"You'd think this guy was your boyfriend or something." "Pippa, this  guy was my first friend." "We lived together for five years, like brothers." " You've never heard of him?" " No, I've not." "I haven't been keeping up with my Russian celebrities." "He's not a celebrity, Pippa, he is a national hero." "Mm..." "Ah, we have lift-off!" "Little brother!" "Oh, Big Brother..." "You look awful." "Yes, and you're still as ugly as a wild boar." "Hey, pleased to meet you." "This is Pippa." " Another of Arkady's beauties." " Oh, no." "No, God, no..." "No, this is Rosemary's sister." "Oh, yes." "Yes, of course." "Did he tell you I used to protect him from the bullies at the academy?" "No, he did not..." "Only because I let him cheat off me." "What about this?" "What is this, huh?" "Are you a cosmonaut or a formula one driver?" "Who can tell the difference anymore?" "Arkady, I've gone to the dark side." "Private aerospace." "Yes, Chase galactic, I heard." "A.C. Chase, the zillionaire?" "Absolutely." "He will do anything to launch the first commercial space carrier, with me as his Captain." " Oh, my God." " I'm going to fly tourists!" "Pippa, Pippa, come with me." "There are people I want you to meet." " Oh, grab my purse." " What?" "My-my purse." "Come, come." "So, welcome to our dog and pony show." "There's a big space symposium in town this week, so we stay at Huxley to see Arkady." "Count on Oleg to always bring the party." "Tyler..." "Arkady Balagan, Tyler Kirkpatrick, formerly of NASA now my copilot." "And, uh..." "Ginny." "Arkady, I've heard the stories." "Oh, I told him only the true ones." "I hope so." "Hi." "Pippa." "Hello, Pippa." "I'm sorry, I just, I used to eat "Kirkpatrick krunch"..." ""The breakfast cereal that's out of this world!"" "I know, me too." "I fired that manager." "But it was- it was really great." "St. Petersburg in the spring, I'm serious." "I've always wanted to go to Russia." "Russia?" "No." "St. Petersburg, Florida." "I have a house there." "Florida?" "Florida..." "Another ginger ale and another appletini?" "Pippa, A.C. Chase and his wife..." "Delia Chase." "Yes, she's even more beautiful in person." "Oh, you think so?" "Thank you, thank you, everyone." "Thanks for coming." "Friends, bankers, with our financing secured, tonight, we submit our final FAA filing." "Tomorrow at the space symposium, we announce our launch date." "We will win the new space race, my friends..." "Hey, Randal." "And the Chase Eagle will lift off on history's first commercial space flight." "Hello." "Randal Muller, head of engineering." "Arkady Balagan, head of... me." "A friend of Oleg, I take it?" "Yes, an old friend, yes." "Is that a telescope?" "Yes." "I hope that is not how you track your spacecraft." "No, it's how I intend to view the Lyrid meteor shower." "Oh." "Tyler, I'm going to the roof." "May I have word?" "Now, Randal?" "The Lyrids should be bright enough that you can reach straight up and touch the comet Thatcher." "All right." "In the lobby." "Excuse me." "Muller." "He's a brilliant man, but he has no love, and we must have love, Pippa." "Oleg..." "You know, I met Rosemary in Paris." "She was an astonishing woman." "Yeah." "Thank you." "Ah..." "Na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie!" "Double bourbon." "We're drinking!" "Whoa, whoa!" "Come, come!" "No, don't drink..." "Drink, drink, quickly." "Na zdorovie!" "Na zdrovie!" "Ha!" "Hey!" "Ha ha!" "Oh!" "A.C., A.C.!" "And-and Delia, uh, may I introduce..." "Arkady Balagan." "Ah!" "At 13, the youngest grandmaster." "At the time, but Hakesh Vindu beat me by six long months." "Aw..." "Oleg sings your praises." "Oh, well, I apologize, Mrs. Chase, because I've heard Oleg sing." "I love you..." "On that note, it's a big day tomorrow." "What?" "No, stay for a drink!" "Stay for a drink..." "Nice to meet you." "Big boss man, come on..." "Shh!" "What?" "A.C. Chase's up every morning at 4:30, so I have to tuck in the bankers." "Good night." "Okay, good night." "It was lovely to meet you." "Good night, Oleg." "What are you doing?" "She liked me." "I have work to do..." "Ah, Pippa!" "And,  na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie." "That's what I said." "And now, enough." "What?" "No, no." "I have early morning, but..." "Oleg, no, you have