You’ll Find What You’re Looking for at the Circus

“Dr. Presto, Stoney, attend!” The newest San Francisco underworld boss, Dave “Big Wheel” Green spoke softly to the air in his ornately appointed office. Big Wheel was a tall man, a bit soft, with a long face, square jaw, dark, heavy eyebrows and prematurely white hair. His voice was low and rumbling, often described as gravelly. He was dressed in an expensive dark blue three piece pinstripe suit with a white carnation; a dark blue bowler hung on the coat stand, and a slim black cane with a silver handle worked as a detailed dragon’s head leaned against his desk.

A listener in the next room, whose well-compensated job was solely to implement commands from the boss, pressed a pair of buttons on a console. In a laboratory and an office a floor down, buzzers sounded. Dr. Presto, a thin, baby faced man with curly red hair, wearing a stained and singed white lab jacket, jerked his head upright, bit off a German swear word at being interrupted at a critical point of building some delicate electronics, and hustled out the door. In the office next door, Max Stoneham jumped out of his chair and raced for the hall. Max was a bit bigger than his boss, about 6’4”, in much better shape, and totally bald, wearing a well-fitted two piece tan suit with red tie, red suspenders and and red shoes. The two hurried up the stairs and were in the boss’s office in less than a minute.





“Alex, would you please stop whining? I’m supposed to be the brat, not you! You’re always dragging me off to those stupid Roller Derby ‘games’ and do I ever complain?” Before Alex could confirm that she did indeed complain, Tammi continued. “Not ever, not once! And you know, a few hours of having a great time at a traveling circus won’t hurt you! Heck, you know you LOVED the last circus you went to - it’s why we teamed up!”

“Sure I loved it, except that one of your friends got murdered, we had a run in with a Russian spy ring that almost killed both of us, and afterward you moved to San Francisco and turned my life upside down,” Alex replied sternly. Then she smiled. “So I guess it all worked out for the best. And yes, you DO complain during the whole match, every match.”

“My friends got us free tickets, there are gonna be clowns, and they say the Fabulous Zandini family are almost as good on the trapeze as ME!” Tammi bubbled enthusiastically. “And I could watch the hunky, sweaty roustabouts, for hours! And tonight’s the closing show, and they’ve got something special planned!”

A crew of mostly men and a few women, all of them muscular and sweaty on this hot day, even in their tank tops and cut off shorts, was making sure everything was still properly set up, moving portable fences, making sure the tent pegs were secure, positioning the port-a-potties and trash bins, tying warning flags to guy ropes, and collecting any tools left behind during today’s preparations. The two super heroines watched the hard-bodied mixed-gender team in appreciation for a few minutes as they shuffled along with a line of other excited people.

Finally, they reached the barker, and presented their tickets. The tickets were big, almost the size of Alex’s hand, and brightly colored, the front and the back jammed with text and pictures, designed to serve not only as tickets for admission, but also as highly effective attention-grabbing advertising handbills.

Large bright letters shouted:


across the top. That was followed by a list of the circus's main attractions:


As soon as they were past the barker, Tammi was mugged by a bundle of enthusiastic energy in the form of a man even smaller than she. When she was released, the tallest human woman Alex had ever seen picked her up and threw her high in the air. Tammi laughed and did some acrobatics, securely certain that the giant would catch her - and she did. After she was set down, Alex pulled her friend out of the path of the crowd streaming through the gate into a corner between two tents. The carny couple followed, and Tammi breathlessly introduced her friends.

“Good to see you guys again! Look, you’ve even got my sourpuss roommate smiling,” Tammi teased her friend, who was indeed smiling, as she introduced them all. “Alex is the best artist in the world, and the smartest, because she paints pictures of me!” Tammi boasted. “Alex, Sam and Tiny are known as the World’s Oddest Couple, and their act is one of the biggest midway attractions for Sencenbaugh’s. Besides being big and strong and incredibly beautiful, Tiny is a math wizard and she can play more than a dozen musical instrument at symphony level. And Sam’s the best juggler I’ve ever seen, and the best knife thrower too!” Tammi was even more enthusiastic than usual. ”The midway will be closed after the show tonight, though - you’ll have to wait until the next time they’re in town to catch their act.”

“Which will be in sixth months - we expect you to be there!” Tiny insisted sternly, while flashing a smile seemingly as wide as Tammi’s shoulders.

Alex swapped hugs with the two carnies. Sam was stronger than she expected, and she felt small and almost helpless in Tiny’s embrace - something that hadn’t happened since she was 12! Tiny was almost twice as tall as Sam, and almost as wide as he was tall. Yes, even without their other skills, these 2 must really be the World’s Oddest Couple!

“You know,” Sam said casually as they headed toward the largest tent, “if you two ever get tired of busting up bad guys, with your powers you could be really popular on the midway of a carnival!”

Alex sighed. ‘Of course Tammi told her good friends about AVant Guard. But it doesn’t really matter, I guess - everyone in San Francisco already knows who we are anyway…’ “Thanks, Sam,” she replied sincerely. “I think I’ll stick with art. But if nobody buys my stuff, I’ll come look you guys up!”

The four entered the main tent, with Sam leading the way to the Honored Guest section in the front row. Alex was experiencing feelings of deja vu, and she hoped this circus visit would be less eventful than her last. Maybe or maybe not, but this time the excitement started while the Ringmaster was giving his bombastic welcome, before even introducing the first act.

After the initial loud, superlative-filled greeting, he had a special announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, we are honored to have a special guest performer this evening!”

‘NO! She did NOT!’ Alex thought to herself in dismay.

“Tonight, for our closing San Francisco performance, we welcome America’s Darling Aerialist and nationally famous gymnast TAMMI PAIGE!”

‘But she did,’ Alex sighed. ‘I guess I should have been warned earlier.’

Three spotlights converged on Tammi (and Alex). Tiny stood and hoisted Tammi to her shoulders, where she bowed and curtsied to the wildly cheering crowd, as Alex forced a convincing smile, perhaps aided by her illusion powers. “Miss Paige will join our own amazing aerialists, Alexi and Vanessa Zandini, for a short performance later in the show.” Tiny braced herself and Tammi jumped high and did a flip, landing in the cradle of Tiny’s arms, and the spotlight left them.

“And now, folks, get ready to be amazed by our opening act, the death defying Amazing Zandinis.” The spotlight switched to a pair of platforms on tent poles high above the floor, and for the next 15 minutes, the Zandinis thrilled and amazed the audience.

About 5 minutes in, Tammi’s voice whispered in Alex’s ear. “Say, Stretch, you aren’t mad at me, are you?”

Alex smiled and shook her head. “I just feel a little chagrined that I was so surprised,” she whispered back, sure that nobody but her partner could hear her. “I should have suspected, you little narcissist, you!! Are you sure you can keep up with them, though? It’s been a while since you’ve been on a trapeze.”


“Maybe, sometime…” Alex whispered back reluctantly. “For now, let’s watch the show.”

“OK. They want me to join the crew for curtain calls, so I’ll meet you in the bar tent after the show,” Tammi whispered back. Alex had some experience with circus performer tents; she nodded and squeezed her friend’s hand.

A half hour later, when the crowd’s attention was on the strong man lifting two elephants, each with a scantily clad buxom beauty standing on its back, Tammi slipped away. A few minutes later, the spotlights flipped back to the trapeze platforms - and all of them speared a tiny woman wearing a barely-there leotard that seemed to be made of polished, glittering liquid silver. Tammi gave a 5 minute solo routine, making the most difficult stunts look easy, followed by 10 minutes with Alexi and Vanessa. The performance was inspired, and ended with a spectacular dismount - at the top of their arcs, all three performers released, rose even higher, performed a series of synchronized flips and somersaults as they fell. The three landed in the safety net, bounced once, and then rolled down to the edge, where they completed one more somersault each as they dropped the last 10 feet to the ground. The applause was thunderous, and the three were called back for two curtain calls - each time executing some different tumbling and gymnastic moves clearly designed for curtain calls.

