“Thank you. Now, may we get back to the other night, please?” said Steve. “Clarice was right. The guy with the bugs was called Coop. Does anybody recognize that name?”

“Besides from the other night?” said Leonard.

“Yes. Besides from the other night.”

“Then no.”

“Anyone else?”

People just shook their heads.

Steve said, “I had a feeling. Well, the biker didn’t walk out with the box and the rest of you were too busy trampling Jerry to get it. My guess is that guy Coop got it.”

“What are we going to do?” said Jerry.

“We’re going to find him.”

“How?”

“Good question. Jorge?”

Jorge took a very small step forward in the very tight space. “I know a private detective. He helped me with my first divorce.”

“There might be something else we can do,” said Jerry.

“What’s that?” said Steve.

“Did anyone notice that those people with Coop were sort of invisible when we first got there? If that big guy hadn’t fallen, they might have walked right past us.”

“Yeah. They weren’t there, then they were,” said Janet.

“Right. I was thinking that maybe they were using, you know, magic.”

The congregation laughed quietly.

“Son, you’re on a lot of Vicodin. There’s no such thing as magic,” said Steve.

“But isn’t Caleximus magic?” said Jerry.

“You’re mixing things up. Gods don’t use tricks and hocus-pocus. Our lord Caleximus has powers that are so much more powerful than any magic that they transcend our mere mortal understanding.”

“Okay, but maybe there are a few people who can do magic. There’s a place I heard about. People call it Jinx Town. They say there’s magic stuff and strange people there.”

“Who told you that?” said Steve.

“Charlie, the drywall foreman.”

“Charlie? That guy is higher than a Rastafarian koala. Dumber, too.”

“Okay, but I’ve heard stuff from other people.”

Steve came over and put a hand on Jerry’s shoulder. “There’s no such thing as magic, son. Those people used some kind of trick to be invisible.”

“I bet it was mirrors,” said Leonard.

“They carried a bunch of mirrors with them to a robbery?” Jerry said.

“That’s how David Copperfield disappears ladies in his show.”

“This isn’t Vegas, dumb-ass,” said Tommy. “It was an office building.”

“Okay. How do you think they did it?”

“Gas. Some kind of hypno gas.”

“That’s as stupid as magic,” said Clarice.

“It is not. The government uses it all the time to get us to buy stuff and make people gay.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” said Janet.

“Listen,” said Steve. “I don’t care if it was mirrors, gas, or if they grew feathers and flew away on wings of song. None of that’s going to help us find them. That’s why we need a P.I.”

“How are we going to pay for that?” said Tommy.