to stay..." "Danni, a nightcap for my friends." "Champagne!" "Oleg, come back here..." "You're right," "Oleg is like getting hit by a hurricane." "A hurricane that leaves you with the bill." "Young love..." "Hmm, yeah, I like that guy." "Ooh, it is 12:36." "I'm exhausted." "I'm just going to crash right here..." "No, you can take the bed, that's fine..." "What?" "Nice to see you again, Mr. Balagan." "You too, Randal." "Put your boots back on." "Why?" "What happened?" "I think Oleg's stargazing engineer just found a black hole." "A fascinating puzzle." "Thank you, Oleg." "What, you think Oleg has something to do with this?" "Trust me, the man is all passion and appetite, and the world around him gets indigestion." "Hugo?" "I don't have time for your games, Balagan." "A man is dead." "Randal Muller." "Yes..." "More blood on your watch." "Hey, a suicidal space guy jumps 17 stories and lands on a Vespa, that's Houston's problem, not mine." "Suicides don't tend to jump with possessions, Hugo, like telescopes." "Well then, it was an accident." "Right..." "The unfortunate stargazing misadventure hypothesis." "You got a better one?" " Yes..." " Why do I even ask?" "Tell your detective friend that the telescope hit the ground a full four seconds after Mr. Muller." "How the hell do you know that?" "Hey..." "He just looks so innocent, doesn't he?" "When we were children, he was always guilty, and I got blamed." "It's going to be an interesting night." "Samuel, wake up." "No, it's not as interesting as chess." "It's rocket ships and murder." "So, what did you tell the detective?" "I told him the truth." "I took a sauna before bed, then Tyler called, I came straight down to lobby." "You had your phone in the sauna?" "Yes." "What?" "It was in my robe, hanging outside." "Mr. Balagan..." "Yes." "Oh, my God, Oleg Olesky?" "Sam, Sam Besht." "Embarrassing," "I did a project on you in seventh grade." "Ah!" "This man did a space-walk where he had to repair his own suit with duct tape." "Oh, Sam, we use duct tape for everything." "So, I have to ask you, what's it like to be weightless?" "Sam..." "Imagine you're flying at 28,000 kilometers per hour, and you feel like you're motionless, and below your feet, a blue globe spins..." "Yet earthbound we remain." "May I clarify a few things?" "Clarity, always clarity." "Arkady detests mystery." "I worry for you, little brother." "Our swollen head of security was the first to the body." "Then he found your copilot, Tyler, here in the bar, took him outside to identify Randal." "All those years putting people in space, and he falls off the roof." "Tyler phoned the Chases first, and then he called you." "Yes." "In the sauna." "Yes, in the sauna." "You should have talked to me before the police, Oleg." "Why?" "The sauna closes at 10:00." "Mr. Olesky?" "We'd like you to come down to the station, and if you don't mind, remove your shoes." "My shoes?" "Shoes..." "Now we are both barefoot." "Arkady, I-I might need some help." "Should we be on this, or..." "I've been on this since 12:36." "Follow them, Sam." "Learn as you go." ""Space Eagle"?" "Aguila espacial." "At least it's pretty in Spanish." "Mm-hmm." "16 celebrity passengers, each paying $250,000 to orbit the Earth for four hours." "That is a lot of money to throw away on an amusement park ride." "From space exploration to space exploitation." "Maiden test flight, six months ago, and Delia Chase is their only passenger." "Then she is crazy, too." "Mr. Chase demonstrates the safety of Space Eagle to his future clients by sending his own wife into orbit." "Like that Russian space dog." "That's right." "Laika." "First animal in space." "First fatality, too." "Which is why I don't like flying, Mr. Balagan." "Feet belong here on the ground." "Inside a nice safe hotel." "Mr. Balagan, are you ready for this?" "Sammy, save some of that energy for when you are old." "My break is over." "Nice visit." "Thank you, Alcina." "What?" "Oleg's been charged with murder." "Roof gravel in the soles of his shoes, yes?" "Yeah, how did you know?" "What else?" "Go on." "Chase hired him this big fancy lawyer." "Mr. Chase was there?" "No, he's down at the space symposium." "Yes, his head engineer plunges off a hotel roof," "I expect they'll delay the launch." "Yes, go." "Uh, well, apparently, not