Vegas, Baby (21 page)

“It doesn’t make sense.” Gabe paused, his frustration mounting over his two best undercover agents seemingly losing their heads to the love bug. “A guy like Atkins needs a reason and a purpose to do anything. Trust me…he’s not about to play these amateurish games she’s got you so convinced of.”

“It makes perfect sense.” Rio snapped with a sharp laugh. “I can’t believe you don’t see it.”

“Wrap it up, Laraquette,” Gabe insisted with cautionary undertones. “I can believe that Perzinsky is a little more aware than he’s letting on. So concentrate on him for now. I don’t want to hear any more about who’s doing what until you squeeze a name out of him.” Gabe barked out his orders. “Is that clear?” he added, knowing she probably had no intention of refraining from continuing on with her present course.

Gabe decided to give her until tomorrow morning before he took matters into his own hands. Lester Perzinsky was their best bet for a solid break in the gambling case.

* * *

Paul Rivera moved quickly through the maze of desks, heading directly for Laraquette and LaCall. “Lab results,” he said, offering a sealed manila envelope.

Rio and Eddie stood, and Eddie moved around to the front of his desk, taking the envelope from Rivera. Securing his fingertip in a small opening at the envelope’s flap, he raked it against the seal and ripped it open. He snatched the contents out and scanned the document.

“Well?” Rio’s voice was a little shaky.

Eddie paused, letting the magnitude of the test results sink in. He cleared his throat and put extra effort into speaking calmly when he said, “The candy was poisoned. Strychnine.” He looked at Rio to see for himself that she was okay. “Luckily, the roses weren’t dusted with a powder form, so we don’t have to worry about everyone being exposed to an airborne version of the toxin.” Eddie could easily guess why that was. “However, one piece of candy contained more than enough poison to render a fatal dose.”

The whole thing made perfect sense and only served to confirm Switzer’s guilt in Eddie’s eyes. If it were anyone else who’d gone to the trouble of sending Rio roses and candy, and poison the candy but not the roses when a powder form would be just as easy to obtain—why wouldn’t they have dusted the flowers, too? The doer obviously meant to kill her, considering the amount of poison injected into each piece of candy. Why wouldn’t they have covered all their bases and included a light dusting on the roses—as kind of like and insurance policy?

Of course, anyone else in the vicinity would have inhaled the poison as well. Hum…it would appear the stalker was trying to spare Rio’s colleagues who just so happened to be around her. This reeked of Switzer.

And where the hell was Switzer, anyway?

Eddie folded the lab results and stuffed the paperwork back inside the envelope. He paused to gain control of his thoughts and feelings. He was determined to shield his fear of losing Rio to a sicko’s vendetta. He’d thought he could protect her since he knew who the enemy was. Now he realized he was wrong. With Switzer playing dirty pool, Eddie felt like he was right back where he started—scared to death he was going to lose Rio to the guy’s vindictive campaign.

* * *

Eddie tapped on the door to Gabe’s office before opening it and popping his head inside. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Come in, LaCall.” Gabe waved him inside. Frustration colored his expression as he watched Eddie cross the room and take a seat. “Tell me about the connection between you and John Walters,” he said of the murder victim who’d recently been in the employment of James Laraquette.

Eddie thought about playing dumb. Briefly. After an inkling of consideration, he thought better of it and decided to tell his boss what he knew. “I asked Mr. Laraquette to put a tail on Blake Switzer and Naomi Thomas.”

“Let me get this straight, LaCall—” Gabe shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “You’re still following this Switzer angle? After searching his house and finding nothing?”

“Well, the fact that his tail is dead kind of collaborates my suspicions,” Eddie said. “And now with the candy and flowers that Rio’s received, and the fact that Switzer’s nowhere to be found….”

“I saw the lab results on the candy and flowers,” Gabe’s tone mellowed right along with his realization that someone was truly out to get Rio. “Whoever sent them, they certainly aren’t playing.”

“Considering that each piece of candy contained enough strychnine to kill an elephant…clearly, the stalker wanted Rio dead.” Eddie appeared to be still pondering that notion out loud rather than trying to convince Gabe.

