Don't Look Twice (25 page)

I
t took a few calls to set up. Vern was able to arrange some interference before the word leaked out. The final call went to Raines. Hauck caught him just as the security man was about to leave for the day.

“Lieutenant…”
He was probably trying to reach Vega. Hearing Hauck, he sounded a little surprised and wary.

Hauck said, “I'd like another shot at blackjack with you, if that's okay.”

“You seem to like the odds here, Lieutenant. You're welcome here any time as a guest. When would you like to come?”

“How about an hour?”

“An hour?”
Raines seemed startled. “You need a refresher course on what you saw before?”

“I thought we might also have a chat about generators,” Hauck said. “How does that sound?”

“Generators…?”
Hauck knew that would get his wheels turning. “I'll make sure we have your special table reserved.”

When Hauck arrived, alone, Raines and two of his security men were waiting in the hotel lobby. This time there was no
phony glad-handing. No playacting back and forth. The security chief's handshake was cold and perfunctory.

“You mind?” Raines eyed him suspiciously, nodded to one of his crew. A black guy in a slick brown suit with a linebacker's build stepped forward and made a move to pat Hauck down.

“It's in the car,” Hauck said, raising his arms freely to comply.

“I'm not interested in whether you're armed,” Raines said. His associate passed an electronic wand over him, searching for recording devices. Hauck didn't resist. The sensor didn't emit a sound. The man nodded back to Raines, satisfied.

“Just to make sure the conversation is entirely between ourselves, Lieutenant,” the security chief said.

Hauck shrugged. “Wouldn't have it any other way.”

“C'mon, then.” Raines grinned. “I have a surprise waiting for you.”

The security team stayed behind as Raines led Hauck into the large casino. It was a Thursday night and the giant room was jammed. The cacophony of a thousand slots, the clanging of bells, and bettors shouting hit him as they walked through the entrance.

“Busy night,” Hauck said.

“Carrie Underwood is here. You should stay for the show, Lieutenant.”

“You know me.” Hauck winked. “All work, no play.”

Raines's eyes gleamed with amusement. “And no bags this time, I see. Shame.” Weaving through the throng, he guided Hauck up to an empty table. Hauck recognized the dealer who seemed to be awaiting them.

“You remember Josie, don't you?” Raines grinned, his mustache parting in a smile.

Hauck smiled, trying to put her at ease. “Course I remember Josie.” The cute blackjack dealer was behind the table, in her starched shirt and vest, her auburn hair in a braided ponytail again. Looking a little humiliated.

The bastard had pulled out all the stops.

“How's school?” Hauck said to her.

Josie blushed, trying to remain professional.

“Oh,
please.
” Raines laughed. “The two of you don't have to be so formal. You probably wouldn't know, but Josie's changed her major since you were here last…She's suddenly been taken with a passion for photography, isn't that right, dear?”

Josie gritted her teeth and didn't reply, but her gaze said it all. It was like daggers back to him, her face finally settling into a compliant smile. She removed several decks of cards and began to shuffle them into a large stack.

“It's good to see you again, Lieutenant…”

“So what is it tonight?” Raines asked. “A refresher course in how things are done here? Oh, that's right, you said something about generators…You'll have to explain what that means. Sounds a bit out of my expertise.” He reached inside his pocket. “Usual stakes? I've brought along some chips…”

Hauck put up his hand and took out five twenties. He slid them across to Josie, who stacked four green chips. “How about tonight I just play mine.”

“As you wish…” Raines shrugged and pulled up a chair across from him. “So what is it you wanted to talk about?”

“Power,”
Hauck said to him as Josie continued to shuffle, cutting the deck several times. “In Iraq. You know how some of those sweetheart deals got set up at the beginning of the war…?”

“I'm afraid I'm not much interested in politics, Lieutenant.
You've come a long way and I'm afraid I can't be of much help to you.”

Josie merged the decks together and slid them across the table to Hauck for a cut. Hauck pushed one of his blue chips into the box.

“I trust you.” He grinned, tapping the top card.

Josie smiled demurely and slid the merged deck into the shoe. She began to deal, sliding Hauck a ten and then a queen across the green felt table.

Twenty. She showed a seven.

Hauck said, “Pat.”

Josie flipped over her hole card, revealing a king. Seventeen. Hauck was a winner.

“Nice start,” Raines said.

Hauck kept the same bet on the table.

“I see you're a little more cautious tonight.”

“This time it's my money.”

Josie dealt out another hand. She started Hauck with a queen. Followed it up with an ace. Blackjack.