even a dead engineer can stop the Space Eagle." "They announced a launch date?" "Yeah, one month from today." "Huh, and what was the spin on Randal's demise?" "Mm, the spin of omission." "Yeah, this was all about branding." ""Chase, first in space."" "So, A.C. got his final FAA approval, yes?" "Yeah, full steam ahead." "Rumour is, prince William and princess perfect will be first aboard." "What's up with Oleg?" "Oh, I don't know." "Until I can grab my hands around his throat, and look into his beady eyes, and strangle the truth out of him," "I remain neutral." "Oh, yeah, I got some friends like that." "Look, they omitted any mention of Oleg too, ark." "Remember, Chase isn't just aerospace." "They've got the media holdings to control the message." "So, is there a new captain?" "Yeah, they promoted Tyler." "The new copilot is some Russian guy," "Vladimir fedorov." "Another one of your friends?" "You are my only friend, Pippa." "Mm-hmm, yeah, that's what you think." "Well, Russians are interchangeable." "They need an American face for American investors." "Keep me posted." "Can you hold the elevator?" "Mr. Kirkpatrick!" "A word, please." "What did our late friend, Randal, want to talk to you about before the meteor shower?" "Oh, it was nothing important, a technical issue." "What issue could not wait until the morning?" "Well, that's proprietary." "My contract's iron-clad." "Of course, of course, and yet the silence surrounding Randal at the press conference was so deafening." "We have media people." "I mean, in light of what happened, we had to..." "Stay on message, yes, I understand." "Civilians in space, it's all so new, and yet you left a stable job at NASA." "True, yes." "I gave up a sure mission on the discovery to come to Chase." "I looked at where the industry was headed, and I gambled, and where's the discovery now?" "A lot of NASA pilots held on for too long, and now they're grounded, and they're calling me." "The right move at the right time, and now you're a Captain with stock options." "I fly the missions I'm given, Mr. Balagan, and I don't concern myself with politics, and I was in the bar when Randal died." "Ask the bartender, she'll remember me." "Of course." "I'm sure she will." "The face that launched a thousand cereal boxes." "Yes, I remember Tyler." "He's uh, "Ice" from Top Gun." "Ice- man." "In Russia, 1986," "I had the bootleg Top Gun vhs." "Okay, well, Iceman wasn't pushing anybody off a roof." "I was handing him a ginger ale when Hugo walked into the bar to get him to I.D. The body." " Get out." " Yes, going." "Randal..." "Good day, Mr. Balagan!" "Joying the puzzle?" "I'd prefer if it wasn't so close to home." "Yes, things are certainly looking bad for Oleg." "Is that because he pushed you off the roof?" "Ah, because old friends can be hard to trust." "Something's been bothering me." "Yes?" "What happened to your glasses?" "Ah, very observant, Mr. Balagan!" "Whoa!" "Arkady..." "I am flight risk." "They seized my passport, they give me electronic bracelet, but no sympathy from you?" "Sympathy?" "What was going on with you and Randal?" "Why did you go up to the roof?" "Take out a gun, and kill me now." "Shoot me right here in my heart..." "After you explain the roof gravel in your shoes." "Okay, yes, I was on the roof." "I went up there to..." "talk sense to him, but Randal was alive when I left him." "Talk sense about what?" "Arkady, I have an alibi." "Is it better than being in a locked sauna?" "When Randal went off the roof..." "I was with Delia Chase." "Not again, Oleg!" "No, no!" "It's not like that." "It-it's different this time..." "You big banged A.C. Chase's wife?" "She is remarkable woman." "I-I feel real feelings for her." "I'm sure you do." "Yes, I'm sure you do..." "She came to me for help." "Randal was blackmailing her." "He was going to tell A.C. About our affair." "I went there to convince him otherwise." " And?" " And..." "It was a confusing conversation." "He refused to admit any of it, and so we scuffled..." "Let me guess, you broke his glasses." "Yes." "At-at some point..." "I snatched them off his face, I crushed them." "But what kind of a man blackmails a woman?" "Do you know what this means?" "No, what?" "I broke his glasses." "You think..." "He-he