Agatha Raisin: As The Pig Turns (18 page)

She put fifty dollars on thirteen, and to her amazement, she won. She then played another fifty on seven and won again. ‘Third time lucky, honey,’ said an excited woman beside her.
Toni played on, she lost some, but then won again, and again. Common sense took over and she decided to stop playing.

‘Luck hardly ever goes on happening,’ remarked Toni, gathering up her chips. When she cashed in her chips, she found she had won nearly two thousand dollars. She went off to find
Chelsea, who was still feverishly playing the slot machines. ‘I’ve won quite a bit,’ said Toni. ‘Let’s get something to eat.’

‘Later,’ muttered Chelsea. ‘I’ll let you know.’

Toni found a café serving snacks and settled down to eat. She noticed a few people were smoking. The café had a balcony overlooking the main floor of the casino.

She shot some more pictures and then focussed on the slot machines where she had left Chelsea. She put away her camera and phoned her. The ringing stopped and went into voice mail. She texted
her, saying she would meet her at the entrance. First, she searched along the rows and rows of slot machines without finding Chelsea.

Toni waited nervously at the entrance, standing next to a security guard for safety, saying she was waiting for her friend.

She became anxious. If Chelsea had met some man, surely she would have phoned or texted. Maybe her phone didn’t work in the States after all.

At last, the sympathetic security guard got someone to take her up to the surveillance room. There were banks and banks of cameras photographing every part of the casino. Toni tried to estimate
how long had passed since she had left Chelsea. Perhaps just over an hour. She pleaded to look at film of the slot machines around that time.

The film ran. Then she cried, ‘Stop! That’s her!’ Chelsea could be seen avidly pulling the handle of a slot machine. They ran the film forward. Chelsea rose. She was talking to
someone, looking surprised and then anxious. She said something and took out her phone. Then she shook her head. Her companion said something else. Chelsea looked startled. With her new companion,
she moved towards the entrance. Chelsea kept looking wildly round as if seeking help. They disappeared outside the casino.

‘Are there cameras outside?’ asked Toni. The operator switched over to the outside. Chelsea was thrust into the driver’s seat of a Lexus and then scrambled over to the
passenger side. The car drove off.

‘Looks bad,’ said the operator heavily. ‘Stay where you are, little lady, and we’ll get the cops.’

‘Can’t you get a clear picture of that man?’ cried Toni.

‘He’s got a baseball cap pulled right down. Could be anyone.’

At first, the police tried to tell Toni that her friend had probably gone off with some man for a quickie and would soon be back. ‘She’s not like that,’
howled Toni. ‘Well, maybe. But she would have found me and told me. I’m telling you, she was frightened.’

‘We’ve got the number of the car,’ said a sergeant wearily. ‘Go back to your hotel and wait for her.’

So Toni did just that. Once in her room, she phoned Agatha. ‘Who is this Chelsea?’ demanded Agatha.

‘Just someone I was at school with,’ said Toni. ‘It was a last-minute decision to go with her.’

‘What does she look like?’

‘Well, blonde, slim – in fact, she did herself up to look a bit like me. Said we’d look like sisters.’

‘Give me the number of your hotel. I’ll go straight to police headquarters. I want still shots of that man from the casino. And the minute I’ve got that over with, I’m
coming out to join you. What’s your hotel like?’

‘Horrible. It’s called the Old Prairie Ranch.’

‘Sit tight in case she turns up.’

Toni changed into a T-shirt and jeans, stretched out on the lumpy bed and waited. She thought the police would contact her again, but it seemed the case of a young girl going off with a man was
hardly top priority.

She fell into an uneasy sleep and woke late in the morning. She asked the clerk in reception to contact the Las Vegas Police Department for her and waited anxiously. She was passed from one
voice to another. When she finally got someone who knew about Chelsea’s disappearance, he tried to reassure her that her friend had probably gone off on a one-night stand and would soon turn
up. She was urged to give it more time. When the sergeant was interrupted, she was just being told not to be impatient. He barked, ‘Hold the line.’ When he came back on again, he said,
‘Two of our detectives are coming out to talk with you, miss.’

Movement at last, thought Toni. She went downstairs to the reception area. Traffic going into Las Vegas roared past on the road outside, which shimmered in the heat.

Then a black car drove up and two men got out. ‘Miss Gilmour?’ they demanded as Toni rushed out to meet them.

