“I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and none of this makes any sense. Did you pay him back the money you stole? Where’s Danny now?”

“I don’t know, but I think you oughta call him. I’m gonna pay you back in a—”

“You’re damned right I’ll call him,” Tony said and slammed down the phone.

“Just when I think I’m gonna get a few days off, Danny has to do something stupid,” he shouted to Emily.

“What’s going on, Tony?”

“I don’t know! Maybe nothing, maybe something. These jerks just call me out of the blue and dump this on me. I have to call Danny.”

He turned on his phone and discovered a flood of activity since he’d turned it off the night before: two new voice mails and a bunch of new e-mails. He skipped the voice mail from Nick and went directly to the one his brother had left the night before, at ten o’clock, Ohio time. Tony tapped the screen and heard Danny’s voice through the speakerphone.

“Tony, it’s Danny. I just fired Logan here at the Copley store. He admitted he took the money and said he was sorry, but said he couldn’t pay us back. He begged me not to fire him, but I told him I didn’t have no choice—first he sorta started cryin’, then he got really pissed off, and said he was gonna kill me. I’m driving home now, and I think he might be following me. He sorta went nuts, and said he was gonna come to my house and stuff … I think the guy could be dangerous, so I thought you should know. I don’t know what to do; so, if you get a chance, call me back.”

Now Tony was even more annoyed. Either Danny or Logan was lying because the two stories just didn’t add up. So much for my peaceful morning, he thought. But now he was roped in; he had to get to the bottom of things.

He checked his e-mail and, sure enough, there was one from Danny. It had come in at 4:48 a.m., Danny’s time, a little over two hours ago. And that was when Tony realized that something was very, very wrong.

As Tony read Danny’s e-mail, panic washed over him: “Life insurance—MAC Mutual/AGG. Take care of Evan and Christopher.”

Life insurance? Take care of the boys? “What the hell?” he shouted.

“Babe, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Look at this,” he said, handing the phone to Emily. Now they both started to panic.

“Oh, my God, what does it mean? You better get him on the phone.”

“That’s what I’m doing,” he said, pacing the floor, while Danny’s phone kept ringing with no answer. At last, he got his voice mail.