He shrugged sheepishly. “I just wanted to see if I could,“ he said. “And I thought it would make a nice April Fools' gag.“
“See,“ the chief said. “He admits it.“
“Some gag, sending it out all over the world,“ I said.
“I didn't do that,“ he protested. “I just put it on a couple of machines here in the office. I have no idea how it got out on the Web.“
“For heaven's sake, you know these clowns,“ I said. “Did you really think it wouldn't?“
“You could have a point,“ Jack said.
“Now you understand his motive,“ the chief said, leaning back and lacing his fingers across his stomach.
“Not really,“ I said. “What does Jack programming Nude Lawyers from Hell have to do with Ted's murder?“
Either Jack was a really good actor or he was looking forward to the answer, too.
“Mr. Corrigan was blackmailing him,“ the chief said.
“Ted tried blackmailing me,“ Jack admitted. “Back in April, when he found the Easter egg himself. I told him to go to hell, and he didn't try again.“
“So you say,“ the chief said. “But Mr. Corrigan's blackmail log says differently. It says he approached you Sunday night – the night before the murder. And you struck the next day.“
“You can't be serious,“ Jack said. “For one thing, why would I pay blackmail to conceal something that anyone could stumble on if they pressed the right key combination?“
“And before you strangled him, you stunned him with a blow to the throat,“ the chief said, ignoring Jack's protest. “The kind of blow they teach you in those martial arts classes you've taken so many of.“
“That's ridiculous,“ I said. “How can you possibly know from Ted's body that the person who hit him was a martial artist, instead of someone who just happened to hit the right place?“
“And then there's the location of Mr. Ransom's cube,“ the chief said. “Not many places along its route that the mail cart isn't visible to three or four people. But back here, no one but Mr. Ransom here can see the cart when it stops to give him his mail.“
That was true, anyway, I realized as I thought back to my map.
“What kind of idiot would kill someone outside his own cube?“ I asked aloud.
“An idiot who knows he can send the body rolling merrily on its way with the push of a button, and none the wiser,“ the chief said.
“And Jack would have to be crazy to kill Ted here, when every few minutes, someone pops in to bother him about something,“ I said.
“He can tell all that to his lawyer,“ the chief said. “Haven't you found that damned card yet?“
He barked the last question to Sammy, who turned beet red and shook his head.
“Oh, for heaven's sake,“ the chief muttered. He unbuttoned his top left shirt pocket and pulled out a laminated card. He looked over his glasses, reproachfully, at Sammy, and then pushed them up on his nose and looked back at the card.
“You have the right to remain silent,“ he intoned, and then he gave the entire Miranda warning. Not that he seemed to need the card and he didn't rattle it off, either. He paced himself, savoring each word, with the rich, round delivery of a revival tent preacher or an old-fashioned small-town politician. By the time he finished you wanted to stand up and sing “God Bless America.“
“You keep it in your uniform shirt pocket,“ he said, tucking the card away in Sammy's pocket. Sammy blushed again.
“I guess that means you're going to take me off to jail,“ Jack said.
The chief nodded. Sammy stepped forward, but the chief held up his hand and stopped him.
We watched as Jack exited the Nude Lawyers from Hell game, turned off his computer, put his glasses in a case, and stuck the case in his pocket. He pushed back his chair, stood up, and then reached over to grab an Affirmation Bear that was sitting on the counter of his cube.
“Here“ he said, tossing the bear to me. “Little souvenir.“
“Do you have a lawyer?“ I asked.
“Not yet,“ he said. “Guess I should.“
“I'll call and send somebody down,“ I said, remembering that I still had the names of the lawyers Michael had recommended.
“That'd be great,“ he said.
I watched as the chief and Sammy led Jack out; then I looked down at the bear.
“Damn,“ I said, and I punched the bear in the belly to take out my frustration.
“Here's looking at you, kid,“ the bear said, Bogart's voice sounding particularly incongruous coming from its smiling pink face.
I went back to my desk, fished out my notebook, flipped through till I found the names of the lawyers, and called one for Jack. The one Rob wasn't using. And then, when I was sure the lawyer was on his way down to the jail, I called Michael to vent.
“That's great,“ he said when I told him the news.
“Great? What do you mean 'great'?“
“Rob's off the hook, right?“
“Yes, but Jack's on die hook, and I'm not sure that's a big improvement.“
“He's got a good attorney, right?“ Michael asked.
“One of the ones you recommended,“ I said. “The one who isn't representing Rob.“
“He'll be fine,“ Michael said. “You've managed to convince the police that Rob didn't do it – maybe you should back off.“
“I can't,“ I said. “I just don't believe Jack did it, and I don't believe the chief is going to keep digging until he finds out who did.“
“What's so important about this Jack character?“ Michael said. Oh, dear. Was that a note of jealousy? I could have said that he was an attractive guy who'd been flirting with me, not to mention doing the kind of thoughtful, helpful things Michael would have been doing if he weren't three thousand miles away, and that maybe I felt just a little bit bad about not having discouraged him a little more firmly. But I didn't think that would go over too well. So I stuck to the business side of things.
“Apart from the fact that I've figured out he's the one who really runs the shop, and Rob desperately needs him to get Lawyers from Hell II finished on time and keep the company afloat, it bothers me that the chief used something I found for him to pin the murder on someone I think is innocent.“
“Let his lawyer make a fuss, then,“ Michael said. “There's no reason for you to keep putting yourself in danger.“
“I'm not going to put myself in danger,“ I said. “I'm just going to keep doing what I have been doing.“
“Sneaking into the office by yourself in the middle of the night?“
“If you were paying attention, you'd remember that I've never managed to be by myself in the office in the middle of the night,“ I countered. “There's always at least one other person sneaking around.“
“And what if the next time the person doing the sneaking is the murderer, and decides you're too close on his heels?“
“I'll be careful,“ I said. “I'm not incapable of taking care of myself. Besides, there's only one thing I need to sneak back into the office to do.“
“There isn't anything you
“I need to finish studying the mail cart trail.“
“I thought you said you'd done a complete map of the mail cart trail last night.“
“Yes, but that only shows where the cart goes.“
“And anyplace not on your map, the mail cart doesn't go,“ he said. “What's to find out?“
“I have the marked tiles that form the real trail mapped, and I know where there are loose tiles that show that Ted messed with its path sometime or other,“ I said. “But I haven't checked to see where there are loose unmarked tiles. That would let me figure out where the mail cart went that it wasn't supposed to go. The wrong paths.“
“But what does that have to do with Ted's murder?“ Michael said. “You don't know when the wrong paths
