The Broken Clock is Right Thrice: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #4

Chapter 10 - Musical Elevators

"...OK, OK, look at it this way. Like they always say, like Hume, you could count all the white swans in the world, but if you never came across a black swan, you wouldn't know that all swans aren't white. So you've got to look, and keep looking."

~ The Hermit, to Zandra

"Yeah, but you have to be nuts enough to believe in black swans first."

~ Zandra, to The Hermit

With Chad and Bexley laying flat in the bed behind her, Zandra hobbles into the passenger's seat of a pickup truck. For looking like it rolled down a hill, the pickup is a quiet runner. The Crocodile drives while Zandra takes in her surroundings.

Nice neighborhood. This must be in Plover, one town over from Stevens Point.

Don't ever get be fooled by "nice" neighborhoods. They're the domain of the overleveraged, cash-poor members of society, every bit as desperate for a break as those living in the "bad" neighborhoods.

Appearances, as always, are deceiving. Speaking of which.

The ride back to the assisted living facility gives Zandra a chance to get a baseline of The Crocodile. Although tattoos serve as excellent indicators of background and personality, there's too much information to decode on The Crocodile, beyond the obvious sprint to look like a crocodile.

"You like fixing up trucks? That your job?" Zandra says as the pickup approaches the parking lot by Emile's assisted living facility.

"I'm not giving you anything to work with," The Crocodile says.

"So we do know each other," Zandra says.

The Crocodile grunts.

"You gave your friends back there the idea to kidnap me, didn't you?" Zandra says. "It's your thing."

The Crocodile grunts again, and then says, "I'd better get my money. Now get the fuck out."

The Crocodile drops Zandra off in the parking lot. Chad peeks his head over the side of the pickup bed as the truck pulls away, and Zandra blows him a sarcastic kiss. The kiss is interrupted by a stray meteor of phlegm that falls to the pavement.

After the stars clear from her vision, Zandra makes her way to the white SUV, pausing against a door to rub the pain out of her left ankle.

She expects to find Sunglasses, but he's still nowhere to be found. Zandra circles the SUV and looks through the windows on the chance he's sleeping inside the vehicle. Still nothing.

He can't be far. I was only gone for a couple hours.

"Zandra," comes a voice from the other side of the parking lot. It's Sunglasses.

"Where the hell have you been?" Zandra says as he jogs over.

"I was wondering the same thing," Sunglasses says, nearly out of breath.

Zandra fills him in on the kidnapping, The Crocodile, Bexley, Chad, the meat mallet, and the invitation.

"You invited them? But you don't even know these people. I can't see how this helps us get any closer to keeping you safe," Sunglasses says.

Psychic powers aren't real, but convenient coincidences certainly can be. Best to just go with them when they happen. Ride the chaos.

"If you had a better idea for getting me out of that garage, maybe you should've been there to tell us about it," Zandra says. "Where did you run off to? I told you to wait for me while I talked to Emile."