The rest of the show was spectacular, funny, and at times nostalgic and sad. Alex found herself grieving over Tammi’s friend Bosco the clown, who’d been murdered only a few minutes after Tammi had introduced them at the last circus she’d attended. But tonight’s clowns were lively and funny, and she shook it off. The show’s closing was spectacular. First, all the roustabouts were called to the center stage - a wonderful show of appreciation for the hard work they did, a tribute that Alex had never seen before. Then each and every performer, including Tammi following the other aerialists, made a spectacular entrance, and joined the crowd in the center ring, and then they all took bows and the lights dimmed - and at the thunderous applause, the lights came back up, and the cast took another round of bows, and the lights dimmed again. And came back up again for a second curtain call, which brought a big round of laughter because some of the performers were embracing, and others were caught in the act of doffing their costumes, and they all scurried out of the spotlights, and that was the end of tonight’s performance. “We’ll be back in six months, folks - make sure you save the date! We’ll see you then…”

Poker Party

There’s always a party the night of the last performance, and Tammi and Alex were invited. After a while, Alex and Tammi got into a pretty serious poker game with some of the roustabouts. Early in the game, with her enhanced vision, Alex noted that one of the players was highly skilled in sleight of hand and was cheating. hiding cards in his sleeves. Nobody else seemed to notice, though, and on his second turn to deal, after he’d hidden two aces, she’d had enough.

Suddenly, Tammi’s cards seemed to flicker, dark for a brief instant, then normal again. She pulled her hands closer to her so that no one else could read the message that appeared on their faces. “Don’t give anything away, Tuneful Titan! The guy who is dealing is cheating. Ask Tiny to back me up and pin his hands to the table.” Tammi nodded. Alex saw a flash of surprise cross Tiny’s face, perhaps one reason why she was watching the game instead of playing, then the big carny smiled and nodded.

“This deck is missing a couple of cards,” Alex stated loudly. “And he’s got them up his sleeve!” She pointed at the dealer. “Don’t let him move, he’ll drop them on the floor!”

Before he had a chance to object, Tiny reached over and grabbed his wrists - and though he struggled and shouted, the giant was much stronger than he was. A quick inspection uncovered the two aces, and after that, there hadn’t been much for him to say. He was fired on the spot by the Ringmaster and warned never to return to this circus again. A half dozen carnies had enthusiastically escorted him directly to his car, and he drove away with some new bruises and threats and dire promises of what would happen if they ever saw him again ringing in his ears.

It took a while for the festive atmosphere in the tent to reestablish itself, but poker is serious business, and the game quickly continued, lasting another couple of hours. At least 25 different players, mostly male, rotated through the other seats, but Tammi and Alex played the whole game. Not because they both won - Alex lost regularly, but Tammi won enough to keep them both in the game, regularly giving her partner ‘loans’ that Alex was sure would come due some other day. Alex kept a microscopically thorough watch on the other players, especially their hands, throughout the rest of the game. But everyone else played honestly, though she noted a wide variety of good luck charms and tokens and Tammi overheard quite a few quietly chanted prayers and luck spells.

The two stayed with Tiny and Sam that night, helped their friends pack up the next day, and then hopped on Alex’s bike to head home. Tammi insisted, and Alex let her drive - and when they got home, promised it would be the last time!


Get Out of Jail Free

Big Wheel and his crew, Stoney, Atherton and Dr. Presto, were selling Get out of jail free cards, the bidding to start at only a million dollars. Dr. Presto had invented a machine which produced a unique wavelength of radiation that, when properly focused and controlled, could modify a person’s fingerprints and facial features. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of criminals in the Bay Area who were very interested, but also very skeptical. Big Wheel had ordered Atherton to set up a demonstration to prove that Pesto’s machine did what they said it would.

About 15 men and a few women, the biggest big shots in the Bay Area underworld, were gathered in a large room in an abandoned building in an area claimed by Big Wheel’s mob. The atmosphere was tense and nervous, and nobody was sure this wasn’t some kind of trap. Enforcers from half a dozen mobs circled the building, keeping a sharp lookout for the law. Inside, mortal enemies mingled cautiously and not without friction, but the promise of shedding their current criminal pasts as a snake sheds its skin kept them relatively peaceful. There was a large canvas draped over something big in the front of the room, and off to one side, a slide projector filled a big screen with the official police mug shots and fingerprints of two men - Dave ‘Big Wheel’ Green and Max ‘Stoney’ Stoneham.

Stoney and Big Wheel moved through the room, addressing their allies and enemies by name. Presto made a show of taking his bosses’ fingerprints, height and weight, and comparing these with the stolen police records, and anyone who wanted could verify that the information projected on the screen matched up exactly with the two men in the room. There wasn’t a person in the room who doubted that these two were who they said they were.

