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there's nothing you can tell us that might help us out? Something about the Mystery Line case, maybe?
    RICKY
    I'm sorry, Agent Wells. It was a long time ago.
    HELEN
    Had you spoken with Johnson recently?
    RICKY
    My relationship with the Bureau ended six years ago. That included Larry Johnson.
    BRADY
    I heard that it ended on a sour note.
    RICKY
    Larry and I had trouble seeing things the same way.
    HELEN
    So how did you end up here? "The middle of nowhere"--your words.
    RICKY
    I like it out here, in the heartland. Once you live here you never want to live anywhere else. It's real.
    BRADY
    Compared to what?
    Brady and Helen aren't buying it, and Ricky knows it. In an attempt to change the subject, he silently stands, opens a drawer, and pulls out a pack of playing cards.
    RICKY
    Do you like card tricks? I don't care for them myself, but some people do seem to enjoy such things. Magic. Illusion. Smarmy little creeps in tuxedoes. All that nonsense.
    Ricky shuffles the cards. He fans the deck face-down.
    RICKY
    Take a card.
    BRADY
    I don't really appreciate you--
    RICKY
    Please take a card, Agent Wells.
    Reluctantly, Brady draws a card--the Eight of Spades.
    RICKY
    Now place it back in the deck. Anywhere you like.
    Brady slips the card back into the deck. Ricky mixes the pack again, using a rather theatrical one-handed shuffle.
    HELEN
    I thought you didn't care for card tricks.
    RICKY
    You pick these things up along the way.
    He fans the cards face-up and lays them on the table.
    BRADY
    (sarcastically)
    Well, I'll be. No Eight of Spades. My nephew does that trick every year at Christmas. Except he always says "Ala peanut-butter sandwiches" at the end. You stick it up your sleeve or ditch it under the table?
    RICKY
    It's in your partner's left hand.
    Helen's hands have been in her coat pockets the whole time. She removes her left hand. In her left palm she is cupping the Sight of Spades.
    HELEN
    (to RICKY)
    You put the card in my pocket.
    RICKY
    I assure you, I did not.
    HELEN
    Then it must have been there before.
    BRADY
    Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
    RICKY
    This illustrates a very basic precept of human psychology--that, when faced with an illogical situation, the mind searches for the most logical explanation.
    And in magic, as in everything else, the most logical explanation is almost always the right one. Because there is no such thing as magic.
    Ricky pulls a folded piece of paper out of his pocket.
    RICKY
    This came through my mail slot a few hours ago.
    He unfolds it and hands it to Helen. She reads the words, written in that now-familiar script, out loud.
    HELEN
    "She is holding the Eight of Spades in her left hand."
    (she hands it back)
    That's impossible.
    RICKY
    I would tend to agree.
    BRADY
    Any idea who sent it?
    RICKY
    That's a question I'm afraid I can't answer.
    HELEN
    Can't? Or won't?
    RICKY
    Bit of both, I suppose.
    Brady produces the magic shop receipt.
    BRADY
    You could say this came through our mail slot, too. It was found on the ... man who killed Larry Johnson.
    RICKY
    (reading the receipt)
    "If you really want to know." Where have I heard that before?
    He hands the receipt back to Brady.
    RICKY
    Let me ask you both something, agents. How far do you want to take this?
    HELEN
    What do you mean?
    RICKY
    I mean I think you should forget the whole thing, Get in your car, drive to Cincinnati, get on a plane back to Washington. If you leave soon, you'll probably be home in time for "Law and Order." You can tell the Director that the lead didn't pan out, that Ricky Smith is a crackpot living like a hermit in buttfuck Ohio. There are plenty of people at the Bureau that'll be happy to hear that one. But if I help you with this, if I tell you whatever it is you think I know, then you're stuck--you have to see it through to the end. I'm giving you a chance to walk away. That's better than I ever got.
    BRADY
    (a little frustrated)
    Ricky, we're not on a social call here. An FBI agent is dead, killed right in the