‘May I see your identification?’ demanded Toni.

She studied their badges and said, ‘Let’s go inside.’

One detective was as thin as the other was fat. The thin one introduced himself as Wight Bergen and the other as Parry Hyer. They explained they had received a call from England, and there was a
suspicion that Chelsea had been abducted in mistake for Toni. Search and Rescue were out over the desert, looking for any sign of her.

They were efficient and courteous. Toni found it something of a relief to tell the two attentive detectives the story of the murders and the abduction of Roy from the beginning.

She had just finished when a taxi screeched to a halt outside the hotel. ‘Snakes and bastards!’ came a familiar voice. ‘Was that as fast as this clapped-up wreck could
go?’

‘Look, lady, pay up and shut up.’

‘My boss,’ said Toni, running out to meet Agatha. Never before had she been so glad to see Agatha’s abrasive presence.

Agatha paid the driver, adding, ‘And no tip to you for being so damned cheeky, and I bet you went the long way round.’

‘There are two detectives here,’ said Toni as the driver gave Agatha the finger and roared off. ‘You were quick.’

‘Got the first plane out, and you’re hours behind England here.’

Toni took Agatha’s bag from her. Agatha’s bearlike eyes surveyed the hotel. ‘I’ll see these detectives and then we’ll get out of this fleapit.’

‘But if Chelsea comes back, she’ll expect to find me here!’

‘We’ll leave her a note. We’ll book into that hotel where the casino is.’

Agatha was introduced to the detectives.

‘Your assistant has already explained everything to us,’ said Parry.

‘Is there any chance of getting some stills from the video of Chelsea being taken from the casino?’ asked Agatha.

‘We already have some. We’ll take you along to headquarters and you can have a look. Think you might recognize someone?’

‘It’s a slim hope,’ said Agatha. ‘Run and pack your bag, Toni. Do you need to settle your bill?’

‘I’ve just a bit of room service to pay for. The rest was part of a package deal.’

‘I’ll see to that. Get your case.’

Soon they were on their way to the Las Vegas Police Department on Sunrise Avenue. Agatha and Toni studied the still photographs. The man seemed to know where the cameras were
because he kept his head bent down and the long peak of his baseball cap pulled over his eyes. Despite the fact that the images were very good, they could make out only the line of his mouth and
the fact that he was wearing a light jacket over chinos and baseball boots.

‘May I keep one of these?’ asked Agatha.

‘Sure,’ said Parry. ‘We’ve e-mailed plenty to . . . where’s the damn place, Murchester?’

‘Mircester.’

‘Whatever. We found the Lexus abandoned. It had been stolen. We’ll phone you as soon as we hear anything. You’ll be staying at the Rio Grande?’

‘Yes,’ said Agatha.

‘Have a good one.’

‘As if we could,’ muttered Agatha in the back of the police car that was taking them to their hotel.

‘Agatha,’ said Toni suddenly, ‘I didn’t tell them, I took photographs while I was in the casino. I didn’t know whether it was legal or not.’

‘Is it that spy camera I gave you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Let’s keep that to ourselves. We’ll get your photos when we get home.’

They checked into a double room, ordered food from room service and waited, and waited.

Agatha, suffering from jet lag, fell asleep and jerked awake an hour later when the phone rang.

Toni answered it. Agatha heard her say, ‘What? . . . Where? . . . Is she all right? . . . We’ll be there directly.’

When she put the phone down, Toni’s face was glowing with relief. ‘A helicopter found her staggering around Death Valley and picked her up. She’s in the Lutheran hospital.
Let’s go.’

Chelsea turned out to be suffering from heat exhaustion and sunburn. Agatha and Toni had to wait until the police had finished interrogating her. Then it was their turn.

Chelsea turned furious eyes on Toni out of her sun-scorched face. ‘It’s all your fault,’ she howled.

‘How on earth . . . ?’ began Toni.

‘He thought I was you, see? He drove out with a gun in my side, and then he said, “You had it coming to you, Toni Gilmour.” I screamed I wasn’t you and that my passport
was in me bag. He stopped the car, told me to hand over my bag, fished out me passport and began to curse something awful. Then he says, “Get out, bitch.” I got out and ran and ran away
from the road as fast as I could. I wandered around and around. I could see lights from cars away on the road, but I was frightened to go back in case he got me again. Then the helicopter picked me
up. Let me tell you something, Tone. I never want to see you again. You can chase the bad guys as much as you want, but keep me out of it. You could have warned me.’