“Or somebody,” Gabe said. “Think about it…strychnine takes what—thirty minutes or so to take effect?” He questioned Eddie with vague curiosity. “In half an hour’s time, how many people do you think could’ve wandered over to Rio’s desk to sample the candy?”

“If the stalker didn’t care who they took out in the process of getting to Rio...” The inquiry meandered out in Eddie’s questioning tone. “Why didn’t they just dust the flowers with a powder form of the toxin, too? As kind of like an insurance policy?”

Eddie had a point. The stalker didn’t care who ate the candy, so why not dust the flowers too?

For the first time, Gabe Dalton seriously considered that Blake Switzer—the object of Rio’s unrequited love—could be her stalker.

Gabe sighed heavily. “Send someone out to Switzer’s house and see if he’s there. Wherever he is, he should be escorted here in an official capacity.”

“Do you want me to go, sir?” Eddie asked hopefully.

“No,” he answered with a swift shake of the head. “You need to concentrate on Perzinsky…our time is running out. Plus, I’d like Switzer to be alive when he gets here.”

CHAPTER 30

RIO stopped outside Lester Perzinsky’s holding room long enough to gather her composure. She had to get Blake Switzer’s demented actions out of her mind, and the only way to do that was preoccupy herself with another case.

She camouflaged her face with ambiguity as she stormed into the room. She slammed the door behind her for good measure. The window pane rattled from the blow, and Lester jumped as if he’d been sleeping. He opened his eyes lazily and his gaze fell to the phone in her hands.

She sat down across from him and placed the telephone on the table in front of her. They eyed each other for a moment, as if in a crucial stare down where winner takes all. She had to be the winner. Only a few hours remained of the standard seventy-two hours they could hold Lester without charging him. If they couldn’t scare him into turning on Atkins, they’d have to charge him and then it was game over.

“Okay.” She spoke first, not necessarily giving in. “In case you don’t remember…we offered to put in a good word for you over at the Sunset if you helped us with the poker tournament. So what’s it going to be?” Her tone was just like her glare, cold and hard. “You want to be the police’s hero? Or would you rather wear the title of scapegoat and line the management’s pockets over there with more money than you could ever hope to steal from the casino?”

Uncertainty clouded Lester’s senses. She definitely had a point. That guy, Carpenter—the one who ran the place—he would undoubtedly blame Lester for every missing penny and then some. Perhaps if he cooperated with the cops, Carpenter wouldn’t be able to do that. Then again, assisting the cops meant crossing a man who, he’d heard, often killed simply for sport. Even so, Lester did not want to go to jail.

The girl grabbed the phone and scooted her chair back. She twisted around and plugged the cord into the phone jack on the wall behind her. And, as if she could see Lester’s inner struggle, she slammed the phone back down on the table.

She knew with a guy like Perzinsky she had to fight fire with fire. The only way to get to guys like him was to convince him that his mark was a bigger crook than he, and would most certainly find a way to benefit from Lester’s unfortunate luck. Unless, of course, he had someone vouching for him. Someone like the police.

Well, the police’s word probably wasn’t going to carry quite as much weight as Perzinsky hoped. Still, Rio would do as she promised and put in a good word for him if it meant she could get to the bottom of this tainted gambling mess. Only in Lester’s wildest imagination would he walk away unscathed. But, in the reality of the situation Rio knew, even if he didn’t, he was not going to walk away scot-free.

She eyed him a moment, and then stood as she picked up the receiver. Unyielding, she punched the zero button with her forefinger and sat down on the edge of the table facing Lester.

“Get me Calvin Carpenter over at the Golden Sunset,” she said into the phone, but kept her menacing glare on Lester. She could easily guess that he knew exactly who Carpenter was. After a moment’s pause, she added, “Thanks.” With a smirk, she glared at Perzinsky. “When I hear his voice on the other end of the line
…
our deal is off the table. I’m sure the brass over at the Golden Sunset will seal you under the jail, and then some. They’ll probably recoup millions from the insurance and line their pockets, saying
you
stole it from them.”

The uncertainty clouding his eyes moments before had faded, giving way to defeat. He raised his cuffed hands, “Okay…okay,” he said, caving in.

