The stunt show was over, the thundering music faded, and the pyrotechnics' fire had gone out. Gradually, the visitors pushed out of the stunt arena in columns, and those who remained lined the boulevard again, connecting the attractions across the huge area.
"Do you have a minute?" Claudia's voice pulled Lennox out of his thoughts." Or are you trying to hypnotize the zebra again?"
Claudia Acosta! If there was anyone Lennox didn't need right now, it was that awful woman.
This is a prime example of the incompetence of the lowest management level. She was just important enough to be allowed to write rosters, not really talented in any area, but in this company long enough to carry keys to all areas and to be allowed to exercise domestic authority in the absence of the real bosses. She was always coming to Lennox and wanting something from him, even though Lennox was not an employee of the studios but a freelance artist to whom she had nothing to say.
"What is it? "He forced a smile.
"Look, we have a tour group on the premises. They want to be involved in the animal show."
"Where do they come from?"
"Yerevan!"
Lennox had to make a great effort to remain calm. 'Do they speak English?'
Claudia shook her head." Only one of them a little, but he would translate for the others. They want to play the quiz. You can do that, can't you?"
How stupid was this woman, actually? And what the hell hadn't she understood about Lennox's job? He wasn't there to serve the personal vanity of some tour group but to entertain the people who had paid to spend a fun and eventful day. How did she imagine that, please? Even at this time of night, five hundred people were still in the audience, looking forward to learning about working with animals in film and television. Presented humorously with a quiz that allowed a few handpicked audience members to play along as candidates. And if there was one thing in his job that Lennox held sacred, it was the selection of these candidates. Every person he brought forward from the audience to the stage represented the entire audience. Lennox treated his candidates the way he treated every person in the room. For his quiz, he preferred to choose a likable older woman, a funny fat man, and a cute child who seemed bright and was between ten and twelve years old. Young enough to still be cute, old enough to play a quiz. What Lennox did was not just any nonsense. And his interest was not in pampering the ignorance of a single tour group but in being there for all his viewers equally.
"So I'm supposed to bore the entire audience to death with the fact that a tour group that doesn't understand what I'm moderating is playing the quiz among themselves as if it were their private party? I'm supposed to exclude five hundred people who paid just as much for admission so that twenty would feel appreciated? And all because they asked?"
And again, that emptiness immersed in stupidity. This expression Lennox had only seen on Claudia's face. This moment was when she realized that she had understood neither Lennox's job nor his professional considerations. This "I'm the boss here, don't argue with me!" from a woman who was about as much of a boss as the guy who scared visitors by running after them with a chainsaw that had no chain on it in the horror house.
"You'll be fine!" With that, she patted him on the shoulder, turned away, and walked purposefully towards the Wild West town. Probably to make sure that everyone was doing exactly what they always did. Lennox took his smartphone out of the inside pocket of his jacket and dialed a number. It wasn't long before his call was answered.
"Lennie, what's up? "The woman sounded worried, as she always did when Lennox called her unannounced.
"I might come home a little later today." He looked over at the zebra. "I have to take care of something after the last show."
"Is everything all right?" She sounded even more concerned than before.
"Everything's fine. I just have to stop by a colleague's and drop something off. Just so you don't wonder where I'll be."
The woman paused briefly, but Lennox could hear her breathing quickening." Lennie, you know I'll always be there for you if you have problems, right?"
He closed his eyes and tried to stop a tear. "Of course I do. I love you!"
"Me too. Me too!"
Lennox ended the phone call and approached the zebra. He put his hand on the plastic muzzle and looked around inconspicuously. When he was sure no one would hear him, he leaned towards the plastic animal's ear and began to sing softly.
"Kisses for me, save all your kisses for me. Bye-bye, baby, bye-bye --"
xxx
"Let me summarize: a billionaire media mogul who is embroiled in a dubious corruption scandal is being blackmailed into paying a hundred thousand dollars ransom for a homeless man she doesn't even know. She sees on a livestream that is transmitted with a high level of technical sophistication and in HD quality. What's behind it?"
Elizabeth was no longer sitting in her armchair or her house outside Boston. She was now back in her vast and costly sofa, surrounded by a small group of handpicked cops and experts who had gathered in the middle of the night in the top-security villa to end the more than unusual blackmail quickly and discreetly. Elizabeth heard her son's voice from the background as if she were listening to it through an in-ear.
"What the kidnappers are doing is, on the surface, absolute madness and involves risks that are disproportionate to the possible reward." Benjamin seemed very clear; his thoughts seemed organized and well-founded." On the other hand, however, the kidnappers take a more negligible risk than one might initially think."
In her imagination, Elizabeth pressed something like an invisible button that paused everything that was going on in front of her mind's eye in this mansion. She rose from the billionaire's sofa, walked past her secret commando colleague, who remained frozen in place, and stepped into the mansion's hallway, on whose walls hung paintings that Elizabeth would probably have paid to see. She added Benjamin to her imagination so that he could stand in front of her in the hallway while all the other participants remained silent and motionless in their positions. "Why isn't the risk high?"