Presto swept aside the canvas, not as smoothly as he had hoped, and unveiled his machine, an intimidating cube of metal 8 feet on a side. One side was covered with switches, knobs, dials, gauges, rows of red, yellow and green peanut bulbs, and nixie tube digital displays, along with two big reels of computer tape. A second side was covered with radiation warnings, and there was a square three-foot opening in that side that extended deep into bowels of the device.The top and sides of the crawl way were lined with hundreds of small wire saucers that looked like miniature radar dishes, and there was a wheeled stretcher on the floor. The person being treated would lie down on the stretcher, which was then pushed to the center of the machine and a heavily-insulated, radiation-blocking hatch would be closed - and when that hatch opened a few minutes later, a changed man would emerge!

Stoney left the room, changed into a hospital robe, and when he came back in, he casually climbed onto the stretcher. His worst enemy in the room, Mad Dog Mulligan, was asked to secretly write a few words on a sheet of paper, which he then showed to Stoney. Stoney read the page and laughed as Mad Dog stuffed it into his pocket. Presto then pushed his patient deeper into the tube, closed the bulkhead, and warned everyone to stand away behind a yellow line painted on the floor. The gathered mobsters moved back uneasily.

As he played his controls like a virtuoso pianist, the machine came to life. A deep hum began and swelled, needles jumped off their pins and swept across gauge faces, the rows of peanut bulbs flickered from red to yellow and then to steady green, some rows faster than others. Presto flipped switches and adjusted rheostats until every needle was standing still and solid in the green. The loud hum faded almost to inaudibility. The nixie tubes flashed on, showing 6 1 5.

“In 6 and a quarter minutes, gentlemen, my machine will transform Mr. Stoneham’s face and fingerprints, and he will emerge a new man, totally untraceable by law enforcement. He can walk into a police station, announce his name, and they will be helpless to charge him with anything!” He pushed a couple of men farther away from the machine. “Please stay behind the yellow line to be sure you are out of range of any escaping radiation. There is no danger, but repeated exposure might give you a rash.” The audience moved further back uneasily, a few going to the far wall.

With a flourish, Presto pressed a big green button, set square in the middle of the crowded control panel, then he himself stepped behind the line. As the nixie tubes started counting down the seconds, a faint smell of ozone filled the room and a new sound joined the background hum, like static from a TV late at night after the stations had shut down. The volume of the static varied rhythmically, making it difficult to talk, so the assembled mobsters impatiently stared at the countdown.

When the tubes flashed 0 0 0, Presto quickly stepped forward again and pressed the largest button on the control panel, a red 8 sided button with the word STOP printed on it, set directly below the slightly smaller green one. The hum and static stopped instantly, all the peanut bulbs went out, and the needles on the gauges all dropped back to their pins, a couple of them more slowly than the rest. When everything was quiescent, the doctor pulled a large lever which opened the armored door, then pulled out the stretcher and the man lying on it.

Stoney lay as if he were dead, and the audience started muttering. But then he quickly sat up and laughed at them all, and a dead silence fell on the room as they examined him. A tall, fit bald man had entered the tube, and a tall, fit bald man sat before them. But this man had a different head, face, and ears, and when he spoke, even the timbre of his voice was different. Nobody could possibly mistake this man for Max Stoneham, and almost nobody in the room actually believed it was really Stoney. The room filled with angry voices, and the gist of their comments was: “Fake. You switched guys!”

“SHADDUP, YAS MUGS!” ‘Stoney’ roared at the top of his lungs. It sounded like his roar! “Now listen - da Doc told you it would change my face - but it ain’t changed me! I’ll prove it! Mad Dog! Pull out dat love note ya wrote me, and show it to your guys!” Mulligan pulled out the note, opened it, and a half dozen guys crowded him, all trying to read it. “It says ‘If this is a raket, I’ll cut your nuts off.’ And da dummy spelled racket wrong!”

The room got very quiet.”That’s what it says,” Mad Dog agreed. “And I spelled it that way on purpose.”

Presto confirmed his subject’s height and weight, took his prints and projected them, proving that they were changed. Meanwhile Stoney worked the room, calling folks by name, reminding them what they’d talked about earlier, proving to everyone that he was indeed, Stoney Stoneham, with a new face and new prints.

