Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 (13 page)

She shook her head. "No, all different bow companies, arrows, et cetera. They aren't friends or anything. Who else benefits? Maybe the tournament organization wants it cancelled so they can keep the shoot-off money."

"Who would that be? Becca, Big Bobby, and who?"

"Just the two of them. The rest of the decisions are made by the board that's elected into office. They're spread all over the country. I'm putting Becca and Bobby on the list. Remind me to ask Liam if they get back the money if the shoot-off is cancelled."

"Unc is on the board and in the shoot-off. Maybe he has a plan to use the money to his advantage either way."

"I don't think Unc would do that."

"Don't let yourself be influenced by a flirty smile."

She gruffed at me but underlined Unc's name in her notebook while covering her mouth with the other hand.

My bed started to creak under Moo's weight as he ran after invisible rabbits in his sleep. "I think I'm about to fall asleep standing up. After we're done shooting tomorrow, we can focus one hundred percent on catching the killer. Deal?"

Mary grabbed the financial sheet I had stolen and stuffed it into the notebook, then shoved both into her backpack. "Deal."

CHAPTER EIGHT

I scanned the crowd looking for Liam.

"Di, will you stop that and focus? We only have one end left." Mary had her arms crossed and wore her sternest expression.

We had forgotten to set our alarm for this morning. I had rolled over to check my phone only to realize that it was the time we had planned to leave for breakfast, and we were still in bed. The rest of the morning was a race to get ready and get to the shooting venue on time. Orion had taken care of Moo and gotten us each a breakfast sandwich, but both Mary and I were a bit testy.

Moo pressed his head into my hand, and some of my frustration melted away. His brown eyes looked up at me, and if I leaned down a little, we could touch noses. As I got close, his pink tongue whipped out and caught me across the lips.

"Ew, Moo, gross." I dragged the back of my arm across my face to remove errant doggy germs.

Mary giggled, sounding less cranky and more like her jovial self. "Yeah, Moo, there's only one guy that she wants the tongue from."

"Mary! Shh." I looked around hoping no one had heard her teasing, but everyone was happily absorbed in their own activities. "I need to talk to Liam about that."

"You are
not
getting cold feet now, are you? You two are per--"

I cut her off and leaned in close. "No, of course not. I'm crazy about him. But my divorce is so close to being finalized and since we work together, I don't need everyone watching our every move. I want it to be just him and me for a while."

She shrugged. "Everyone knows, but whatever, as long as I still get all the good gossip. Come on, we're up."

This was not only the last end of my tournament but also of Mary, Minx, and me--Loggin's Angels, who were either doing an awful job at protecting Loggin, because he kept having near misses, or a great job since he was still alive. Orion had left him sleeping in the room this morning.

I had slept fitfully the night before. Far too much had happened for me to slip into an easy sleep. As I grabbed my bow and got to the line, the same thoughts that had run through my mind last night assaulted me again. Did we need to tell Elizabeth about Liam and me since we were coworkers? Did Westmound have rules about coworkers dating? Would it be weird at work now?

I did my best to stuff those thoughts away as the whistle blew to shoot my three arrows. I set my shoulders, took a slow, deep breath, and focused on smooth, consistent motion as I drew back the arrow.

After I shot the last arrow, I stepped off the line and blew out a breath. It had been a few points lower than the other two days, but I had held it together. Now to solve two murders.

Stripping off my equipment, I searched the crowd again, this time finding Liam. He stood next to Orion. The sight of him curled my toes and heated my face.

I raced through the process of filling out and signing my card. I stepped away then had to race back to thank the archers I'd shot with and shake their hands, a basic courtesy that couldn't be ignored just because I was eager to get to Liam, my... boyfriend? Man I kissed? There were a lot of things we needed to figure out.

I grabbed my bow, bag, scorecards, and jacket and pushed through the crowd to Liam. "Hi."

He gave me a quick hug that I couldn't return with my arms full. "I'm sorry; I couldn't get over here sooner. You did great." He took the bow and my quiver from me.

"If you want out of this madhouse, I can meet you after I turn in the scorecards."

Liam tipped his head to the side at Orion. "Sure, we'll take Moo to the pet area. You and Mary can meet us out there."

I nodded and found Mary in the throng of people pushing to leave the shooting area as they fought against the next division of archers trying to get into the same space. She passed off her things to Orion, and I followed her to the scorecard turn-in line. Catching up with her as she stepped to the back of the line, I peeked over her shoulder to see how she'd shot.

"Awesome, Mary."

She smiled and looked at my scorecard. "Not so bad yourself. How did Minx do? And have you seen Tiger?"

I rolled my eyes. "Tiger is neck-deep in pretty she-archers. I saw Minx but haven't spoken to her. She could have knocked on our door to make sure we were awake before they left this morning."

"We'll short-sheet her bed when we get back to the center." Mary handed the tournament official her score cards.

Once we got back our copies of our scorecards to keep, we pushed through the long lines of people. Mary stepped around a gaggle of kids and came to my side as we moved down the hallway to the pet area outside the tournament office.

"Who's shooting now?" I asked.

"The pro divisions. I hear that Roo hopped on out of the competition. A guy on my target is friends with Roo's roommate. Roo separated his shoulder in the chariot fall."

"I didn't think anyone was hurt?"

"He woke up in the middle of the night in pain. Maybe the shock wore off. And Fox's wife made them check out of the hotel last night. With Loggin pulling out of the tournament, there will be no shoot-off."

"Shut up." I pushed the door open out onto the pet area. "No shoot-off at all?"

"You can't have a shoot-off with only one person. Does this mean that Loggin's safe now?"

"I guess so, if that was the motive. Hey Liam, what will happen to the thirty thousand from Westmound?"

Liam stared at me blankly. "What?"

"Sorry, I kinda jumped into the middle of the conversation. The thirty thousand that Westmound donated to the Casino Cup to raise the payout for first place for the pro compound male winner of the shoot-off. If there is no shoot-off, then the shoot-off money isn't paid. Does the company get the money back, or does the tournament keep it for future years?"

Liam looked at me, one eyebrow quirked up, then looked at Orion who shrugged. He looked back at me. "Thirty thousand?"

I looked at Mary, who seemed equally confused. Apparently, we were speaking two different languages. I wasn't sure which part was throwing him. "Yes, thirty thousand. It was like ten thousand from Westmound, five from Andersson, or something like that for thirty total. Why are you looking at me like that?"

He shook his head slowly, his brows furrowed. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Mary, can you get that page for me?"

Mary dug out the page from her notebook and handed it to me, and I passed it to Liam. "See, this is the money donated by companies to raise the shoot-off payout. Didn't you know about it?" Goosebumps ran down my arms. Something was off.

He looked over the page then tilted it to Orion to see. Orion looked at it and shrugged his shoulders, then Liam handed it back. "Maybe that is a list of what they hoped we would donate, but that's not what happened."

"Where did you get that?" a voice behind me said.

I turned and saw Becca holding her e-cig. She let the door close behind her.

I was caught off guard. "I... I... found it on the ground."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I should have shredded the trash myself. Don't tell Bobby you saw it, but I suppose you could have gotten that info from asking around." She didn't seem upset, instead taking a drag off her fake cigarette.

"These are the amounts that the companies donated for the shoot-off payout?"

She nodded and took another puff.

Liam looked between us. "No, it isn't. We didn't donate that much."

Becca gave him a funny look. "Yes, you did. I saw the check."

"I wrote the check. It was for three thousand."

She fidgeted with her pen; a thin layer of professionalism was trying to cover her growing frustration. "The first check was for three thousand. Then a few days later, another check came."

"We only sent one check. Right, