Well, that was messy... and troubling

Rick had never thought of himself as paranoid. Still, when he looked at Barbara's flaming convertible, the bits of Barbara spattered everywhere within twenty yards of that wreck, and himself, scraped and bruised once more as if he'd gone through another bio-DNA dose, he couldn't help thinking that he should have been in that car with her.

The cops would be here shortly and he was torn. It would be suspicious if he snuck away but he didn't want to get arrested as a suspect in a car-bombing case either. So he compromised by calling Eliza.

"Yes, Rick?"

"First of all, do not do any research on bio-DNA."

"You've decided to take my advice and let it go?"

"Yeah, I was at least leaning that way until now."

She sighed. "It sounds like something happened. What is going on."

He quickly related Barbara's interest in going after bio-DNA for sexual harassment cases and her demise a few seconds before. "So, should I stay and help the police or should I head back to the gym? I don't think anyone at the restaurant got my name so I should be in the clear."

"If you run, they'll find you eventually and they won't bother looking for another bomber because they'll decide you're it and contort the evidence so it points at you. You've got to stay and clear yourself."

"I'm not sure I would believe me and I'm sure they won't. You forget, I was incarcerated a few days ago and my boss is in prison right now."

"Yeah, about that. I got her sprung a few minutes ago. You owe me big, Rick."

"Just tell me what you want and it's yours."

"First you're going to owe me more because you're right. They will look at you and you need a lawyer. I'll be there in ten minutes."

"This is cutting into your work, isn't it?"

"Yeah. You said you owed me."

He wasn't sure how many billing hours each orgasm worked out to be but he had a feeling he'd have that explained to him, in detail, soon.

The cops seemed to crawl out of the woodwork, every officer from every city in Dallas or Collin County finding an imperative need to be part of the investigation.

Rick identified himself as Barbara's lunch date and her personal trainer (he didn't want to confuse matters by calling himself a masseur when, clearly, he wasn't licensed). Then Eliza arrived and politely told him to shut up and not answer any more questions without her listening to the answer first.