Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 (10 page)

They stood smiling at each other until I had to say something. "Sorry we didn't stay. Moo was upset, so we left."

Minx had offered to stay with Loggin and protect him, though her motives were a bit mixed since she had kept her eyes on Lucky up to that point. Mary and I had taken Moo out to go to the bathroom then picked up our bows and quivers to drop off in the room along with the wad of papers. Liam had meetings and offered to take Moo with him, leaving Mary and me free to grab lunch and hang out at the bar for a bit.

I was happy to let Liam take Moo for a bit. My ego stung from the embarrassing scene he had caused. I told Moo sternly that he needed to go think about what he had done. I even threatened to make him sleep in Liam's room.

Liam hadn't walked more than a dozen feet away before I chased after him to hug Moo and tell him that I still loved him. He had me wrapped around his paw for sure.

I turned away with a grimace as I spotted Moose approaching.

"Di, congratulations are in order." He slapped my back with a beefy hand that knocked me off balance.

"Moose, I wasn't--"

"No need to say it." He winked.

I let out a sigh and gave up. He thought he knew it all, and no explanation would prove otherwise. In a way, he had been right, and that chapped my hide.

He stepped to the side and introduced me to three female archers. "I want you to meet some of the athletes I represent. This is Tone, Priss, and Batter."

The ladies were various heights and sizes, which was common for archery. Archers came in all shapes, some tall and lean and others short and stouter.

As I listened to each lady list which Westmound sponsor she shot for, Minx and Lucky peeled away to move closer to the bar. They stood closer and gazed into each other's eyes. Their voices were lost in the bells and beeps of the slot machines around us and the cheers from the craps tables, but their body language was loud and clear as they flirted. She looked up at him through her eyelashes and had precious little smiles. He had his chest puffed out and loudly gestured around.

The ladies finished their shooting resumes, and I asked the question you had to ask every archer at a tournament. "How did you guys shoot today?"

It was rare to hear anyone give a positive answer to that question. The answers ranged from negative, where they convinced you that they were much better archers than their scores, to modest answers that it went okay even if they broke a world record. Someone should do a study on the culture of how archers described their scores.

They nodded in response to the question and made non-committal noises, implying neither great nor awful. Batter was the only one to vocalize her thoughts. "Not too bad. Not too bad. I'm just glad we weren't shooting in the arena. Normally I'd complain that the pro men get the arena and the pro women get tucked in a back room, but not today. Have you seen the scores?" She gave a long whistle.

Mary perked up. "No, we haven't. How many are still clean?"

Shooting clean meant a perfect three hundred score. Over three days, that would equal nine hundred and qualify those shooters to the shoot-off for the hundred thousand dollars.

Batter leaned forward, her large cleavage shifting in her shooter's jersey. "Fifteen. Can you believe it?"

Mary gasped. "Fifteen? Are you for real?"

I looked between them. I was missing some sense of the importance of this information.

Mary caught my eye and filled me in as she always did. "Normally there are ninety to a hundred and fifty guys clean at this point. By the end there might be thirteen to fifty with a perfect nine hundred, but I've never, ever heard of them being down to only fifteen after the first day."

"It wasn't an accident," said Priss, a tiny lady with a high, squeaky voice.

Mary's face crinkled up. "What wasn't an accident?"

"The fire alarm. When I left the venue, I was behind two maintenance guys. I heard them say that someone had tampered with it."

Mary and I exchanged a smirk and nod. Clues.

"Really? What else did they say?" Mary smoothly asked.

"That's all I heard. The guy was talking loudly. He was pissed that he missed his lunch break. The other guy hushed him, then they went into a maintenance room. Why would someone mess with the fire alarm?"

"Oh boy." Moose said. He was looking over our heads toward the entrance to the casino. "This is going to be a scene."

I turned around and looked for anyone or thing out of place. The only thing was a lady with red hair who was very pregnant and dragging a rolling bag behind her.

"Is that Katie, Lucky's wife?" Batter asked.

"Oh no." I stepped toward the bar to tell Minx that Lucky's soon-to-be-ex wife was here and might not be so ex-y.

But the gal, Katie, reached them first, and her voice carried across the casino. "Get away from my husband, you hussy." Katie grabbed Minx by the shoulder and pulled her away from Lucky.

Minx reared back. "He told me he was divorcing you. And don't you call me a hussy."

Mary and I reached Minx. I wedged myself in between our friend and the redhead. Minx had a temper, and no one needed a fight with a pregnant lady. "Hey now, I think this anger is misplaced. Lucky is the one saying that he is almost divorced."

Katie gestured at her stomach. "Does this look like we're getting a divorce? I'm about to have his baby. I wasn't here because of work, but they gave me the day off at the last minute. I came out here to surprise Lucky, but I didn't expect for women to throw themselves at him."

"Turn around is fair play, eh, Katie?" a voice said behind me.

I stepped aside to see that Pinkie had joined us. I grabbed Minx's arm and pushed her out of the way. Pinkie stepped up and confronted Katie in the space we had left.

Pinkie jabbed a finger at Katie. "Don't try to act so high and mighty when you got knocked up while Lucky was living with me."

Minx tore her arm out of my gasp to address Pinkie. "You dated Lucky?"

"Yeah, I dated him for a year. We were living together when suddenly he and Katie eloped because she was pregnant." Pinkie glared at Katie while Minx looked between them.

Mary whispered in my ear, "Notice something about Minx, Pinkie, and Katie?"

The three gals stood next to each other arguing about who did what, when, and why. They were all roughly the same age and height, with similar haircuts and hair ranging in the red to pink color family.

"Oh my gosh, they look alike." I started giggling.

Minx glared at me, and Katie and Pinkie followed suit.

