“I was shooting blind in the dark,” I said. “I didn’t know if I hit him.”

“Anyone else in the building?”

“He has Albert Kloughn tied up with a bomb strapped to his chest in one of the offices. He said he had another hostage. I don’t know who that is. I didn’t find the other hostage.” My knees gave out and I sort of sunk into Ranger and dissolved into tears. He had his arms tight around me, holding me to him. He sent Junior in search of the mechanical room to get the lights back on. He sent Cal to search for the second hostage. Then he called Morelli.

“I’ve got Stephanie,” Ranger said. “She’s safe, but there’s a hostage unfound and a hostage potentially carrying a bomb. I haven’t seen the bomb. I’m going to check it out now.”

“Where’s Joe?” I asked, wiping my nose with the back of my hand, trying to regain some control.

“We split up. I got the factory and he went to Clyde’s house.”

“How did you know it was Clyde?”

“Cal saw the truck tear past him. He didn’t know what the truck driver was up to, but he thought it was suspicious enough to check with Morelli. Cal got part of the plate and Morelli ran it through the system, checking it against the principles.”

The lights flickered and we took our goggles off. Every light flashed on at full power and we got a better look at Clyde. He was lying faceup. The monster was gone and Clyde looked very ordinary in death. In fact, he looked oddly peaceful. Maybe it had been a relief to give up the game.

“Help,” Albert Kloughn said. His voice was barely a whisper.

We all turned and stared at him, strapped to his chair on the other side of the warehouse. His face was red and mottled and he looked like he wasn’t going to live long enough for the bomb to explode.

Ranger jogged across the room. “Try not to move,” Ranger said to Kloughn. “I’m coming around to take a closer look.”

We all followed after Ranger, watching from the hall while Ranger went into the office.

“I think it’s a dummy,” Ranger said, “but I’m not an expert.” He took out a pocketknife and cut the duct tape away from Kloughn’s ankles. He sliced into the tape binding Kloughn to the chair. “I’m not going to touch the device you’ve got strapped to your chest,” Ranger said. “Stay here in the chair until the police get here with a demolition team.”

Ranger’s walkie-talkie chirped.

It was Cal. “You have to see this,” he said. “I think I found the second hostage. I’m in the lunchroom.”

We left Junior with Kloughn and we followed the hall to the lunchroom. Cal was standing hands on hips, smiling up at Lula. She was swinging like a giant piñata from a rope attached to a ceiling fan. She was still wearing the poison green top and the yellow stretch pants and her feet were treading air about fifteen feet off the ground. Her arms were duct-taped to her sides and she had duct tape across her mouth. A thick rope was wrapped around and threaded through the duct tape on her body and then looped around the fan. She had the beady little charging bull eyes, she was making angry mmmmrf mmrff sounds under the duct tape, and she was kicking her feet. Plaster dust was sifting down on her head from the ceiling fixture.