July 1987

Harpertown is a small town roughly thirty kilometres from Glen Hartwell, in the Victorian countryside.   Normally the police have only routine duties to perform in the sleepy little town.   But that night Jim Kane found himself with one of the most unpleasant tasks he had had to perform during the five years that he had served as sergeant of police in Harpertown.

Standing near the entranceway to the great circus tent, Jim looked across to where his constable, Paul Bell, stood on the opposite side of the tent.   After a moment, he forced himself to look back toward the centre arena, where an enormously fat and grotesquely ugly man — dressed in black shorts and a gaudy red singlet — was holding up a live chicken by the neck for the crowd to see.   As the audience leant forward in their seats, wide-eyed in awe, the circus geek stuffed the head of the terrified bird into his mouth and began to bite down with all his might.   After a moment he spat the head of the chicken into a nearby plastic bucket and proudly held aloft the wildly gyrating corpse, which spurted blood from its severed neck.

As the geek reached toward a wooden crate where two more live chickens were caged, Jim Kane nodded toward Paul Bell and, blowing their whistles, the two police officers converged upon the centre arena.

“All right, that’s enough!”   Jim had to shout to make himself heard above the crowd, as he grabbed the geek’s right wrist to stop him reaching his intended next victim.

“Okay everybody!” shouted Paul, clapping his hands loudly to get their attention.   “The show’s over.   Come on, everybody out!”

“What the Hell do you think you’re doing!” demanded the ringmaster, storming across toward the two plain-clothed policemen.

“Police!” explained Jim, holding up his identification.

Taken aback, the ringmaster quickly changed his tack.   “What’s the problem officer?” he asked.

“The problem is this bloody disgusting spectacle!” replied Jim angrily; pointing toward the chicken carcase that now lay on the sawdust covering the arena floor.

“But it’s only a show!” protested the ringmaster, shrugging as though unable to comprehend Jim’s attitude.