couldn't see, he stumbled over the edge of the roof?" "No, I don't think he stumbled and fell!" "Well..." "He was pushed, Oleg." "He was pushed off the roof, his telescope was thrown after him, and now your fingerprints are all over his glasses!" "Please, I'm scared enough already." "A.C. is a vindictive man." "Oh, is that why you slept with his wife?" "Are you going to use that brain of yours to help me or not?" "I'll use it to figure out who killed Randal." "On my mother's grave, I swear, when Randal went off the roof, I was with Delia Chase." "Senora." "Some fresh towels for your room." "Oh, no, thanks, we're fine." "No, you need these." "They are extra fluffy." "Oh." "Thank you very much." "Thank you for coming, Mrs. Chase." "I can assure you of my discretion." "Please." "Well, I'm not sure that's necessary." "What do you want?" "I need to confirm Oleg's whereabouts when Randal died." "He says he was with you." "That's ridiculous." "I was asleep in bed with my husband." "I see, but you are having an affair with Oleg, yes?" "Absolutely not." "Where did you hear that?" "I'm sorry." "I don't mean to cast judgment, but you are obviously lying." "I know Oleg, and I know his effect on women, and I also know he would not say he slept with someone that he hadn't." "It was just once, ages ago." "Hmm..." " But not last night?" " No." "I don't know whether Randal jumped, or he fell, or was pushed, but I'm not going to be Oleg's alibi." "He's facing murder charges, Mrs. Chase." "Anything you could tell me..." "I can't." "I was asleep in bed with my husband, and you and I never spoke." "I..." "like blondes!" "I-I'm in love with her!" "Oh, you expect me to believe that?" "It's the truth, and she is in love with me!" "Keep talking." "Maybe the truth will accidentally fall out!" "I am not lying!" "Delia will not admit she was with me because she is afraid of her husband." "The man's a sociopath." "Why are you in my bath?" "Mine is too small." "Arkady, imagine me in prison, where they do not have baths." "Please..." "Don't clip my wings." "You expect me to prove you're not a killer, and yet keep it secret that you're screwing the boss's wife?" "Yes, for her sake, yes." "Listen, this will make it up to you." "I made a call to Moscow, to a friend in intelligence, very high up, about Rosemary, to see if there was a file open on you." "Pippa!" "Anything you have to say about Rosemary should include Pippa." "Pippa, Pippa, please, come-come here..." "Eyes on me." "Eyes on me, Pippa." "Eyes on me." "Yeah, but he's the one speaking." "I don't care." "My secret, my secret," "I only take the stairs." "Shut up." "No, please..." "Pippa," "I'm worried about Arkady." "The agoraphobia, the paranoia." "He needs to seek help." "Ah, please!" "I am!" "I'm worried about you!" "Was Rosemary killed because of you?" "I want to know, too, so I ask, and what do I find out?" "Nyet." "Nothing." "There is no watch-list, no grudges." "No one in Moscow even remembers Arkady Balagan." "See, I told you." "Putin, Russians killing Rosemary?" "It never made any sense." "We need to follow up on the theory that someone from the hotel was involved." "That theory doesn't make any sense either, Pippa!" "And I gave millions to the pro-democracy movement!" "Democracy is a corpse in Russia." "You can give all the money you want, Putin has already won." "It's not that simple." "The only connection to Russia is your ego, yearning to still be important while you lock yourself up in a hotel!" "Mr. Chase?" "Arkady Balagan." "We met the other night." "I remember." "I also remember you beating Domaschuck in Warsaw in '89." "Only took 14 moves." "Yes, what people didn't know at the time was that his mother had just died." "This!" "I knew, and that's why I bet on you." "Listen, our best lawyer is on Oleg's case." "That's very generous." "I hand-picked him for the Space Eagle." "I don't believe for a second that he pushed Randal." "So why did he lose the Captain's chair?" "Optics, Mr. Balagan." "The stakes are far too high for scandal." "Oh, Mr. Chase," "I have a package for you could you remind me..." "You and your wife were in bed when Randal died?" "That's right." "Together?" "Are you implying something?" "It's just, I..." "was in the lobby, too, and I saw your wife come in first