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She cast an eye over the tanks and the turtles contained therein.

Her face must have betrayed her skepticism, for Randy took his phone from his pocket and showed it to her.“Look, this is one bid for one single turtle.”

She looked, and when she saw the price her eyes widened considerably.“Oh, my.”

“Yeah. Big business.”

“But what about your career, Randy? You’re a hero to so many people. People like me.”

“Fat lot of good that’s doing me now,” he scoffed. “My career is over, Marge. I can’t give classes, I can’t tape any new videos, I can’t do nothing. In this game you’re only as good as your last video, and at my age, and with my wonky hips and my busted pelvis, I’ll never shoot another video ever again—or teach a class.”

“So… are you doing all this to pay the people trying to kill you?” she asked.

Jerry frowned.“Is someone trying to kill you, boss? Cause if they are, just tell us and we’ll—”

“Shut up, Jerry.”

“Yes, boss.”

Johnny giggled, and Jerry said,“Shut up, Johnny.”

“Yes, Jerry.”

“Look, I’ve got a confession to make, Marge,” said Randy, dragging a hand through his trademark curly hair. “There never was a threat. There never was a demand for ten million dollars. I made that all up.”

She stared at the man.“But… the video!”

“Yeah, I shot that video myself. Or at least I asked Floralba to shoot it.”

“But I saw them inject you with the toxin.”

“Toxin, boss!” said Jerry.

“Shut up, Jerry. Just an innocent saline solution. Look, I’m not proud of what I did, but I needed to get away for a while. Lay low. There’s people out to get me, all right, but not anonymous poisoners. Loan sharks, and drug dealers, and other people I owe a lot of money to. And since I’m famous I can’t go anywhere without being recognized.”

“You could have escaped to Mexico, boss,” said Jerry.

“Sure, if I had the money,” said Randy. “But I’m broke. I spent my last dime setting up this turtle farm, but it takes time for these fellas to grow so I can sell them. So I needed to lay low for a little while. And that’s when I saw that interview with Odelia.”

“And so you decided to use my daughter to hide from your creditors? Is that it?” Marge was starting to see the whole picture, and it wasn’t pretty. “Oh, Randy. That wasn’t a very nice thing to do.”

“I know, all right? But I had no other choice. I just figured—small-town amateur sleuth—nice ordinary family—I’ll hide away there for a couple of weeks—”

“Weeks! You said days!”

“I was going to send myself another video when the deadline was up, extending it.” He shrugged. “Buy myself some time.”

“Oh, Randy. You disappoint me.” Which was an understatement.

“I know,” he said. “And I’m going to have to disappoint you even more. Because now that you know my secret I can’t possibly let you go home and blab about it to Odelia.”

“I won’t,” she said immediately, suddenly realizing the predicament she was in. “I won’t tell her—I won’t tell anyone!”

“Yeah, you will.” He gestured to Jerry. “Lock her up, Jer.”

“Lock her up? But boss!”

“Just until I figure out what to do with her.”

“Randy, you don’t have to do this,” said Marge, retreating in the direction of the basement stairs.

“I’m sorry, Marge. I like you. I really do. But this is business. My only way out of the hole I’ve dug myself into. You understand.”

And just when she turned to try and make her getaway, she bumped into a large unmovable object in the form of Johnny.

“I’m sorry, too, Marge,” said Johnny, and pointed to the back of the basement, where a small room was located, crudely constructed from large cinder blocks. Moments later she was locked up inside, and as she sank down onto the stone floor, she wondered how she’d managed to get herself into this mess.

Chapter 40

“So… you’re telling me that the NYPD lab couldn’t find any trace of a toxin in the man’s blood,” said Alec.

“Nope. Not a single trace,” said Chase Kingsley, his deputy.

Both men were in Alec’s office at the police station, the Chief behind his desk, and Chase in front of it.

“Mh,” said the Chief. “Weird.”

“And they also checked out that video, and the conclusion was that it was sent from Randy’s computer. Now to be absolutely sure they’d need access to his PC, which they didn’t have, but I think it’s safe to say that either these are some ingenious hackers, or…”

“Or the person sending that video sent it from the man’s own computer.” Alec thought for a moment. “You know, in my experience sometimes the most straightforward answer is the right answer. So either we decide that these are extremely clever assailants, so clever they can inject a toxin into Randy Hancock’s blood that is undetectable even to the smartest minds at the NYPD, or…”

“Or no poison was ever injected.”

The cops shared a look pregnant with meaning, then Alec said,“I think it’s time we took a closer look at this Hancock character. What exactly do we know about him?”