The bank lobby looked as though a tornado had swept through it. The marble counters lay shattered across the floor, and banknotes littered the bloodstained carpet like autumn leaves. Four bodies lay twisted into strange positions in different corners, each with that familiar, wide grin painted on its face in blood.
"All clear!"
Bushnell's voice came from the second floor. "No other suspects."
Li Jie crouched beside the last body and brushed the hair off its forehead with a gloved finger. The makeup had been carefully applied-chalk-white foundation, bright red lips stretched all the way to the ears, and hair hastily dyed green with spray paint.
But it wasn't him.
Not the man in the purple suit whose laughter could give people nightmares. These were just inept imitators.
"Sheriff!"
Harleen came running from the vault and tilted her head, motioning him over. "Come take a look at this."
Li Jie followed her into the blasted-open vault. The safe doors stood wide open, their interiors empty. But what caught his eye was an enormous piece of graffiti spray-painted across an entire wall.
It was a clown.
But not an ordinary circus clown. This image was more deranged, more abstract. It had no eyes, just two black holes where the sockets should have been, and its grin stretched so wide it nearly tore its entire face apart. Beneath the graffiti, crooked lettering read:
"Guess who's coming back soon?"
The paint hadn't fully dried, and it gleamed with an eerie, oily sheen under the emergency lights.
Li Jie stared at the wall for a while.
"They had time to blow open the vault, empty the safes, and paint on the wall."
"This wasn't a robbery," Harleen said. "It was a performance."
Back in the lobby, the sole survivor had been handcuffed to a