Benjamin put on a mischievous grin. "What would happen if the media reported that one of the wealthiest women in the world lets a homeless man die because she's too stingy to pay a hundred thousand dollars for him? So far, everything is going according to plan for the kidnappers; she has only unofficially involved the police, and the matter is being handled completely secretly and underhandedly. "
"And yet, these people have gone to great lengths to kidnap a person."
Benjamin shrugged. "If the woman doesn't pay, someone else will."
Elizabeth kept her poker face. "Explain that!"
"The kidnappers have come up with a perfidious but somehow brilliant business model: they kidnap homeless people and then blackmail filthy-rich entrepreneurs with relatively small demands, in the hope that they would rather pay than burden their conscience or even suffer a media shitstorm. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But if one doesn't pay, they just blackmail the next one. Either way, they can release the homeless person afterward since no one would believe him. Maybe the kidnappers can extort several millionaires at once with the victim. None of them will blow the whistle on it. Imagine if this method became popular. Suddenly, everyone could blackmail everyone. With everything!"
Elizabeth didn't seem to agree with her son. "It's an interesting idea, but you're wrong about how to go about it. At this point, you need new information. So let's take a look at the victim after all." She left the hallway and went into the entrepreneur's study. On the massive wooden desk with artfully playful inlays, a computer showed the live stream from the homeless man's hiding place.
"All right." Benjamin sounded distant again." Describe what he looks like. And how he comes across."
"He's unkempt, with a scraggly beard and greasy, matted hair that hasn't been cut in a long time. His face is red around the nose and cheeks, crisscrossed with veins, and his fingernails are almost black. "
"Long-term alcohol abuse, heavy smoker, no social contacts." Benjamin stood next to Elizabeth but couldn't see what was happening on the monitor.
"His pants look like he's been wearing them nonstop for months. His jacket, on the other hand, is in good condition. Red, well-cut, with hardly any stains or damage on it."
"Describe the seams to me."
Elizabeth took a closer look at the jacket." They're neatly sewn, the outer material is waterproof and tear-resistant, and the coat moves with the man."
Benjamin closed his eyes and was silent for a moment. Then he said, "The man looks like a homeless, chain-smoking alcoholic, but he is wearing a well-made and probably expensive jacket that is in a state that doesn't match the rest of his appearance."
"What do you conclude from that?"
"It's possible that he was once successful and that his alcoholism is what led to his homelessness. He could have inherited the jacket when he was financially secure. But then it would be just as worn as the pants."
"So what's more likely?"
Benjamin's eyes moved back and forth under his closed lids. "He's one of them! The blackmailers didn't have to take the risk of kidnapping. What they do is a pure mind game to rip off millionaires. The victim is a member of the blackmailing gang. And because of the heavy snowstorm that day, he put on his expensive jacket."
Elizabeth applauded. "Very good! That was exactly my conclusion at the time." She looked at her son, but there was no sign of satisfaction on his face. Of course, the image of Benjamin that Elizabeth saw in the mansion of this media mogul was only in her mind and based on her imagination. Still, she could feel that Benjamin wasn't smiling in reality either.
As if in confirmation, Benjamin asked soberly, "What have I overlooked?"
Elizabeth smiled mischievously. "So far, nothing. Your theory of a gang that only simulates kidnapping is only invalidated after the woman refuses to pay the kidnappers."
Benjamin seemed to sense the vibe his mother had carefully and with good timing put into the air. "How?"
Elizabeth turned away from her son and looked at the billionaire, who stared in disbelief at her computer's monitor with wide-open eyes. As if it were all happening again at this very moment, she screwed up her face in horror, cried out, and jumped up from her chair.
Elizabeth turned to Benjamin and answered: "They cut off the man's left index finger on camera. Which makes all your previous theories obsolete!" Elizabeth opened her eyes and saw her son sitting on the couch in front of her in the real world again. "Next time, the billionaire's son will arrive and mess everything up. But that's enough for today."
She rose from her chair and went to the window, looking out the mansions around her house.
"Now, let's talk about the present. Do you not want to help Nikki with her case?" Benjamin had also risen and approached his mother from behind.
Elizabeth closed her eyes for a second." It's not a matter of wanting to, Ben. It's a question of responsibility."
"You see it as your responsibility to abandon seven kidnapped children?"
Elizabeth clenched her teeth several times and didn't move an inch." Your sister will save these boys; I know it. She's more than capable. The only thing holding her back is the thought that everything would be faster and easier if I got involved in the case. She needs absolute certainty that I'm not available. Only then can she work freely and show what she's made of. Her career really took off after I left the BPD."
Benjamin got up from the couch, stepped to the side of the former captain, and looked at the surroundings with her." If the man who pulled off this impossible kidnapping doesn't get what he wants, he'll increase the pressure. And after what he's done to the parents of the boys, I don't want to find out what that increase is. Can I ask you a question, Ma?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath. 'I have a good idea what it is.'
"Then you can answer me: Have you solved the mystery yet? Do you know who the culprit is and how he did it?"
Elizabeth noticed a small bird lingering on the back of her garden chair. She smiled at the sight of the animal before answering. "Not yet. But I can clearly see that we are dealing with a tragedy here, at the end of which there will be many losers. Let's hope that Nikki is not one of them."
