Chapter 9

Grace picked up Alex Monday morning. Once they got into the car, she said, “We have a new client. Hogsbane World Casino and Resort is losing money, and they don’t know how it’s happening.”

“Don’t they have their own security? Why are they asking you to investigate this?” Alex asked.

“Their head of security is Orin Hale, a former FBI agent who I went to Quantico with. He oversees casino security and wants a fresh set of eyes, and Special Agent Davidson recommended us.”

She glanced over when she mentioned the FBI agent’s name.

Special Agent Davidson had been involved in the Moondust debacle, and he’d been the one to seize Alex’s PC and try to steal his software. Alex got a ghost of a grin as he remembered when the FBI had tried to breach his security, only to find the PC had fried itself.

Neither Grace nor Janice had been suspicious of Special Agent Davidson at the time. That was until Alex showed them that after the FBI raid to take all his devices, Janice’s landline was tapped, and there were listening devices in the house.

“That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” Grace asked.

“Davidson isn’t to be trusted,” Alex said.

It was good that she’d told him on the ride to the casino and not before, or he wouldn’t have come.

Mandy had gone to CIS. Grace and Alex were off on another case, but Grace had said Lyric could help her.

“I’m hoping you can find a connection between these two deputies and our ex-sheriff.”

“Did you discover something on them?” Lyric asked.

“No. Sheriff Conly thought they would be a good starting point.”

“Oh.”

Mandy saw the girl looked a bit confused.

“What’s wrong?” Mandy asked.

Lyric seemed to snap out of it.

“Nothing. I was just thinking about how I would do this. Leave it to me, and I’ll call you when I find something,” she promised.

The hotel and casino were located just outside a small town in the middle of nowhere. Alex was sure from seeing the full parking lot that more people had to be inside the building than in the surrounding area.

Thankfully, Special Agent Davidson was nowhere in sight when they walked into the casino. Orin met them at the door. He was a tall, ungainly man on the wrong side of middle age, with a forgettable face and eyes as flat as the gray stones above the high tide mark.

Orin took them on a tour of the casino. As Alex walked, his gaze darted around, noting every detail he could; it was part of his nature. He logged every fact he found, from the doors’ shapes to the windows’ heights. Alex made a mental map of everything they passed and every corridor they passed through.

Once the tour was done, they were taken to a conference room next to the security hub. Four other people were there, including Special Agent Davidson who insisted on sitting next to Alex.

Before the meeting started, Davidson leaned close to Alex and asked, “Have you gotten your surveillance system back up and running?”

“That went up in smoke when you tried to force your way into it.”

“So, when I go back to my office, my tech guys won’t find any hidden bugs on my phone?”

“If you’re dumb enough to go back to your office, you might infect the whole FBI network before the day’s out. That should keep your tech guys busy and everyone frowning at your poor judgment,” Alex shot back.

Grace nudged Alex’s shoulder and shook her head ‘no.’ He noted that she had a glint in her eye, telling him she secretly approved of him giving Davidson shit.

The final participant in the meeting came in and took a seat at the head of the table. Introductions were made, and it turned out that the last woman was the chief operating officer of the hotel and casino, Nancy Kent. Grace made her introduction.

“I’m Grace Carter. I was an FBI agent for a number of years, working on organized crime. I left to start my own firm, Carter Investigations and Security, better known as CIS.”

“I see it must be ‘bring your kid to work’ day,” Nancy said.

“I realize Alex might seem out of place, but I’m betting you hired us to get his take on what’s happening here,” Grace said.

“And what exactly is that?” Nancy asked.

“Alex has a unique background. His father was the planner for a criminal organization that pulled off sophisticated heists,” Davidson said. “He came to my attention when Alex assisted in taking down the Russian Mafia when they set up a designer drug factory in Conclave. Without his help, I don’t think that would’ve happened. He can think like a criminal, one smart enough to rob you without leaving a trace.”

“Is that so? Could you rob my casino and not get caught?” Nancy asked.

“Me personally, probably not. But if I had a crew, then absolutely,” Alex said.

Nancy’s eyes narrowed, and when Alex didn’t flinch, she softened her gaze. He suspected she knew who he was when she walked into the room. All this had been some sort of a test.

“I want CIS to work with Orin and Special Agent Davidson to figure out how we’re losing money...”

Grace interrupted her, “I’m sorry, but what we do is proprietary, and we don’t work with the FBI.”

“I promise, no funny business this time,” Davidson said. “We suspect that whoever’s doing this has done it in other states, so the FBI will be the ones to bring them to justice.”

Grace looked at Alex, who shrugged. Now that he knew Davidson couldn’t be trusted, Alex wouldn’t let anything slip by him.

“The FBI can stay,” Grace said.

“Good. Orin, hire CIS and give them anything they need. I want this stopped as soon as possible,” Nancy said and got up.

It seemed the meeting was over.

When it was just the four of them, Grace asked Orin, “What’s your best theory?”

“We began with the assumption it had to be an inside job. We’ve thoroughly investigated that angle and came up blank. Then we turned to our customers. It confuses us because it might be from both our slot machines and table games,” he said.

“That would mean that whoever’s doing it is running two different scams,” Davidson said.

“I thought slot machines were tamper-proof,” Grace said.

“They are, and we’ve had the Oklahoma Gaming Commission in to check machines at random. We also had them check any machines that had big payouts looked at,” Orin said.

“What makes you think you have a problem there?” Grace asked.

“Because the numbers don’t add up. The slots are set up to consistently be a winner for the casino. Our casino has them set up to give back a 90.6% payout rate. Granted, if there are a few big winners during a week, it will affect the percentage. But over time, we’ll take nearly 10% every time someone plays,” Orin explained.

“For the past three months, the payout has been close to 93%,” Davidson said.

“I’m assuming that almost two-and-a-half percent is a big number?” Grace asked.

“Have you seen how big this casino and hotel are?” Orin asked.

“Okay, I get the picture,” Grace said with a chuckle.