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  “I’ll call her and thanks for the warning, but I don’t think it will do much good. You know how persistent she can be. She’ll stay in my face until I say yes or croak!”

  As Chuck hurries back to the group of witnesses and starts to interview an elderly couple who appear to be getting a big kick out of all the excitement, Red turns to Bill and says, “At first, I thought you were kidding about Chuck being the mayor’s brother and your brother in-law, but now that I know you weren’t do you think he could get a parking ticket squashed? I got one yesterday in front of Hero’s Sandwich Shoppe when the time ran out on the meter.”

  “No way, Red. Chuck’s so clean he squeaks.”

  “Well, I guess I’m glad to hear that. It’s the only good thing I’ve heard about so far today. Let’s go find out what the damage is.”

  As they head for the cage, Sonya Aguirre the cashier cage shift supervisor is just finishing her interview with one of the police officers and calls out to them. “I haven’t had a chance yet to assess how much money was taken. Give me thirty minutes and I’ll have what you’ll need for the insurance people.” They both nod their heads and head for Red’s office.

  Chapter 3

  Back in Red’s office, Red checks his e-mail and there’s a message from Joe Amato confirming the meeting. “Bill, I’m meeting with all of the other casino managers in town tomorrow afternoon at two o’clock in our conference room. We’re going to have a brain storming session to see if we can come up with a scheme to catch whoever is doing all of this cheating in our casino. I want you there.”

  “I’ll be there. I’m really stumped as to what other measures we might put in place to thwart whoever is behind all of this. I’m having some very unsettling thoughts though. What’s bewildering me is why I or any of my people haven’t been able to detect anything that might help us nab this crook. As much as I hate to think it, the robbery and all of this cheating could be the work of someone who works for us.”

  “I’ve been having the same kinds of thoughts, Bill. Whoever is behind all of this sure knows our operation inside and out.” There’s a lull in their conversation as they both fall into deep thought, canvassing with their mind’s eye all of the employees of the casino, looking for anything that might make someone stand out from the crowd as a likely prospect. The silence is broken by the buzzing of Red’s intercom. It’s Sonya. Red puts her on the speaker.

  “Red, I’ve got the final number and it isn’t a pretty figure, $196,373.”

  Bill asks, “Sonya, did the robber take any chips or tokens?”

  “No, Bill, just cash.”

  Red asks her, “Sonya, how are the cashiers holding up? Do any of them need any counseling?”

  “I don’t think so. I’ve worked with these people for over four years and I think I know them fairly well. They were a little shaken up at first, but now they’re just mad because they couldn’t think of anything to do to foil the holdup.”

  “Well, you tell them for me that they did just fine. I don’t want any dead heroes over money, ever!”

  The connection is broken and Red and Bill resume their thinking only to be interrupted again a few minutes later by Red’s outside line ringing. This time it’s the Mississippi Valley Gaming Commissioner, Curtis Crowley, and he’s hopping mad.

  It seems the Commissioner just found out that Red had his trouble making son arrested a couple of nights ago for picking a fight with one of the Black Jack dealers and then subsequently banned him from the Palladian Palace. The son has been repeatedly creating scenes for some time now by starting arguments with other customers and employees. Taking a swing at the dealer after he busted five times in a row was the last straw. Because he was Crowley’s son, Red had been tolerating his misbehavior and even tried talking to him a couple of times with the hope that he would change his ways, but this joker is irascible to the core.

  “Borman, who the hell do you think you are having my son arrested? I know he can be rambunctious, but he was only kicking up his heels and having a little fun. You were young once, didn’t you ever do that? He’s entering law school this fall and an arrest record could prevent him from taking the bar exam.” This brief tirade which was interspersed with a lot of four letter words ended with the Commissioner asking, “Red, see what you can do about having the record show that the arrest came about due to a miscommunication between you and the police, okay?”

  “Commissioner, your son has a serious anger management problem. If he doesn’t do something about it, one day he’s going to find himself in some very deep manure. I’ve tried talking to him, but to no avail. Maybe it’s going to take something like him getting arrested to motivate him to change his ways. So, it’s not okay. I won’t step in and try to whitewash the incident with a lie. Your son has to learn that he must deal with the consequences of his actions.”

  After a lot of name calling, the Commissioner slammed his phone down with the warning, “You are going to regret this, Borman, believe me, you are going to regret this.”

  “Wonderful! That’s just wonderful! I don’t have enough problems. Now I’ve got a revenge seeking Commissioner on my back. Driving a hack is getting to look better and better.”

  Bill responds with, “What’s this about a hack?”

  “It’s my own personal escape hatch if my life blows up before my eyes. If I ever develop anger management problems, I can blow off steam by driving through puddles and soaking unsuspecting pedestrians. I might even manage to drench some yo-yos like the Commissioner’s son. Yeah! That would make my day.”