in a robe, and you arrived later, fully dressed." "I took the time to dress, Mr. Balagan." "I wouldn't enter a hotel lobby in a robe any more than I'd go to work in one." "You don't seem to share my qualms." "In chess, a king wears a robe." "For Oleg's sake," "I'll ignore this conversation, but be careful punching above your weight, Mr. Balagan." "It's always like this." "Oleg authors a byzantine conundrum, and it's up to "little brother" to solve it." "Friendship can be complicated." "Please, Pippa, no peons to "friendship."" "I mean, he's clouding your objective thinking." "All right." "So, where should I focus my attention?" "Any suggestions?" "Yeah, the victim." "Randal." "Mm-hmm." "Randal..." "Randal!" "She's right." "You've been ignoring me." "I've been otherwise occupied." "People ignore me at their peril." "Yes, you turn to blackmail." "I wonder what else you had up your sleeve." "That's more like it." "Gotta go!" "Whoa!" "Don't forget your telescope." "Hey, where are you going?" "Mr. Randal was in room 706." "I only went in after the police were done." "You know what they took?" "Hugo might." "Everything was gone when I cleaned." "Sheets, garbage, everything was taken." "What about the previous day's garbage?" "Ah, Sam!" "Bordeaux mustard?" "Yes, with extra capers." "I think that is still in the dumpster." "Excellent." "Well, Sam, I will give you two free chess games if you retrieve it." "From a dumpster?" "Yes." "Five." "No, three games." "Four." "Agreed." "I would go, but it's outside." "The garbage is in clear bags." "I put the smaller bags from four rooms in a larger bag." "The bag you are looking for will have diapers." "Diapers?" "Si." "The woman next door has twins." "Well, what kind of crap did the police take from Randal's room?" "The usual crap..." "Clothes, toiletries, crap!" "Incident report?" "For head office?" "Back off, Balagan." "Were either of you there when they checked Randal's body for personal effects?" "Yeah, I saw them turn out his pockets, nothing." "No key cards?" "No..." "No." "What does it matter?" "Well then, pull up the in-out log for Randal's room." "Hugo, please." "If I come up with anything, I will give you all the credit." "You know what I think?" "What?" "I think your rusky friend goes up in space, gets all full of himself, starts thinking he's the man on the moon, starts thinking he can get away with murder." "Hmm, well, I will give that theory all the consideration it deserves." "Okay, here we go." "Room 713, night in question." "In, out, in, out, in, out..." "What?" "In...?" "12:34 A.M." "Then back out three minutes later." "So at the same time Randal falls off the roof, he's as also in his room?" "Yeah." "Thank you, Hugo." "Yeah, but wait, how can he do that..." "That's not possible." "Well, it sounds like two people working together." "One gives Randal a shove, the other uses his key card to go into his room." "Yes, but why?" "Before we know why, we need to know who, so let us assume for a moment that Oleg is not lying, and he was in his room with Delia Chase at the time of the murder." "Thank you, Arkady, for your unqualified support." "So a.C. Left the bar around 10:45, and went off to bed alone..." "Tyler, what time is it?" "Randal's dead?" "Your wife's not in the room." "So she's still down in the bar." "No, she's not." "We saw her leave." "Then she came to bed, but rushed out before I was fully awake." "No, she was with Oleg." "Why would you cover for her affair and say she was in bed with you when she wasn't?" "I know all about the affair, okay?" "We're swingers." "Definitely not." "A.C. Thought his wife had come to bed because he wasn't in the room either." "So he's either on the roof, or in Randal's room, but who's he working with?" "Tyler." "He wants me out of the way so he can be pilot." "Does anybody listen to me?" "Tyler was in here." "I was handing him a drink." "Okay, from now on," "I have a new minimum standard." "No dumpster diving." "Uh, can you move that over there?" "Well?" "What?" "Gross, grosser..." "Open it up." "Sam..." "Oh, Oleg, behind you." "That's for screwing my wife!" "No!" "Not in my bar!" "Get out!" "Find a public defender, you can rot in jail!" "Out!" "Thank you." "Ice!" "Aw, so much for my chase expenseccount." "But I want to know who told