Raines said, “Seems like you don't need our help at all tonight, Lieutenant. So no more baiting around; what was it you came to talk about…?”

“I wanted to tell you Vega's dead,” Hauck said to him.

Raines's jaw twitched. His granite-colored pupils barely moved. He feigned ignorance. “
Vega?
”

“He's dead,” Hauck said. “And I know about Warren. So we're back to generators, Raines. And Richard Scayne…Is it all starting to come clearer now?”

This time, the defenses in Raines's gaze seemed to waver and Hauck noticed his fists curl into tight balls. “Josie, do you mind leaving us for a while?” he said. “I don't believe the lieutenant came all this way to play Twenty-one after all…”

“No problem at all,” Josie said. She righted the decks in the shoe. “Good to see you again, Lieutenant.”

She left, right on cue.

“Now, I'm not sure I'm understanding just where you're going with all of this, Lieutenant…,” Raines said, a cutting edge to his tone.

Hauck said, “Oh, I think you do. It's all coming down now, Raines. I know why David Sanger and Keith Kramer were killed. Paul Pacello too. I know who came to you to set it up. I know you enlisted your old army buddy, Vega, along with DR-17, to carry it out.” He looked at him. “So we're back to generators, Raines…Which is the one part I don't yet have figured out. Or maybe it never got there for you. Maybe your higher-ups just asked you to do a favor and that's what you do.”

The veneer on Raines's hard face began to crack.

“Warren talked,” Hauck said. “The party's over. You're the first to go.”

Raines spun a chip on the green felt, staring, as he sorted through the possibilities. The man was no fool and one thing went to the top of the list pretty quickly. He shrugged. “So why haven't you arrested me yet, Lieutenant?”

“Because there are bigger fish to fry…”

Raines nodded. All around, the festive din of the casino seemed to be drowned out. “I don't think so, Lieutenant. Want to know what I think? You say Vega's dead? I don't think you have as much as you're trying to bluff me you do to build a case on. You don't have a weapon. You can't put me at any of the scenes…No lines of communication. You don't even have a witness who ties me to whoever you say did these things.”

“I have Warren.”

“Warren?”
Raines's face lightened into a grin. “What
I
think
you have is a very suspect witness, Lieutenant. Despite the fact that he's your own brother, he probably couldn't even procure a fishing license for himself these days, not to mention a license to practice law. And whose fingers, when it all comes out, are deep in a lot of shady deals.” He nodded sympathetically. “I can see why this is such a pickle for you, Lieutenant. You have your own brother, trying to save his own skin. Whatever we might have talked about, it's just his word against mine. And I have a lot of people backing me up on this. Important people. Just who does your brother have these days?
My
advice…You'd better be careful whose house you try to bring down. It just might fall on you.” He flung out his fingers. “
Boom!
You know what I mean, Lieutenant?”

Hauck forced back the urge to go for the man's throat right there. He held it in check. “I'm giving you a chance to save your skin, Raines, much as that makes me gag. You didn't set this in motion. You were just carrying it out. Like I said, whoever you're protecting, there are bigger fish to fry…”

Raines seemed to be thinking it over, suddenly noticing the resolve shrink just a bit in Hauck's eyes. The tide turn in his favor. “I don't think so, Lieutenant. Don't much like the odds.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice, his tone chummy. “Just between us girls, Lieutenant, maybe your brother and I did talk over a few things. Maybe a certain U.S. attorney's name did come up once or twice. Maybe we did toss around how things might be different if he wasn't so much on the scene. And maybe we did have to cover our tracks just a little…”

“Plan B,” Hauck said.

Raines chuckled. “Everyone's got to have a backup plan, Lieutenant. Poor Keith…how he stumbled in this mess I'll never know. But seems to me your problem is, just how are you ever going to prove all that, Lieutenant? You have any illusions
that your brother's testimony would stand up at trial? With the kind of people he's bedded down with in his career? With all he's got to hide?” Raines laughed loudly and nudged Hauck, clearly enjoying the shifting tide. “Seems to me, you've got nothing that ties me to shit—
nothing,
except a corrupt local lawyer out to save his own skin who might say anything. And his policeman brother, who, in my view, ought to give some serious thought to standing aside as the lead in this investigation.” He grinned. “Maybe take a good look at how to fill some of those new personnel holes in his department…”

It took everything Hauck had not to lunge across the table and mash Raines's face into pulp, the well of anger building up inside him so strong.