Then the muttering began again. “But is it safe?” “Does it wear off?” were the two most frequently heard questions.

Dr. Preseto spoke up scornfully. “Big Wheel’s next - if it isn’t safe, do you think he’d go into the machine? Of course it’s safe. And you’ll have a week to watch Big Wheel and Stoney, to prove that it won’t ‘wear off’.”

Here’s the Deal

Then Atherton added, “This machine uses a very rare metal, and after Wheel gets done, we’ve only got enough left to do exactly 11 treatments. We’ll do those treatments a week from today, to the 11 who pony up the most cash. Deposit on a ticket is a million bucks, but if 11 other guys pay us more than you, you’re outta luck.” There was a roar of outrage over that, but Big Wheel started yelling.

“This is OUR deal, see! You don’t like it, dat’s the grit in the gears, ain’t it? Ya got a beef, remember der ain’t no problem a chopper can’t fix - and my mob’s got a lot of choppers.”

A lot of big wigs looked around, trying to figure out what it would be worth to their peers to buy this treatment. Some figured it wouldn’t be worth putting up a million bucks and ending up not being one of the high bidders and getting nothing for a lot of dough - and a few figured they’d pay five times that and more to be clear of their rap sheets.

Atherton laid out the rest of the rules. There would be a ‘leader board’ set up in one of Big Wheel’s books, showing the top 20 bidders, and the amounts they’d currently deposited. At any time, you could add to your deposit and jump up the board - until Sunday morning, after which the top 11 bidders got the treatment. A deposit had to be in even millions, no jumping over the guy above you by outbidding him by a dollar - or a hundred thousand. If you don’t show up, your treatment goes to the next guy on the list. Nobody gets their deposits back. A half dozen walked out at that. The odds weren’t looking too bad for the twenty or so who were left. There were a couple other details - how to make a deposit and a warning to keep everything quiet.

Wheel summed it up. “Ya chirps wit da pigeons, ya sleeps wit da fishes - I’ll see to it personally.”

There was silence for a while, but the disbelief had subsided - and when Big Wheel went through the treatment and came out of the machine a ‘new man’: same height, same weight, new face, new prints, new voice, same memories and personality, the exodus to the doors started - around twenty Bay Area mob bosses, each with an urgent mission to raise a million bucks or more in the next week. A stern reminder, “Remember, ya mugs, cash only!” followed them out the door.

By midnight that night, the leader board was full. Mad Dog’s mob had the most ready cash on hand, and he was on top the board at $3 million. And all the bosses had their henchmen out, picking up more cash the old fashion way - by stealing it.


Jade Rouge Press Conference

The next day, a big police announcement came as a total surprise - an Appeals Court judge had overturned the conviction of the super villainess Jade Rouge on a technicality, and ordered her released pending a new hearing. Sensing a chance for leniency in her next trial, Rouge immediately called a press conference to announce that she was going straight and relinquishing her energy powers. Over a dozen reporters from local newspapers, and radio and TV stations showed up, even on such short notice. And AVant Guard was there as well. After all, they had captured the repentant super villainess.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your presence,” Jade Rouge stood and began talking. “My name is Catalina Varela, formerly known as Jade Rouge.” Without her costume, she was a tall, athletically built black woman, and she had a strong Hispanic accent. She was casually dressed wearing tan slacks and a short sleeved light blue shirt with collar and looked more like a model than a super villain. As she was speaking, another reporter hurried through the door. He was quite tall, carried a thin cane, and was nattily dressed in a perfectly tailored three piece blue pinstriped suit, with a white carnation and blue bowler. Catalina was stunned into silence until he removed his hat - his physical resemblance to Big Wheel was uncanny, and his sartorial choices identical, but his face was round with almost no jawline, clearly not the face of Big Wheel. She paused a second to collect herself, waiting for him to sit down. He didn’t.

His voice was different as well, but his arrogance was identical. He introduced himself and immediately began firing questions at her.

“My name is Dave Wheelwright. I’m a free lance reporter for the Deming, Oregon, weekly paper, the Deming Weekly Townsman.” Big Wheel was named Dave, and he was from Deming, Oregon!

“Can you confirm that you’re the daughter of Rafael Harnenda, dishonorably discharged from the US Army in 1946 after going AWOL on New Guinea during World War II, who lived in Clanton, Washington until he was convicted of the murder of his common-law wife in 1956 and sent to Alcatraz for life? Where he was brutally tortured to death in his cell by another prisoner?”