* * *

Gabe Dalton cast glances of suspicion and disbelief across his desk into the eyes of Rio and Eddie. Fidgeting in his chair, he’d heard what they’d said, he just couldn’t accept it.

“Perzinsky fingered Turner Atkins as the man who paid him to rig the poker tournament…and you believe him?” Gabe questioned them both with incredible poise, suppressing the urge to lunge across the desk and smack their heads together, hoping to knock some sense into their noggins.

“Why would he lie, making false accusations?” Eddie wondered, folding his arms across his chest and propping a foot up on his knee. “Especially about a guy like Turner Atkins.” He didn’t overlook the ridiculousness of that notion or the danger the idea could bring.

“Exactly.” Gabe sounded agreeable. “Why would he accuse a guy like Atkins
…
guilty or not?” He shook his head, as if he didn’t understand the reasoning behind the allegation regardless of its worth.

“Well...” Rio snorted. “Maybe because it’s true!” She still marveled at the ease with which Lester had said he’d been able to stack the decks of cards prior to them being unveiled at the designated tables at the beginning of each match in the poker tournament.

“Is Perzinsky on the inside?” Gabe inquired, the idea just coming into his mind. He couldn’t recall ever hearing the guy’s name mentioned before.

“No…” Rio’s voice lingered on as she mocked the notion. “Lester’s just an insignificant little man who stumbled upon what he so eloquently refers to as a
cash cow
.”

“He stumbled onto it?” Gabe asked, his face skewing into a bewildered state.

“Well...” Eddie chuckled. “It all started with a gold-digging girlfriend who wanted too much.” Eddie wasn’t overlooking the circumstances and Perzinsky’s lack of willpower that had put the guy in a position he’d probably never recover from.

“When Lester’s beer budget couldn’t keep up with Meredith’s champagne tastes…he resorted to desperate measures.” Rio summed it up simply. “Well, that’s the way he sees it, anyway.”

“So Perzinsky rounded up a stable of girls to assist him in his little markers’ scam.” Eddie waved one hand in the air and then laid it across his chest. “It was like a dream come true. For every girl that assisted him on a daily basis—as of recent, three or four a day—that meant a clear four hundred and fifty bucks for each one.”

“That still doesn’t explain how he got mixed up with Atkins.” Gabe shrugged, dismissing any possible connection so far.

Rio glanced at Eddie, raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. “I guess you had to be there.”

“The problem arose when Perzinsky approach a woman who—as he put it—was connected to Turner Atkins.” Eddie continued on with the details before Gabe had a chance to get riled up at Rio’s comical wit. “Word got back to Turner and he summoned the lowly pit boss for a little discussion.”

“That’s when Perzinsky thought he was done for,” Rio said. “But to his surprise Atkins laid his own marker at Lester’s feet…reserving the right to call it in some day.”

“Right after Rio busted him a couple months ago, Atkins did just that,” Eddie said, as if the mob boss calling in his favor shouldn’t have been a great surprise to Lester.

The expression on Gabe’s face perked up as he glanced optimistically back and forth between Rio and Eddie.

“Yes,” Rio said, anticipating his next question, “Perzinsky has visited Turner in jail…more than once, in fact.”

“Does he know why Atkins wants the tournament rigged in such an indiscernible fashion?” Gabe asked.

“That, he doesn’t know.” Rio shrugged. “Can you blame him? Guys like Lester don’t ask guys like Turner
why
they’re doing anything.”

“But,” Eddie said, “like Rio says…wouldn’t it be just like him to try and best her?”

“You know we’re going to need more than Perzinsky’s word on this.” Gabe blew out a sigh. A cue that his patience was wearing thin.

“That’s why I’m going to wire Perzinsky and send him in to pay a little visit to Atkins,” Eddie announced.

“Let me know what happens.” Gabe’s short response told Eddie and Rio the meeting was coming to an end. “Has anybody seen Switzer?” he asked, more like an offhanded afterthought.

“No, sir,” they said in unison, and then turned to look at one another.

Where was Switzer?

