*Thanks,* Elgin thought dryly.
“What do you think happened at the Palace and Plaza Charles?” Elgin asked changing topics and tone of voice.
“Eh?” Charles looked at him, looked outside and swallowed; a faint crease between his brows, “I think the Russian mafia blew up the brothel and the Chinese mafia raided the Russian’s hideout. This stuff about aliens and mass hypnotism, death rays, dragons, its all bullshit, mass hysteria, maybe some kind of guerrilla marketing ploy gone horribly wrong. Some kind of new Godzilla movie that they wanted to peddle, they waited for some kind of big disturbance and hyped it up and then fed in all sorts of fake pictures, facts, interviews.” He stopped, took a deep breath.
Charles really wanted to believe that story, one that was being pushed by players who thought that the public couldn’t handle too much truth. He only believed in what he could touch and feel, maybe see with his own eyes. Things that weren’t grounded in his world view were most likely trickery in his mind.
Elgin nodded, “Sounds reasonable, more reasonable than alien flying dragons, vampires and werewolves.”
“Exactly....” Charles nodded firmly, almost satisfied. He frowned, then glared at Elgin, “Blast, you were trying to do it to me, no wonder they called you Eel.”
“They called me Eel because I was tall and skinny and they kept pushing me into the lake or one of the streams, so I was wet and often slimy lake gunk. The other explanation came later, much later. After most of them had found out that calling me names and pushing me into very cold and sometimes very rocky, shallow water, wasn’t a good idea,” Elgin recovered his good humor.
“Was that a threat Mr. Chalmers?” Charles drew himself up, squared his shoulders he was as tall as Elgin and probably half again as heavy, some of the additional mass weight room muscle.
“No, just an observation. Look Charles, I took Loretta Sanger out to tour the town the night after the Palace blew up. Nothing happened, she was a very pleasant companion and she went home, all I paid for was the limo and the food. Elena is a friend, she’s not underage, she just looks it, she’s a nice girl and we talk about camping, her parents used to take her camping. And shooting, her parents also used to take her shooting and she still goes to the range regularly.”
“What about the reports in the vicinity of the Palace and Plaza?”
“I already answered that Charles. You want dirt on Zeph? Well there is none. And I have to point out that this interview suggests to me that perhaps you feel she has dirty laundry because you have some?”
Charles spun on his heel and stalked away.
*Is he a threat to Zeph, Elena or me?* Elgin asked the others.