Hicks and Skeet arrive at the scene of the bomb blast. Skeet picks up a ball bearing as Hicks speculates about the “Infernal Machine Of Presumed Italian Origin” (13), or IMOPIO. The technical details of the bomb do not seem to align with the methods used by the Italian Mafia, however. Talking to a police officer, Hicks wonders whether someone has tried to make the bomb look Italian. He remembers a bomb attack on the Milwaukee central police station in 1917, in which a package was found and brought into the station to be examined. Hicks’s Uncle Lefty was part of the force during that time.

Hicks visits the Ideal Pharmacy, run by Hoagie Hivnak, in search of information. Hoagie complains about the price of milk that is threatening the cost of his ice cream sundaes; he does not believe that the Mafia is responsible for the bomb. There is a two-tier price system for milk in Milwaukee, he says, but “syndicates of Bolshevik farmers” (15) are working to eliminate this system and raise the cost of their milk. Hoagie believes that a dairy civil war is taking place, which is why the cheese magnate Bruno Airmont left town.

After “passing some genial semiprofessional chitchat” (16) with members of the Milwaukee Police Department, Hicks arrives at Arleen’s Orchid Lounge. There, he meets April Randazzo, his sometime girlfriend and dancing partner. April is a singer and a dancer who performs in the city’s late-night establishments. She and Hicks met in the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, where they danced to experimental jazz. Hicks was intrigued by April, though he soon discovered her fascination “with married men” (19). As a private detective, Hicks comes into contact with many men who are not loyal to their wives, and April’s “married-man fixation does bring along its own set of health risks” (19). As she flirts with Hicks, April urges him to marry someone so that she can be more in love with him than ever. When she puts on a “high-pitched flapper voice” (21), Hicks is irritated. Hicks sings to April, and April warns Hicks that he is “in big trouble and [does not] know it” (23). April performs her trademark ballad at a late-night club in front of a rotating band of jazz musicians. While watching April perform, a small-time crook known as Lino ‘the Dump Truck’ Trapanese warns Hicks that his Uncle Lefty has “funny stuff goin on” (26). Based on the tip, Hicks decides to pay his uncle a visit.

Hicks visits his Uncle Lefty and Aunt Peony. Sitting down for dinner with them, he enjoys his uncle’s “Surprise Casserole” (28) as Lefty talks about the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. He views Hitler as the future, insisting to Hicks that the newsreels cannot be trusted. There is, he claims, a “warmer, gayer Hitler” (29) whose image is distorted by Jewish figures in the media. Hicks praises the casserole, then delves into a reminiscence about his aunt. Hicks was raised by Peony and Lefty. Grace, Peony’s sister and Hick’s mother, was from the Driftless Area, a mostly rural part of Wisconsin that was never covered by glaciers during the last Ice Age and is thus ecologically distinct from the rest of the state. The locals all seem to drift to the nearby town of Baraboo, visiting “the circus people who wintered there” (30). People from the Driftless Area tend to either end up in Milwaukee or run away with someone from the circus. Grace met Eddie McTaggart and Peony met Detlef Flaschner; they married in a double ceremony. Grace then ran away with an elephant trainer, and a “heartbroken” (30) Eddie moved west. Hicks was taken in by Peony and Lefty, though he had “one foot by then already out the door” (30).

After leaving his aunt and uncle’s house, Hicks found work as a strike breaker. He used violence against people on picket lines on behalf of the management. He had little idea of the politics of the strikes; he appreciated being paid for the “thrill” (31) of violence. One day, however, he found himself face to face with a “truculent little Bolshevik” (32). Though he had the opportunity, he did not kill the man; the weapon in his hand seemed to mysteriously disappear. Instead, he spent several days reflecting on “the strange feeling” (33) of not having killed the man. Hicks lost interest in strikebreaking as a profession. Eventually, he was hired by U-Ops during an era when detective agencies were “emerging from an era of labor unrest and entering one of spousal infidelity” (34), a move which Boynt blamed on Prohibition. Around this time, Hicks also purchased a printed lecture course titled “Learn Oriental Attitude” (35). Though he understood nothing of the Japanese content, he found himself gripped by the literature. He felt “a kind of spiritual heavysetness sneaking up on him” (36). Peony noticed the change in him as Hicks continued to think about the man who “he meant to kill but didn’t” (37). Boynt told him not to worry whether he had ever killed anyone, encouraging him to talk to Thessalie since the U-Ops health insurance does not cover anything related to mental health. Even Uncle Lefty admits that Thessalie seems to possess “the genuine goods” (38) as a psychic.

Hicks meets Thessalie at Velocity Lunch, a quiet restaurant that serves glow-in-the-dark green salad in the shape of a human brain. Hicks tells her about the encounter with the young striker and wants to know why his weapon—a weighted leather striking device known as a beavertail—disappeared from his hand. Thessalie suggests that the beavertail “asported to safety” (40). Thanks to her background as a parttime mind-reader and mentalist, Thessalie is able to teach Hicks about asportation (when objects disappear) and apportion (when objects reappear). Hicks admits that the vanishing beavertail appeared in his pocket later that evening. He never used the weapon again and quit the strikebreaking business soon after. After signing up to U-Ops, he needed to adjust to carrying a firearm. He admits to Thessalie that he has fired his service pistol but he was “mostly just expending ammo into an unlighted distance” (41). Thessalie charges Hicks $10 for the conversation and suggests that he talk to Lew Basnight.

Hicks finds Lew at Otto’s Oasis. Lew Basnight is “an unreconstructed veteran of the Old West at its least merciful” (43) (and a recurring character from Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day). As per Thessalie’s request, Lew agrees to teach Hicks a famous gun trick that he learned in the Wild West. The trick will allow Hicks to turn a gun on anyone who is demanding that he hand over his firearm. Hicks and Lew talk about California; Lew is just about ready to go back out west, feeling as though he needs to escape from the modern world. Hicks thanks Lew, who warns Hicks not to become “another one of these metaphysical detectives, out looking for Revelation” (45).

Hicks took April out for her “idea of a romantic date” (46), going to Chicago to see Dracula, starring the Hungarian American actor Bela Lugosi, at a movie theater. Soon after, she sent away for “Glow-in-the-Dark Vampire Choppers” (47). He then learned that April is “the promised bride of evil, known locally as Don Peppino” (47). Don Peppino is a Mafia boss who is not pleased at the prospect of Hicks dating his sometime lover, April. He sent his men to deliver “a word to the wise” (48), telling Hicks to leave April alone. Hicks fought back against the men. He thinks about running away with April, taking her into a “horrible domesticity” (49) but his associate, Vumvum, warns Hicks that Don Peppino is a serious threat.