Caitlin collapsed into her chair, dropped her head onto her arms on the table, and started sobbing quietly. A bunch of angry people in the room jumped out of their chairs, including AVant Guard, and started approaching the loudmouth.

Caitlin raised her head and spoke loudly, cutting off what appeared to be an impending fight. “That has to be Big Wheel - the guy who used to work for me. It has to be. He must have had plastic surgery - but he’s the only one who knows that much about me.” She nodded her head sadly. “What he said about me is true. And Big Wheel is from Deming, Washington. He’s making fun of us with his phony name and newspaper.” She stood up. “Thanks for worrying about me - but arrest him!”

“You can try - but ya won’t!” he boasted. “I’m the Big Wheel, but no matter what you think, there’s no way you can tie me up with him! So I’m NOT the Big Wheel, get it?”

Spurred by their anger at Wheelwright’s behavior, the police and the heroines tried as hard as they could to prove that Wheelwright was really Big Wheel - but they couldn’t. Different face, different voice, and different fingerprints - no matter how much he looked like the gangster, it couldn’t be him.

AVant Guard used their powers to confirm this. With her zoom in vision, Palette was unable to detect any evidence of plastic surgery - that was his natural face, and it wasn’t Green’s face, nor was he wearing Green’s fingerprints. Miss Music had the gangster’s soniprint, his ‘unique bodily sonic gestalt’ memorized from previous encounters, and this guy was definitely not Dave Big Wheel Green. Neither was surprised; they had both recognized this guy instantly, and their powers only confirmed what they already knew. They had played poker with this guy a week ago during their visit to the Sencenbaugh Circus.

“But this can’t be that roustabout, partner,” Miss Music’s whisper in her partners ear was distressed and confused. “Every time he claimed to be Big Wheel, he was telling the truth. Every time he claimed to be Wheelwright, he was lying. There’s no way he could fake that… but there’s no way that is Dave Big Wheel Green either!”

“It’s a mystery, Tuneful Titan,” Alex whispered back. “But don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. It’s what we do, right?”

Finally, even the most determined cops admitted they had no legal authority to detain Dave Wheelwright of Deming, Washington. “Ain’t that the grit in the gears, ya mugs?” Wheelwright mocked everyone with one of Big Wheel’s favorite lines as he stood to go. He stood and grabbed the new sheet of fingerprints. “Since I’ve broken no laws, you’ve got no right to keep this record of my prints.” No one stopped him. With a jaunty wave at Catalina, he strode through the door. Just before he slammed it, he looked back at the young woman. “Member, girlie - who chirps wit’ da pigeons…” and then slammed the door.

“Sleeps wit da fishes…” she sadly whispered the rest of another famous Big Wheel catch phrase, softly enough that only Miss Music overheard.

The press coverage of Jade Rouge’s announcement ended up instead providing massive coverage of the authorities failure to identify Wheelwright as Big Wheel. Atherton was on the blower for hours, making sure all their bidders knew about the story.

2nd Annual NALPI Conference




“Hiya, Foxy! Say, I ain’t seen you since, what was it, ‘57? You sure did a number on my marriage wit those snaps you shot’a me an them hookers. Not at it did’er any good - she was in the hospital for a couple’a months, did you know that, and she got nothing in the divorce. Say, you still got any of dose pics? They’d look plenty good in my scrapbook. Does was some first class talent!”

“So you had plastic surgery, you rat?” Fox barked back, and people nearby started looking at their table, making shushing gestures. “Even with a new face, Stoneham, you give off a stench that nobody could miss!” He stood, turned to the stage, shouted to San Francisco Police Detective Stuart McMillan, who was on the panel. “McMillan, this guy is Max Stoneham, one’a Big Wheel Green’s flunkies. He musta had plastic surgery, but I’d know him anywhere!”

“If I am, you’ll never prove it!” the big man snarled angrily. “Not you or a whole room fulla useless dicks.”





Mobsters In the News!

Big Wheel and his cast got what they wanted - extensive press coverage of some very motivated law enforcement officers, including AVant Guard, trying and failing to prove that these two men were actually Big Wheel and Stoney. The underworld was convinced, and names and numbers on the leader board started changing fast.