The taller of the two cops stepped forward. He had the mean, narrow, no-nonsense look of a military guy who was used to dealing with the lower elements, and was itching to crack one of these imbeciles in the skull and beat the truth out of him.

“Okay, listen up. I’m Officer Colby, and I am going to expect all of you to cooperate in this investigation. I’m going to make three points, and I’m only going to say them one time. One, it’s obvious that someone climbed in that open window, unlocked the door, and took off with four cases of saws with a retail value of close to five thousand dollars. Two, it’s also obvious that the same person, or persons, planned this and went so far as to poison the guard dog yesterday. Three, this could only have been done by an employee, which means that several of you know who did it. So, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is you come clean now, return the merchandise, and deal with the consequences. The hard way is you stand there and keep your mouth shut, and try to make me look like an idiot. But I guarantee you that is a mistake because that will make me very unhappy, and believe me, you don’t want to do that. So, what’s it going to be?”

After a few seconds of silence, the group started to murmur, and then a few guys said straight out “wasn’t me,” “I wouldn’t kill no dog or steal nothin’,” “don’t blame me, I had nothin’ to do with it.” Pretty soon it got very loud with more than a few men saying that anyone who would kill a dog was the lowest form of scum, and they planned to beat the crap out of the guy when they figured out who killed a harmless dog like Barney.

So Danny and Tony joined the chorus, shouted out their innocence at the top of their lungs, and cursed the killer of the innocent dog. They reasoned that only a guilty person would keep his mouth shut, and each made the independent decision that the best way out was to lie. Thus was set a pattern in the life of the Turner brothers, which, for one of them, would have fateful consequences at the most crucial moments of his life.