Madball — Fredric Brown

MADBALLIt starts with a bank robbery. That's where the $42,000 comes from. Then the two carnies who pull it off get in a car accident, and one of them is killed. The other guy, Mack Irby, waits it out in his hospital room until he's recovered enough to head back to the carny to collect the cash, which is now all his. But he doesn't figure on the Murderer. Someone else knows about the robbery -- and quickly removes Irby from the scene with a fatal tent stake. But that someone is spotted leaving the crime of the crime by Dolly, one half of the knife-throwing act. Now she must be silenced.Then Doc Magus, the fortune teller, starts doing some figuring, and begins to realize that there's more to Irby's murder than meets the eye. That's when Sammy, Jesse's halfwit punk, starts hanging around the Murderer's trailer, hoping to catch a glimpse of his pornography collection. Things are getting desperate. How's the Murderer supposed to get away clean with all these loose ends, these prying eyes? He'll just have to start taking care of them, one at a time…