Page 71 of Now or Never

Eugene grinned. “It’s a toy.”

“What happens to all this when you get convicted and go to jail?”

“I can’t imagine that happening. I would love to be Robin Hoodie because he’s beloved and he’s making a fortune, but I’m not Robin Hoodie. And it’s only a matter of time before he gets caught. I’m sure he’ll get caught before I get locked up.”

“So, the blog that you do isn’t the Robin Hoodie blog?”

“No. Not even close. It’s a gaming blog. I’ll send you a link.” He took his phone out of his pocket and texted the link to me.

“You could do both. You could do the gaming blog and the Hoodie blog.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

I gave him Zach’s picture. “I need to get rid of the man watering the shrub in the background.”

He took the photo out of the envelope and looked at it. “Hah! Too bad you want to get rid of him. This is classic.”

“Can you do it?”

“Yeah, no problem. Do you want to wait for it? Or do you want to come back?”

“How long will it take?”

“Not long. Five minutes to a half hour.”

“I’ll wait.”

I joined Lula on the couch, and I used the link Eugene had just sent me to go to his blog. It was nicely done. A mixture of short personal videos and more professional, longer tutorials and snippets of games. I’m not a gamer so the tutorials were lost on me, and after ten minutes of scrolling I was having a hard time staying awake.

Lula leaned in. “What are you looking at?”

“Eugene’s blog.”

“Robin Hoodie?”

“No. Eugene swears he’s not Robin Hoodie. This is his gaming blog.”

“Is it any good?”

“It looks nice, but I’m not a gamer, so it’s like I’m trying to read a foreign language.”

“I never could see him being Robin Hoodie,” Lula said. “On my planet, Ranger would be Robin Hoodie.”

“I don’t think Ranger has time to be Robin Hoodie.”

“Just sayin’.”

Eugene came over. “This is the photoshopped one,” he said, handing the photo to me. “I think it turned out pretty good. I got rid of the leaker, and I did a little work on the woman’s face and arms. She should be happy. The original is in the envelope.”

I looked at the new photo. “This is amazing,” I said. “You would never know it was altered.” I slid the new photo into the envelope with the original. “From the beginning you’ve denied being Robin Hoodie. I’m starting to believe you. Do you have any ideas on the identity of the real Robin Hoodie?”

Eugene shook his head. “No, but he’s not a one-man show. He’s got a videographer and a studio setup that’s better than mine. Sometimes he’s got more than one camera angle. That would indicate more than one videographer.”

“He’s got Merry Men,” Lula said.

“And they aren’t homeless,” Eugene said. “They’re good at what they do, and they’re making good money.”

I tucked the envelope into my messenger bag. “What do I owe you for this?”

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