"I'm an orphan. But that's just my opinion. I was abandoned early on. Again, that's my perception of my early years. Oh, I had a mother and a father, but I never knew my father. I never really knew the woman who calls herself my mother. The name on my original birth certificate says my name is Ann Marie Barnes. I had this imaginary friend—actually, she was my only friend—as a child, and I called her Marble Rose Epsom. I got the name Epsom from a jar of Epsom salts that was in my bathroom. The day I turned eighteen I changed my name to Marble Rose Epsom. I had my lawyer send the woman who says she's my mother a letter to that effect. Since I have no contact with her, I don't know if she acknowledged the Epsom part of my name or not. My lawyer tells me she accepted the Marble Rose part, and in any correspondence, she refers to me by that name. Does that answer your question?"

"It certainly tells me who you are. Now, I want you to tell me everything that happened and don't leave anything out, no matter how inconsequential you might think it is. I'm going to record our conversation, with your permission. This way there are no problems later on, and it makes it easier for me to refer to this conversation, as opposed to calling you every ten minutes to clarify things." Lizzie flipped open her recorder, turned it to the ON position before she looked meaningfully at Ted, who gave a slight nod to show his recorder was also turned on.

"Who were those two guys back at the police station?" Marble Rose asked.

Lizzie smiled. "Two men who are going to have a few sleepless nights for a while. The rather large. . .gentleman is Cosmo Cricket. His friends call him Kick. He's chief counsel for the Nevada Gaming Commission. The tall, thin man who didn't say a word is chief counsel for the Babylon. His name is Alvin Lansing. Mr. Lansing showed up to drop all the charges against you. Mr. Cricket was there to make sure it happened so he could report back to the NGC. I'm not clear on how they knew we were there, but we'll find out. If you need an immediate answer, then my guess would be Officer Dewberry notified them. I simply do not believe in coincidence. Now, let's get down to business."

Outside, Cosmo Cricket looked at his car and wanted to cry. The entire driver's side of the door looked like a freight train had sideswiped it and come back for a second hit. "Son of a fucking bitch!" he roared.

Alvin Lansing looked at Cricket's pricey car, winced, and scooted off to his own Volvo three spaces down. Nobody ever hit a Volvo.