big party I had imagined, though : there were only about thirty people, and it looked more like a family meeting than Professor Reed’s daughter’s wedding. I don’t know why, I had guessed it would be one of these enormous celebrations you see in American TV series, with hundreds of guests, an orchetra and a limo. It would be harder, I thought, to catch him. In this kind of family parties, everyone knows everyone and is keeping an eye on them, on the contrary to big receptions, where everybody just cares about oneself. Just my luck.
Reed was a potbellied man of about sixty. He had grey hair, half-moon glasses and a serious look on his face. As I was approaching him, I thought of how I had learnt it was him who had killed Brad. He worked in a circus. But after the accident he mysteriously vanished, and as no one knew his real name he was never charged. But in fact, someone did know his name but never told the police. He was a contortist. Touched by my sorrow, she told me his name but asked me never to tell anyone. That didn’t mean I couldn’t find him myself.
I pretended to have tripped on something and let my toasts plate fall on him. His suit was full of caviar ! « Oh, excuse me, mister ! I’m really sorry ! », I said to him, spreading the caviar on his jacket, pretending to be cleaning it with a napkin. Reed was angry. Grumbling, he went to the toilets to clean his suit. I followed him.
As soon as he was out of the toilets, I hit his head with a brick. He fell on the floor, knocked out. I immediatly linked his feet and hands, I blindfolded him and shut his mouth with a scarf so that he couldn’t speak. Fortunately, he recovered right after I finished. « Don’t make a move and don’t make a noise, or I’ll kill you. It’s up to you», I muttered to him.
Then I led him to my car, parked in the front courtyard. He was hoping just like a big fat rabbit, but I’d cook him soon, I thought with delight. I made him sit on the back seat, blindfolded, his hands and feet still fastened and his mouth kept shut. I would say no word. Then I drove to the kitchen.

The kitchen, in this case, was a disused railway station down in the old city center. I made Reed sit on a chair with a strong slap on the shoulder. I would treat him with no consideration at all, which was driving him furious. He would struggle, trying to undo his links. I sat on a chair in front of him. I had to restrain myself from hitting him before having realized my plans, but my mind was full of hatred. I wanted to kill him already, I wanted to hurt him, to break him. Make him suffer as much as possible. I looked at him and tried to calm down, but the sight of him trying to release himself was getting on my nerves. At last I freed his mouth, and he began to moo on and on. Not much of a rabbit was he anymore, but more of a cow from now on.
« SHUT UP, WILL YOU ? », I yelled at him. He stopped short. « Now I’m gonna tell you why I brought you here, although I guess you already know. Any idea ? »
« I don’t even know who you are », he replied. I could hear he was trying to make his voice steady and impressive, but he was still shivering - with fear or rage, I don’t know.
« You killed my husband, you bastard ! That night, at the circus ! Does that make sense, now ? » You could tell that he very clearly remembered who I was, because his jaw made a little move like: « Oh God, not her ! ». There was a silence, during which he seemed to think very hard. Perhaps was he thinking of which lie he could tell me to come out of this pickle he was in, or maybe he was just thinking of a way to break free, but in any case I wouldn’t be conned anymore, not this time. I was determined to take my revenge, and I was gonna take it even if it was the last thing I was to do.
« I didn’t mean it », he finally said.
« What ? You didn’t mean it ? But you did it ! So where’s the difference ? »
« I’m terribly sorry, but it wasn’t against you. It wasn’t even against him. You can’t imagine how crossed with myself I am for having done this...»
I began crying. The pain was too much for me. «Explain me, then ! I said in the middle of my tears. Tell me all about it, tell me why you deprived me of the man I loved ! »
Reed took a deep breath, then began to tell me his story...
« You know, I’ve always loved circus. When I was a kid, there was a circus that came twice a year. A very big circus with lions, horses, jugglers, bear trainers, fire spitters, elephants, acrobats, and a lot more... But above all things this circus had clowns. And I loved clowns above all things. During the time the circus was here, I spent my whole time around it, and in particular with the clowns. They taught me a lot of funny tricks, it was great.
But my father... He was a dentist. Not the kind of man to joke about clown tricks. He became very upset when he heard that I was associating with the circus people, and he immediately sent me to a boarding school. I was twelve. He wanted me to become a doctor, and so did I.
Anyway... I never lost my love for clowns, and after my studies, I tried to enter a circus. I wanted to become a clown, you know, but I never managed. Even so, I’m very funny, so I don’t understand why no circus agreed to hire me ! But, well, it’s true that when you first see me, you can’t immediately tell I’m a funny guy ! In any case... I finally took my job as an ophtalmologist, and although that never satisfied me, that’s what I did it my entire life.
But three years ago, I got fed up with that. I hated my job, I hated myself, I hated everything. I was in a total nervous breakdown. My wife and family tried everything to cheer me up. They tried to take me on holidays, they spent a lot of time with me, they even asked for the best doctors to come. But nothing was making me happy. Inside of me, I knew only one thing could do it : and I stopped my doctor career to become a clown. That wasn’t easy, of course. But I was happy just to know I might have a chance.
For three months, I travelled a lot and saw a lot of circuses, but no one would employ me. It is only when I began to despair that chance smiled to me. The Galliani Circus. What a great time I had there ! The circus was my new family. And, at last, I was a clown. And it was a great job ! For the first time in my life, people laughed about my jokes !
Then... I suppose you know the continuation. You and your husband came to the show, and your husband volunteered to play a trick with me. It was the first time I was using Marco’s magic box. Marco’s the magician, and he’s got a magic box; he puts people in it and you have the impression he’s really cutting them in pieces. So this night was the first time I was using this box, but unfortunately I’m no good at pretending to cut up people in pieces. Everything went right, actually, but I just got a problem with the « pretending » part ! The rest went OK !
In any case... After that I understood that I’d better hide myself, so I ran away. Luckily, the circus didn’t know my name. They were Italian, you know, and didn’t speak English very well. We hadn’t made any contract, and they didn’t know my real name. Everybody just called me Bozo. And they didn’t really know my face either, because as I was a clown, I always wore costumes, make-up and wigs.Thinking about it, that was a luck, really !
From that day, I worked as a medicine professor, and never told anyone about that, not even my wife. But I really regret it. I didn’t do it on purpose, of course, but it haunts me. I’m terribly sorry, Mrs Landrew. »
I said nothing. He had no respect, he was horrible, he disgusted me. I just stayed there, sitting on my chair, with my eyes lost in the void, and in the emptiness of my mind only one word remained : REVENGE. But before I could make a move, I felt his shadow spreading over me: he had undone his links and disconcealed his eyes. Then I fell on the floor : he had knocked me out with his chair.

Two days later, as I was home, I heard something on the news which attracted my attention : a man named Stephen Reed had been run over by a lorry transporting clown soft toys.

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