Excerpt from When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"If he paid for his admission with a credit card we can probably track him down from that," Bud said.

"We would need to find out when he came in, then," Willa noted.

Bud smiled here. "Well, we can do that." He pulled the coverage from the security cameras at the front of the museum.

The three of them spent the next several minutes watching their mysterious stranger purchase his admission at 4:28 p.m., and then wander through early parts of Armstrong's life in a leisurely fashion. They skipped viewing the Moon Room again and watched their visitor move quickly through the second half of the museum, skipping past the video presentation of the moon landing and Armstrong's post-landing career and NASA post-Apollo displays, because the museum was about to close. He paused only at the gift shop, to get a moon mug that had moon facts appear when you poured hot water into it.

He paid for his mug with a credit card and left the museum at 5:01, the last visitor to leave. The parking lot cameras had him pulling out a few minutes later in a MINI Cooper. His Ohio license plate was clearly visible.

"We have enough to track him down now for sure," Bud said.

"If he was a criminal mastermind you would think he'd be a little more careful," Virgil suggested. "Paying by credit card and driving his own car is not the mark of a master thief."

"You don't think this guy did it," Willa said.

"I don't know what I'm thinking," Virgil admitted.

"We should call the cops," Bud said to Virgil. "And we have to tell someone on the board of directors."

Virgil grimaced at this. "Not yet."

"Why not?" Bud seemed genuinely surprised.

"Can you get into the display, Bud?" Virgil asked, sidetracking his facilities manager for a moment.

"Yeah, sure," Bud confirmed. "But do we want to?"

"That would be tampering with evidence," Willa said.

"When we go to the police and the board of directors with this, I want to be absolutely sure what we're dealing with. I want to know what our moon rock was replaced with. I need to get a better look first."

Bud and Willa looked at him incredulously.

"Fine," Virgil said. "I'll call Herb Wopat. He's chief of police and he's on the board of directors. Two birds with one stone. I'll get him over here. Then will you get into the display?"

"As long as Herb tells me I can, sure," Bud said.

Herb Wopat arrived ten minutes later—small-town living had its advantages—and ten minutes after that Bud and Willa, fully deputized by Wapakoneta's police chief, started dismantling the lunar rock display. Virgil took the moment to step outside the museum and call his wife.

"Emily, we have a problem," he said.

"I guessed that when you weren't home an hour ago," Emily Augustine replied. "Anyone hurt?"

"No one's hurt. We look to have had a theft. I've got Chief Wopat here and he and Bud and Willa are getting into it, but I need to be around until we've got it cleared up."

"So it's serious."

"If we don't figure it out I think the board of directors might wonder if I should keep my job," Virgil admitted.

"That's not good," Emily said. "You would have to be my kept man until you found a new job." Emily Augustine had a family practice at the Lima Memorial Health System Wapakoneta Medical Center, and made more money than her husband. She worked more, too, which is why the two of them had instituted their date nights in the first place. They might not see each other otherwise.

"There are worse things than being your kept man," Virgil said. "But I would rather keep my job."

"Perfectly reasonable. Okay, you're off the hook for skipping date night this one time. You're going to tell me the whole story when you get home, though."

"Absolutely," Virgil promised. "I still feel bad."

"Then you'll have to make it up to me later," Emily teased. "Anyway, it's fine. I still stuck Libby with babysitting duty, and now I'm sitting on the deck, drinking wine and watching this amazing sky."

Excerpted from When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. Copyright © 2025 by John Scalzi. Excerpted by permission of Tor Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.