  Bill begins edging towards the door mumbling, “The pressure’s getting to him. He’s starting to flip out. I better update the resume and mass mail it before he completely goes crackers.”

  Red laughs and says, “Careful now. You never want to tick off a cabbie. He might leave you off in the boonies someday with no help in sight.”

  Bill laughs and leaves. Red’s thinking to himself, “The Commissioner’s outburst is going to seem like a high school cheer compared to how he’s going to react when he finds out about the cheating and the robbery and my not clueing him in. I’ve been meaning to call him, but things have been moving so fast I just haven’t had the time. Man, what a lame excuse. He’s never going to buy it, especially after today’s episode.”

  Chapter 4

  The next morning Bill stopped by Red’s office with the results of the interviews the police had with the witnesses. “Remarkably, most of the witnesses gave the same information regarding the robber’s description. From the sound of the robber’s voice it was a man. He spoke with no distinguishing accent or sound to his voice. He’s approximately six feet tall, medium build, light complexioned and was wearing tan chinos, tan socks, brown Vans, a beige jacket zipped up to his chin and sunglasses. He wasn’t wearing a hat, his hair was dark brown and it was thick and wavy. The guy lying on the floor that snuck a peek and saw the robber running away said the guy must be in pretty good physical shape because he flew up the stairs. That’s it. It’s not much to go on, but it’s a start.”

  “Thanks, Bill. You’re right. It’s not much, but at least we know he’s not a midget.”

  At 2 p.m., all of the casino managers are sitting around the Palladian Palace conference table and Red stands up to bring the meeting to order.

  “I believe everyone is here, so let’s get started. Before we begin, I want to thank all of you for your willingness to get together to see if we can come up with something that will lead to the capture and incarceration of the person or persons involved in the cheating that is going on at the Palladian Palace. If we can, our solution can be applied in all of your casinos and insulate you from the frustration and Excedrin headaches I’m going through.” This last brings a few chuckles from the gathering and Red continues.

  “So, let me start out by introducing my head of security, Bill Kieffer, who will fill you in on what has been going on here and what we have done so far to discover who is behind all of the chicanery. Bill, the f
loor is yours.”

  Bill gives them a rundown and then says, “We’ve been working around the clock looking for clues that might help us catch who’s behind this, but so far have come up with zip. Whoever is doing this is very clever and very careful to blend in with the crowd and not leave anything behind that might implicate him in any way. He has exceptional knowledge of casino operations, especially ours, and possibly might be a former or current employee of a casino, including the Palladian Palace.

  “We were surprised that we weren’t hit over the holiday. The large crowds would have provided an excellent opportunity to do some serious damage. The reason for this though could be something as simple as the flu.

  “Gentlemen, we don’t want to remain in a reactive state, hoping that whoever is behind this cheating will make a mistake serious enough to lead to their apprehension. This might never happen and the longer this cheating goes on the greater the chances are that the Palladian Palace could wind up in the has been pile. We believe that the only way these guys are going to be caught is by luring them into a trap of some kind. The bait must be irresistible, the trap inescapable. Does anyone have any idea how this might be accomplished?”

  The ensuing silence was discouraging, but then Ted Weinstein who manages Player’s Paradise came up with what was needed to get the creative juices flowing. “From what Bill has told us, I think there’s a strong possibility that only one person is doing the cheating. The reason I say this is because of the high quality of the equipment being used. If there were more than one person using it, the losses would be much higher. I’m also going to make a couple of assumptions, the first being that the cheater is deliberately keeping the losses down because he has an agenda that has nothing to do with the money in and of itself. If that were the case, the losses would be much higher and have occurred in more of a hit and run fashion and in other casinos as well.

  “I believe the person behind this is not interested in the money or in any other casino but the Palladian Palace. I believe the first step in coming up with a plan to catch this individual is to come up with some motive or motives for making the Palladian Palace the target for all of this cheating.”

  As Ted finishes up he has all of the other managers nodding in agreement and Joe Amato picks up the ball with, “What you said makes a lot of sense. Let’s just brainstorm, making up a list of all the possible motives we can think of and then eliminating them one by one until we have something we’re comfortable with to build a plan around. I’ll start it off with a couple of the obvious. An unhappy loser or a disgruntled employee or former employee.”