Katie put her hands on her hips. "What are you laughing at?"

"Clearly, Lucky has a type."

Mary snorted next to me.

I tried to stop laughing as the three narrowed their eyes at me in unison. "Oh come on, look at you three. It's like central casting called for redheads with fiery personalities."

A crowd had gathered around, and they seemed to see the humor in the situation even if those involved didn't. I turned to Moose and a few faces I recognized. "Why didn't anyone warn us? We"--I gestured to Minx, Mary, and myself--"thought he was practically divorced?"

Batter shrugged. "We figured you knew. Everyone in 3D knows how Lucky is."

My eyebrows shot up. "We didn't know. We aren't 3D shooters. Next time, you tell us."

She chuckled. "You'll be the first to know."

My fondness for her grew. I was slowly easing into the archery community and discovering more people I liked. There was something appealing about someone who was willing to go along with your jokes or requests. Maybe it was my new position that was already well known, but I hoped it was just the age-old action of people making friends.

I grabbed Minx one last time. "Come on, Minx. He lied to you about his situation, and you don't owe any more explanation than that."

She gave him one last glare and snatched my glass of water from my hand to toss the remaining bit in his face.

He sputtered and shouted as water dripped off his face and shirt.

Minx turned back to me. "Now I'm ready."

I let out a sigh and walked through the casino to a different bar twenty yards away. The bars were identical even down to the group of archers drinking away their bad shots.

Batter followed us over and pointed to the row of men in their shooter jerseys, sitting morosely and drinking in silence. "The two ninety-nine club."

These would be the archers that dropped a point and were out of the shoot-out on Sunday no matter how well they shot the rest of the weekend.

Lucky was wiping his face off with a napkin at the other bar while Pinkie and Katie gestured at each other. The group that had watched the fight trailed behind us as they came over to the new bar.

Unc appeared next to Mary with a glass he offered to her. "I know you aren't drinking, so I got you a soda."

She turned to him with a smile on her face. "Thank you, Unc. How did you shoot?"

"Clean. And I saw that you shot pretty well yourself." He edged in a bit closer to her.

I stepped away, giving them a chance to talk, and checked on Minx. She was sulking and sucking on her drink.

"Hey, Minx, you doing okay?"

She reared around on me, tears building in her eyes. "What's wrong with me?"

Minx and I butted heads like sisters, and in the same way, my heart broke for her. I wrapped my arms around her. "Nothing is wrong with you."

She flopped her forehead on my shoulder. "Why do I have such bad luck in love?"

I rolled my eyes. "You have pretty awful taste in guys; that I can't deny, but you're hardly alone in that. If you want help, maybe you could listen to Mary and me when we warn you."

She grumbled into my shirt. "Well, you're getting a divorce."

I grimaced and grabbed her shoulders to look her in the eye. "Do you want sympathy or a smack in the head?"

She rolled her eyes and finished her drink. "Hey, Orion."

I smiled at him in greeting. He started to smile, then his eyes skipped past me to the bar and the smile faded. Mary and Unc were at the bar talking. Smug satisfaction rolled over me. My early mention of Unc hitting on Mary was paying off as Orion focused on them, a visible scowl on his face.

He tore his eyes off them and faced me. "Di, I was thinking that you might want to go around and meet the people at our companies that you'll be working on this project with."

"Sure. Are these people I met at the Westmound Summit?"

"Mostly. Plus we can talk with them in person about the program. It's always nice to brainstorm in person." He cast a glance back to Mary and Unc. "Should we bring Mary along?"

"No, she should catch up with her friends. Come on, let's go."

***

I flopped onto my bed face down and mumbled into the cover.

"Di, I can't hear a thing you're saying."

I sat up. "I said that I'm so exhausted I might sleep like this. How was your afternoon?" I had finally gotten back to our room a few minutes ago to find Mary already there.

"Fun. I tried to cheer up Minx a little. We all went out to an early dinner." The tips of her ears tinged pink.

"Who is 'we all'?"

She turned back to me and folded the clothing that was spread around her suitcase. "Just some people at the bar." She folded a pair of pants, smoothing out the fabric, and set it down.

"Just some people, eh? Did these people include a certain Uncle Mike?" I teased.

She picked up the same pair and refolded them. "Oh, him. Yeah, I guess he was there."

"You guess?"

She turned around and glared. "Why are you giving me such a hard time?"

I laughed. "I'm just teasing you. You tease me all the time about Liam."

She chuckled. "Fine, you win. Yes, Unc ate with us and was a total gentleman, but before you ask, no."

"No what?"

"No, I don't like him and I won't date him, but it's flattering all the same."

I debated telling her about the way Orion watched her talk to Unc but decided against it. It didn't mean anything until it did. "I know what you mean."

"What about your day? I didn't even see you leave."

"You were having fun, and I didn't want to interrupt." I sat up, dug into my pockets and pulled out handfuls of business cards. "I met everyone, talked to everyone, and listened to everyone. I'm exhausted. I'm so glad Liam was there to deflect the questions that I had no answer to. The name Advancement of Female Athletes was too long to repeat, so we're calling it AFA."

"Catchy. Next week is going to suck for you. You have so much work."

"I know." I had so looked forward to having Liam back at the center. I'd imagined long evenings spent together, but now it appeared that every second of my existence would be devoted to this project if I was going to have a prototype ready for Orion the following week. But at least Liam would be back at the center for the foreseeable future. "Did you hang out with Unc all day?"

She shook her head. "After dinner, I came back here and wrote a quick article about the Casino Cup." She went over to the small round table in the corner of the room and pulled her computer around in front of her. "I dug through the papers you stole while I was at it. Some very useful numbers in there."