‘How could she have warned you?’ said Agatha. ‘She didn’t know there was any danger here. How could she?’

‘Bet she did. Piss off, both of you.’ Chelsea turned her face away.

After that visit, Chelsea refused to see them again. Her handbag had been found and her passport was still there, lying on the ground beside it. Parry told Agatha and Toni that Chelsea was
leaving in two days’ time.

‘Did she say anything useful about the man?’ asked Agatha. ‘What sort of accent?’

‘She just said he had a growly voice and she thought he was foreign. She said he smelled of booze. That’s all she knows.’ He turned to Toni. ‘Miss Gilmour, are you sure
your decision to come here was made at the last minute?’

‘Sure as sure. Agatha decided to close the agency for two weeks because we were all afraid someone might be out to get us. I met Chelsea just by chance and she persuaded me to come on the
trip. I think I want to go home now.’

‘Me too,’ said Agatha. ‘Let whining little Chelsea make her own way.’

‘You are pretty harsh, ma’am. She’s a very young girl who’s had a bad fright.’

‘Well, I can do bugger all for her when she won’t even see me or let me help,’ howled Agatha.

Parry looked at her with dislike. Ball-breaking old trout, he thought. Aloud, he said, ‘Let us know which flight you will be on.’

‘We should really be around to take care of her,’ protested Toni.

‘It’s you they’re after, not her,’ said Agatha. ‘Oh, well, one last try. Back to the hospital.’

‘I’ll go,’ said Toni quickly. ‘She might speak to me if you’re not there.’

‘Ask her how he got her to leave with him.’

‘He had a gun.’

‘He couldn’t have taken a gun into the casino. He must have said something else.’

Toni had noticed a medical-supply shop near the hospital. She bought a white lab coat and a stethoscope. In an adjacent tourist shop, she bought a square badge with the legend
I LOVE LAS VEGAS
.

In the hospital, she went to the toilets and locked herself in a cubicle, where she put on the white coat and hung the stethoscope around her neck. She then took out a pair of nail scissors from
her pocket and prised open the badge. Fortunately, it was blank on the other side. She printed ‘Dr Finlay’ neatly in black ink. It would have to do. She had left her handbag at the
hotel, carrying money and the scissors in her trouser pocket so that she would not have to find a place to hide a handbag.

Toni walked through the hospital corridors. She walked quickly past the policeman on guard outside Chelsea’s door, giving him an efficient nod.

Chelsea opened her mouth to scream, but Toni said hurriedly, ‘You scream and I’ll tell your mum about that fling you had with the sales rep from Birmingham.’

‘You wouldn’t!’

‘Try me.’

‘Wadda ya want?’ demanded Chelsea, who was trying very hard to obtain an American accent.

‘Something more about the man who abducted you. He couldn’t have got a gun into the casino or a knife. Why did you go off with him?’

‘He said he was a detective and wanted a word with me outside.’

‘Did he have a badge?’

‘No. One of them warrant cards.’

‘Did you get a close look at the card?’

‘No, I just followed the guy out, like. Once in the car, he took out a gun, drove with one hand and pointed the gun at me with the other.

‘He said, “I’m going to shut your mouth for once and all, Toni Gilmour. How the hell did you know I was in Las Vegas? Who told you?”

‘I began to cry and said it was a package deal. I wasn’t Toni Gilmour, and he could look at my passport in my handbag if he didn’t believe me. He stopped suddenly when we was
out in the desert and he asks me to hand over my bag. He opens it, looks at me passport, swears something awful, chucks the bag out of the winder and tells me to get out. I ran for my life. Right
into the desert. I’m going home tomorrow. The British consul has arranged it. So bugger off, Tone, and don’t come near me again.’

‘One more thing. Did you tell the police about the warrant card?’

‘Didn’t remember until later.’

‘American police have badges. Only British police have warrant cards. Didn’t you think of that?’

‘Piss off,’ howled Chelsea.

Agatha’s eyes gleamed with excitement when Toni told her Chelsea’s story. ‘Pack up,’ she said. ‘We’re leaving today.’

‘But what about Chelsea?’

‘Whoever it was wanted you, not her. She’ll be safe.’