  After about an hour they had come up with the following:

  Revenge:

  - Unhappy loser

  - Disgruntled employee/former employee

  - Job applicant that was denied employment

  - Someone who perceives mistreatment of someone else close to the cheater

  - Someone harboring a lot of hatred/resentment aimed at senior management

  Money:

  - A competitor who seeks ruination of the Palladian Palace

  - Someone needs a limited amount of money for a specific purpose

  Jealousy:

  - Someone jilted by an employee of the Palladian Palace

  - Someone who envies a position held by an employee of the Palladian

  - Palace

  Status:

  - Someone who seeks to benefit by gaining a higher status or more

  - recognition internally or externally through the negative impact that the

  - cheating could have on the Palladian Palace

  When the creative juice well appears to have run dry, Red says, “Well, it looks like we’ve brought to light the most probable motives. Bill and I have been knocking our brains out scanning our employee roster, looking for someone or something that might make someone standout as a possible suspect and we’ve gotten zilch for our efforts. Now that we have identified a more complete list of things we should be looking for, we’ll have at it again and I’m hoping we’ll have better results. The more I think about the situation, the more I’m becoming convinced that I may be the target this cheater is aiming at. I sure am a likely target for anyone having any of the motives we’ve listed. One thing is for sure, we’ve got to come up with something quick or this guy may hit the target dead center.”

  Bill picks up on Red’s train of thought by saying, “I think Red is onto something. If everything that has been going on is being restricted to the Palladian Palace, it’s quite plausible to think that Red is the real target of all this harassment and not the casino. I suggest we examine each of the motives we’ve listed and how they might relate to Red specifically. We might uncover a new path that will lead us to the identity of this malcontent.”

  Joe Amato steps in with, “What you suggest might be a good place to start even though it doesn’t address how we’re going to catch this guy. It might, however, provide something solid on which we can build an escape proof trap. Before we get started though, nature’s calling me. I think we should all take a break to stretch our legs, visit the restroom, grab a cup of coffee or whatever.”

  Red responds with, “That’s a good idea, Joe. Let’s resume at 4:15.” As the meeting recesses, Red turns to Bill and asks, “What could I have done that was so bad that someone would go to such lengths to bring me down for it?”

  “Nothing immediately comes to mind, but I’m glad we’re doing something constructive that might give us the answer to your question.” and with a smile he adds, “At least we’re no longer floundering around like fish out of water. Floundering, fish, flounder, fish, get it? Am I clever or am I clever?”

  Red groans and says, “I knew I should have hired that security gal from Brinks instead of you. She’s not only better looking; she would also be much more sensitive to my plight.”

  Bill laughs, turns to go get some coffee, but stops when his cell phone begins to sound off. He answers, listens for a few seconds then disconnects. “That was my admin. Guess who’s waiting for me in my office?”

  “The producer of American Idol. He wants you to audition for his show. Take my advice, don’t do it. You’ll bomb.”

  “Very funny. Well, laugh this off. It’s Commissioner Crowley and he wants to talk to me regarding some breaches of security he’s hearing rumors about.”

  “Uh oh. I know I shouldn’t be surprised that word has leaked out what with the number of people familiar with what’s been going on around here. I wonder how big the leak is and who’s flapping his gums. It could be someone in the Bettendorf Police Department, someone attending this meeting or one of our employees. I’m also wondering about who else might have heard these rumors. If these rumors become public knowledge, our survival will depend on how quickly we can get to the bottom of what’s happening here and put a stop to it. Aw, nuts, nuts, nuts! Call your admin back and have her tell Crowley that apparently you have left the building and she will have you contact him first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we’ll have a better idea by then about what you should say to him.”

  Bill complied and as he hung up the other casino managers began taking their seats around the conference table.

  For the next several hours these managers demonstrated their willingness and commitment to help by developing a wide variety of plausible scenarios that might reflect who was behind the cheating and why. Every possibility imaginable was examined closely with off the wall ideas flying around the room like a swarm of bees around their queen. One by one, each idea was evaluated for its merit and subsequently discarded. Everyone was beginning to feel as though they had set for themselves an impossible task. Each and every scenario they came up with was no more feasible than any other. Nothing stood out. They were about to pack it in when the manager of the Place Your Bet, Ron Stahlberg, who had been more restrained with his input compared to his colleagues, came up with an interesting alternative.

  “Gentlemen, I believe I’m safe in saying that all we’ve accomplish
ed here today is now we know that what we set out to do is impossible because there are too many variables. Has it been a waste of time? I don’t think so because now we know we must try a different tact. We’ve got to look at the problem from a different perspective. We all agree that the reason behind all of these incidents most likely has something to do with Red. If we work with this assumption, it’s logical to also assume that Red has done something that has really ticked off the person committing all of these crimes, so much so that this individual is willing to take considerable risk to make Red pay for what he has done. I also want to make one more assumption. I believe this person is very skilled at creating a wide variety of disguises and this is why the casino’s cameras haven’t been able to spot him as a possible suspect. This guy is a real chameleon.