Lowell, Melinda, and Johnny met in the office for a light lunch and to compare notes.
Sarah knocked and entered.
“Sarah, come in, come in.” Lowell picked up her astrology chart and said: “How is your lower back feeling?”
“It’s much better now. Hey, I never mentioned my back. Don’t do that, it freaks me out.”
Lowell laughed. “Sorry, I’m just working on an experiment and I was using your chart. You want to be part of it?”
“Does it involve getting shot at?”
“No.”
“Then count me in.”
“Good.”
He took two hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and handed them to her.
“Between exactly 2:14 and 2:22 I want you to buy some tickets like you did the other day. Venus is conjunct your part of fortune today and the Moon will be applying to a conjunction of that point exactly at that time. I want to see how that plays out. Now, what time do you have?’
Sarah looked at her phone. “1:52.”
“Perfect. Now remember, only buy them from 2:14 until 2:22, and then stop.”
Sarah left on her mission and David went back to his computer.
“What’s he doing?” asked Johnny.
“He’s trying to beat the system,” said Melinda.
“He can do that? I mean is that possible?”
“I don’t know.” She started to laugh. “But if anyone can, it’s him.”
“With astrology?”
Melinda laughed loudly.
Lowell looked up. “What’s so funny?”
“You are,” said his daughter. “It must be very exciting in that head of yours for you to follow all these threads.”
“I have to know everything about a subject before I can make an educated decision.”
“Yes, I know.”
Johnny was playing with the turtles. Melinda walked over to the tank and stuck her finger out for Buster and Keaton to sniff.
“They’re big,” said Johnny.
“Each time I come here they seem a little larger.”
“Yes,” said Lowell. “It’s about time to go shopping for a new turtle condo.”
“Ooh, can I come along?” said Johnny. “I love pet stores.”
“What? We’ll see,” said Lowell, brusquely.
“Maybe we could, um, go to the zoo in Central Park too? I love animals.”
“Johnny,” Lowell reprimanded her, “you’re on trial for your life. I would think you would have more important things on your mind that going to the zoo.”
She shrugged. “Whatever.” Then she smiled at Lowell.
Melinda looked sideways at Johnny, then at her father. Could it be? Did Johnny have a thing for him? She smiled at the notion. Just have to watch and wait.
Sarah returned a few minutes later with a handful of colorful scratch-off tickets. She placed them in the middle of the desk and everyone came over.
“You did exactly as I told you?”
“I can tell time, boss.”
“Okay, let’s all get to it.”
It was Melinda who first shrieked and held up a $500 winner. They all looked at it with astonishment. There was another $500 winner, a $100 winner, two fifties, four twenties and an assortment of ones and fives that added up to $1,311.
“Can you do that every time?” asked Johnny, her eyes wide open in excitement and just a bit of drool escaping from the side of her mouth.
“I don’t have enough data,” replied the astrologer. “I suppose with enough research we could map out the best times to gamble. Of course with the odds in this dreadful game being so horrendous this experiment would probably work better in a casino or racetrack. But remember, it will only work at all if you play only when it is time and quit the second that time passes.”
“Can we do it again?” asked Sarah.
“Well, I’ll look over everyone’s charts and see when the next window of opportunity is coming. Now if you all don’t mind, we have a defense to prepare.”
“My God,” said Melinda, as if snapping out of a trance. “Look at the time. I’ve got to get down to my office.”
“What about me?” asked Johnny.
Lowell and Melinda exchanged a glance.
“I want you to go back to the townhouse and stay there,” said Lowell, in a stern voice.
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t go out alone now for anything.”
Lowell buzzed Andy in the car. “I’m sending Johnny down to you. Get her to the townhouse and then come right back here.”
“But boss, I thought you wanted me to stay with her?”
“She’ll be all right for a few hours with Julia. And I need you.”
After Melinda and Johnny left he picked up the intercom and pushed number two.
Mort entered a few minutes later. “What’s up?”
“Have you found anything yet?”
“Nothing you couldn’t have found through Google yourself.”
“I think it’s time to return to her apartment. I want you to get into her computer and let’s see what’s there.”
“Did you happen to notice what kind of computer she had?”
He pulled his small notebook from his jacket pocket. “It was a Dell. The model was XPS 8100.”
“Good.”