Finding that answer was the first order of business for Eddie. Ever since he’d arrived in Vegas the guy had been practically stuck right up Rio’s butt. The fact that now he was nowhere to be seen, and hadn’t been since right before Rio’s tainted gifts arrived, was proof enough of his guilt for Eddie.

But Eddie needed solid evidence. And where was he going to get that? Switzer had been thorough if nothing else. Well, if all else failed, he could beat a confession out of Switzer.

The thought froze in Eddie’s head and the chill expanded all the way down to his heart. He found no comfort in his newfound willingness to bend the rules, and even less in the idea of losing Rio.

She cleared her throat as they shuffled out into the hallway. “Do you think it’s possible that Switzer’s the one you’re after?” She waited until he looked at her, and then continued, “The one you came here looking for?”

“Makes sense,” Eddie said with a measure of reservation.

“And mighty convenient.” She said out loud what he’d been thinking. That didn’t mean it wasn’t so, just that he should put all his eggs in that basket.

“If I happen upon evidence regarding my initial mission here. Cool,” he said with a shrug. “Otherwise—and I know you don’t believe me, but my priority right now is keeping you safe.”

“Yeah.” She cut a piercing glare at him. “So you say.”

Eddie thought about objecting, defending his position, but decided against it. Getting back into Rio’s good graces was going to take time. And he had plenty of time—so long as he made sure no harm came to Rio.

“How did you do it?” Her questioning tone dragged him out of his private ramblings.

“Do what?” Eddie asked. They stopped in front of the interrogation room housing Lester Perzinsky.

“How did you get Lester to agree to go see Turner wired? And so quickly?”

“My trusty powers of persuasion.” Eddie He glanced at her with a wink and an inviting smile—to which Rio rolled her eyes. “I simply told him that you were still itching to get that guy from the Golden Sunset on the phone,” Eddie said. “And if he didn’t agree to go see Atkins wired…I was gonna let you do it.”

“So can I go in with you?” Her eagerness to goad Perzinsky seeped out in her voice.

“Since neither Gabe nor your father is here, I guess you’ll have to,” he said. “Besides…maybe your presence will be an added inducement for Lester, in case he’s thinking about changing his mind.” Eddie hadn’t overlooked the fact that no one, as of yet, had seen or heard from Blake Switzer. Until he found out where his main suspect was and what his next move might be, Eddie had no intention of letting Rio out of his sight.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Let’s do this,” he said, opening the door.

Lester glanced up to see both his nemeses enter the room. Could this get any worse? He hung his head and closed his eyes. What he had agreed to do was bad enough without having to hold conversation with these two. He didn’t need them rattling his composure. He tried to ignore their presence as they sat down directly across from him.

Lester drew a deep breath. He wasn’t exactly happy about being double-teamed, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. He glanced up at the Feds. “Okay, I’m ready.” He let his worrisome gaze travel from the guy to the girl. She had some trigger-happy fingers and she looked like she’d be more than thrilled to ruin him with a simple phone call.

The guy reached across the table and dropped a ring in front of Lester. The stone in the setting sparkled, catching his eye. He scooped up the ring between his thumb and forefinger and glanced at the cops across from him. Was the ring some kind of strange compensation?

“You’ll wear the ring when you go see Atkins,” the guy said. “It’s your wire.”

“Really...?” Lester was secretly impressed. Even so, he tried to hide it. Atkins would never suspect the ring as a wire. “Can I keep it?” he added, thinking the diamond looked real.

“Sure.” The cop smirked. “If it doesn’t bother you to have Federal eyes on your every move.”

Oh, yeah
. Lester had forgotten about that.

“I want you to go in there and tell Atkins you think the cops have figured out the tournament is rigged, and ask him if he wants you to continue on as planned.” The guy coached Lester. The girl remained strangely quiet. “That’ll open the door for conversation. Encourage him to talk about any aspect of the tournament that he wants. And whatever you do…keep him feeling confident that we are not onto you or him.”

“What if he sees through me?” Lester wondered merely for curiosity’s sake.

“Well...” The girl finally spoke. “You’d better hope that doesn’t happen.”

That could mean only one thing. If Lester didn’t deliver to their satisfaction, she was going to make that phone call.