Just let the man talk, Ty…

“And let's say you did, Lieutenant, bring me in on this trumped-up testimony. What do you have, beyond some kind of watered-down conspiracy charge? You think any of it would stick?
Generators…Iraq war contracts
…You know who pulls the arm of justice around here, Lieutenant. You're bumping against it right now. Me, I'm just a simple employee of the resort. Paid to protect their interests. And their interests are everywhere. Make no mistake.

“So what do you think?” Raines smiled haughtily. “You got a case against me?” He flicked the black hundred-dollar chip he'd been playing with across the table. “I think not. First rule of gambling, Lieutenant, know who brought the deck before you sit down at the game.”

H
auck gazed past Raines's shoulder at the crowd of milling bettors, the flashing lights, the musical chime of slots going off.

Steve Chrisafoulis stepped out of the crowd.

Raines's back was toward him, so he didn't see him. Steve came up and placed a small recording device next to the unsuspecting security chief's ear.

“Maybe your brother and I did talk over a few things. Maybe a certain U.S. attorney's name did come up once or twice. Maybe we did toss around how things would be different if he wasn't so much on the scene…”

The color drained from Raines's face. He spun, panic rising up in him, saw the recorder and heard his own damning words.

“What the hell is going on?”

Hauck reached over and lifted the stack of cards out of the dealer's shoe. He sorted through them until he came to a place in the deck where a tiny silver disc was attached to one of the cards. “What was it you called that trick…?” Hauck screwed up his brow.
“The false shuffle…”

Raines's eyes burned through him. “I don't understand.”

Hauck led his gaze across the room to Josie, a couple of tables away, who gave a contempt-filled one-handed wave to Raines.

“Like you said”—Hauck stood up from the chair—“you ought to know who brought the deck before you sit down at the game.”

Raines glared toward Josie. “You're dead. Fucking bitch whore…”

Chrisafoulis twisted Raines's arms behind his back. “Joseph Raines, you're under arrest for plotting the deaths of David Sanger and Keith Kramer. You're also under arrest for conspiring to commit the murders of Paul Pacello and Detective Frederico Munoz.”

He slapped a set of cuffs roughly over the security man's wrists.

“You're making a mistake.” Raines spun around. “You don't want to open this up. You don't have any idea where it leads. It won't go anywhere, except to get your own fucking pension revoked, Lieutenant, along with a little brown speck going around in the bottom of the bowl that'll be what's left of your career.”

“Too bad…” Hauck reared and slugged him in the jaw, Raines's feet sliding out from under him, held up only by the two cops who clasped him by the arms.

“Freddy Munoz says hello.” Hauck glared into the cuffed man's eyes.

“I'll be out before morning. You'll see.” Raines tried to jerk out of his grip. “This won't go anywhere. You don't have a fucking clue who this will piss off!”

They turned, the local police running interference as they took Raines through the maze of tables and out of the casino.

Hauck felt jubilant. They had one more stop to make. Up in Hartford.

Who this would piss off?
Hauck had a perfect idea.

They took Raines through the posh glass-atrium lobby.

Suddenly Hauck ran face-first into the last two people he expected to see.

Sculley and Taylor. Flanked by three other tan suits. “Just one minute, Lieutenant…”

What were they doing here?

Agent in Charge Sculley removed a document from his jacket. “We have a warrant to take Mr. Raines into custody for the deaths of David Sanger and Paul Pacello, executed by James Puig, chief prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice in Hartford.”

“What?”
Hauck felt like a sucker punch took the air out of him. He blocked Sculley's path. “You don't have jurisdiction here.”

“I'm afraid we do, Lieutenant. U.S. Attorney Sanger was in the employ of the federal government at the time of his death and the shooting of Mr. Pacello in Maine occurred across state lines. Not to mention that this very building is on property granted by the United States government, making this very much our jurisdiction, Lieutenant. Feel free to petition the Justice Department for the right to transfer Mr. Raines out of our custody. I'm sure they'll be awaiting your state attorney's brief.”

He stared helplessly at the warrant as two of the junior agents took hold of Raines.

Stan Taylor smirked. “Sorry about this, Lieutenant…”

Ire flashed up in Hauck. It was like with Vega all over again. Hauck had put his life on the line. Freddy Munoz had given his life.

They were stealing his case.

“You can have your attorneys file a petition of subrogation,” Sculley said, “but I wouldn't be overly confident. Mr. Raines is a pivotal cog in an ongoing corruption investigation of ours…”

“Corruption investigation?”

“I told you.” Raines cackled as they whisked him away through the lobby. “I told you you had no idea where this went or what was involved. Have fun, Lieutenant! It was awfully nice playing with you. Have fun proving your case.”