“And now we have the second possibility. If Mr. Cricket was not at Happy Village because Meadows arranged for him to be there for the express purpose of having the Scorpions kill him, they may have gotten ahead of themselves and shot Mr. Cricket ahead of schedule just because he was where he was at the time. As I said, we’re pretty sure Meadows refused to pay them for the hit on Mr. Cricket since he was still alive. So when the Scorpions were not paid the rest of the money due them for the hit on Mr. Cricket, they threatened Meadows. We are almost certain that Zack Meadows is hiding out at Peter Hershel’s house on Magnolia Terrace. That’s why we sent you the text. We didn’t want you going there and upsetting the apple cart.

“We realize this is a lot of conjecture on our part, but you have to remember who and what we’re dealing with here. While it’s conjecture on our part, that idea—or something very much like it—is the only thing that makes sense.”

“This is crazy,” Ted said.

“Yeah, you think so?” Abner drawled. “We didn’t even get to the really absurd part yet. We think the Scorpions are holed up in Lizzie’s house. We think it’s a standoff between Meadows and the Scorpions. Thank God Lizzie didn’t go into the house. They would have killed her for sure. Here’s the thing—killing Cosmo, or anyone for that matter, was to be the Scorpions entrance exercise for membership in the Lobos. What they did to the Happy Village tenants didn’t count in the Lobos’s eyes because it came before they sought membership. Fortunately for Cosmo, they flubbed the shooting. This is when it all turned into a three-ring circus. Everyone is after everyone else, and with the Scorpions having flunked their entrance exam for membership in the Lobos, they can expect no help from that quarter,” Abner added.

“Where does that leave us? Where do we go from here?” Jack asked.

“I guess this is where we have to decide what to do,” Charles said. “Time to run it up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes.”

“Why Mr. Hershel?” Maggie asked.

“Did you miss the part about Meadows buying Mr. Hershel’s casino in town? Then shafting him and the people he was going to invest with for a brand-new casino? Meadows was to approve the license. The investors disappeared and left Mr. Hershel holding the bag. God alone knows what happened to them, and I don’t even want to guess. Meadows knows Hershel, has had dealings with him. He’s elderly, and Meadows is in his prime. He could take out the old man with one hand,” Charles said.