him" "I was sleeping with his wife." "Maybe she told him." "No, she's terrified of him." "Delia..." "Ow!" "You gave me your word we spoke in confidence." "I assure you, I told your husband nothing." "A.C. threw all of my luggage in the pool." " Darling, we have to..." " Shut up, Oleg!" "Men, you're all such babies." "Randal must have shown him the tape anyway." "Tape?" "What tape?" "It's a... private tape." "No..." "Randal recorded it, Oleg!" "A sex tape?" "Oleg..." "W-what?" "How?" "Randal recorded it." "You had sex in space?" "On the maiden voyage of the Space Eagle." "Not so maiden." "Sorry..." "Randal was using it against me." "He forcing me to convince my husband not to fire him." "Fire him?" "Randal was pestering him over some safety issue." "So, what was the issue?" "Something technical." "A.C. Wanted to get rid of Randal instead of fix it." "Why not just fix it?" "It's unfixable, that's why." "A.C. Insisted that Randal had to go." "I begged Randal, but he said he was going to release the tape and reveal the safety flaw." "Which would delay the launch." "And Chase galactic would risk being cut out of the history books." "Oleg, I'm sorry." "I am so sorry I wouldn't be your alibi, but I can now." "Now it's too late." "No, no..." "Yes." "Yes..." "It's not too late." "Yes." "It's never too late." "Yes." "What?" "Mr. Balagan, it's Barbara, the manager." "Yes, we've met." "What?" "Is Mrs. Chase there?" "Yes?" "Hi, Mrs. Chase." "We're drying out your luggage and we've prepared another room." "Thank you, I'll be right down." "I don't know where my husband was when Randal died, but I assure you, if his launch date was threatened, he's capable of anything." "Come, come." "Everything will be fine." "You go to your room..." "You see?" "I am lover, I am not killer." "What do I do with you, hmm?" "I cannot tell truth from fiction." "I withheld some information." "Withheld information?" "You had sex in space!" "A woman's honor." "Yes, well, there's a problem with her honor, isn't there?" "Arkady, please..." "Randal did not have a chance to show this to a.C." "A.C.  just punched you in the face, which means that he just found out." "So who told him?" "I don't know." "You're covering for Delia." "Is she your alibi, or are you hers?" "Did she push her blackmailer off the roof, or did you?" "Why are you doing this to me, little brother?" "I cannot help you anymore." "Help?" "You don't want to help me." "Always you think the worst of me." "That's because you're always guilty!" "Guilty?" "Of what?" "Oh, of life?" "Of eating, and drinking, and screwing, and seeing things you will never see?" "Because you have walled yourself off..." "Oh, here it comes..." "No, you have walled yourself off so completely, you've become a cynic!" "Oh, a cynic?" "I was born a cynic, Oleg." "My parents are card-carrying members of the cynic party..." "I know what it is like to be locked in one place for months at a time..." "Oh, really?" "I was in space station for eight months!" "It does not make things simpler, it just makes you more crazy!" "You and I are nothing alike, Oleg, nothing alike." "Look, look, the ocean is right outside!" "You need to weep, weep on the beach!" "Howl at the stars!" "Oh, primal therapy?" "Oleg, please..." "Yes, you are trapped in that brain of yours..." "Don't touch me with that hand..." "You have abandoned love, you have abandoned friendship..." "Oh, yes, I have..." "You abandoned me!" " You abandoned Russia!" " I have not abandoned you!" "I have not abandoned Russia!" "You have even abandoned your own mother!" "I never abandoned my mother!" "Yes, yes, go on, break my other nose!" "As long as it shakes you out of your prison!" "Danni." "You want to talk about it?" "I'm not sure I do." "When you get to the bottom, Danni, there simply are no words." "Just a couple of stiffs holding up the bar, huh?" "Speak for yourself." "You know, ever since I was a boy," "I wanted to send people into space." "Then why add "pornographer" and "blackmailer"" "to your resume?" "Perhaps lives were at stake." "Because of the safety issue, something a.C. Refused to rectify, and you were determined to expose." "To our failures." "Hugo..." "When the police took Randal's effects, did they take a laptop?" "Uh, no, no laptop." "What's an engineer doing without a laptop?" "I give up." "You're the genius." "When the Chase team checked in, who handed out the room keys?" "Uh, the boss man's assistant." "Balagan." "Hello." "Hey, Danni, do you still have my garbage?" "Please?" "Hi, welcome to the Huxley." "What can I get for you tonight?" "Thank you." "Ah!" "Randal burned something to disk." "He did have a laptop." "Excellent." "What are we talking about?" "What if, when Randal was falling off the roof," "A.C. Went into his room and stole his laptop?" "Why would he do that?" "I suspect it has something to do with this mysterious safety issue." "Okay." "What if he found the sex tape by accident..." "What sex tape?" "What if he stole the laptop to alter the final FAA report?" "What sex tape?" "A.C. Was pressuring Randal, but Randal was gambling he would ultimately shut up rather than destroy the whole enterprise." "So, if A.C. was busy breaking into Randal's room to steal a laptop..." "He couldn't have been on the roof at the same time killing Randal." "Seriously, though, what sex tape?" "But what sex tape?" "Ugh, never mind." "I wonder who you talk to about Rosemary and your condition." "This can't go on forever." "You have to find a way to go outside." "Look what happens out there." "Yeah, you can't always control what happens out there from in here, Arkady." "It used to break my heart to watch your genius isolate you." "You grew into an arrogant man, full of disdain, very distant." "Until I met Rosemary." "Yes, in Paris, with Rosemary, then you let the world in." "I was in love, Oleg." "You still are, my friend." "But love, grief, they cannot be solved with strategy, so instead of moving on, you sit here, and you solve other people's puzzles." "Some therapist." "If someone died for every married woman that you slept with, the Earth would be strewn with corpses." "Yeah..." "But I know that you're innocent of murder." "Morning!" "I'm coming in." "Yeah, hey, good morning." "You think I wouldn't notice" "Paul Morphy's fried liver attack?" "I was counting on it." "Well, it's just so nice to see everyone getting along." "You know, they banned chess on the international space station when a fist fight broke out over a game." "Okay, okay, I started it, but Krashinsky cheated." "And now, you can only play against ground control because of..." "Fascinating, um, but where are we back on Earth?" "Well, it looks like Randal died because of either this sex tape or the FAA report." "Both were on his laptop, and now that's missing." "I'm sorry, just back up." "Sex tape?" "Don't ask." "I'm just happy I'm no longer Arkady's prime suspect." "And neither is Delia, because she was with him, and A.C. was breaking into Randal's room, so he wasn't on the roof either." "So, who's left then?" "Tyler." "Tyler has an alibi." " Hmm." " Hmm." "And there's the rub." "Hmm." "Here it is." "Yeah, it proves Tyler was in the bar all night." "Ginger ale, appletini." "Ginger ale, appletini." "Double bourbon, appletini, and then back to ginger ale, appletinis." "A double bourbon in the middle?" "Now, what makes someone switch to hard liquor?" "I don't know, um, someone else buying you a drink?" "Good news?" "Bad news." "Bad news?" "Barbara!" "One moment, Mr. Balagan." "Hey..." "Barbara!" "Excuse me." "Oleg wants to buy out the bar." "I want to do what?" "Yes, private luncheon." "Hold a lunch." "Ah." "Mr. Chase." "What's this all about?" "Being first." "First to a laptop containing an FAA report that could have postponed your launch." "I don't know what you're talking about." "The same laptop that also yielded an unexpected video file of your wife's zero-gravity tryst." "You gave yourself away by punching Oleg." "Be very careful, Mr. Balagan." "I'm simply trying to save my friend from wrongful conviction, and if all goes right," "I may help save you and Delia from galactic scandal, though perhaps not your launch date." "Ah, Tyler, welcome!" "If you and Ginny could sit here, please." "What's going on?" "A.C.?" "Let him talk." "Consider this a simple reconstruction." "We've traveled back through time and space to the night of Randal's demise." "Mr. Chase has gone off to bed." "Tyler, you have talked to Randal in the lobby, and returned for a double bourbon." "Thank you, Danni." "Thus, Randal is up on the roof all alone obsessed over this mysterious safety concern." "Tyler, would you be so kind as to take off your jacket?" "There..." "Now, to clarify," "Ginny, Tyler is a new friend." "You just met that night, yes?" "Yeah." "I recognized him from the cereal box." "Kirkpatrick krunch." "Who would miss that face, yes?" "That chiseled profile that makes him so valuable to Chase galactic." "His value is he's an elite, NASA-trained astronaut." "With a marketing upside!" "But I digress." "The night in question has worn on," "Oleg bids us good night," "Pippa and I both leave as well, returning to my suite." "The time is 12:36 A.M." "Randall falls now." "Randal has landed." "Four seconds later, the telescope." "Gruesome, and I will spare you the..." "He hit a Vespa on the southeast curb." "It was not pretty." "Hugo, head of our security, was first on scene." "What happened, Hugo?" "Quick, quick, quick." "The guy died." "So?" "So then I called 9-1-1 and waited for the first responders." "Who arrived and what times?" "12:40, police, and then ambulance." "Right, so for four minutes, Hugo waits." "Right about now, someone enters Randal's room, and that person is you!" "I will not dignify that with an answer." "But did you kill Randal?" "I did nothing of the sort..." "I know, and the police will agree." "There's no roof gravel in any of your shoes, and there's no surveillance photos or anything near the roof." "But there's no footage of me either." "Yes." "But you always take the stairs, Oleg, and there's no security cameras there anyway." "You see, Oleg..." "Is not in his prime anymore." "He must work very hard to pass the physicals." "Much harder than a young buck like Tyler." "Danni, a ginger ale and appletini, please." "Thanks." "Oh, it's 12:40." "Ah!" "Four minutes." "First responders have arrived." "At which point, Hugo..." "Well, I hoofed it in here to find someone from Chase galactic." "Hoof then, Hugo, hoof." "Right, he heads straight for the first Chase galactic jacket that he sees, which is worn by..." "Her." "And you said?" ""Are you from Chase galactic?"" "And you said?" ""No, but he is."" "Right, so, Tyler the astronaut..." "Who is much fitter than Sam..." "Had time to..." "Push Randal off..." "That's insane." "And then?" "Anyone?" "Run down the stairs into the bar..." "In time for me to hand him a drink just when Hugo walked in." "Oh, come on, are we taking this seriously?" "Do you remember Tyler leaving the bar around that time?" "You... you did take a really long time in the bathroom." "I figured that you..." "This is ridiculous." "What motive could I possibly have to kill Randal?" "Your motive, Tyler?" "Silencing Randal who was so obsessed with safety, he would postpone your launch." "I'm sorry, could you please take the jacket off, give it back?" "Tyler, would you mind putting it back on?" "Oh..." "You don a jacket with such panache, leler." "I wasn't aware." "Tyler, I'm going to the roof, may I have a word?" "Now, Randal?" "The Lyrids should be bright enough that you can reach straight up..." ""Reach straight up..."" "And touch the comet Thatcher." "It's not an invitation, Tyler, he's threatening you." "Could you reach for the stars," "Tyler?" "I suspect that is why you left NASA, hoping that your injury would slip past the less scrupulous doctors of the private aerospace industry." "His injured shoulder is the mysterious safety concern, and Randal was going to expose him." "That is what he told you, and that is why you ordered the double bourbon." "You damn fool!" "I had it covered!" "I wasn't going to let Randal blow the race over a goddamn rotator cuff!" "I put in a call to the P.D." "You're going to have to come with us." "So, uh..." "Now all you need is a job." "No, now all I need is a vodka." "Hmm.." "Very..." "Russian of you." "Very good." "Uh, is this..." "Holy..." "Yes, I-I told you, Sam." "We use duct tape for everything." "Mr. Olesky, do you realize how historic this is?" "I mean, this is..." "A giant leap for mankind?" "The is the first documented proof of human..." "coupling in space." "Yes, yes, but, Sam, we choose discretion, for the woman's honor." "Yes." "To my little brother." "To my Big Brother." "Na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie." "Na zdorovie." "It burns, doesn't it?"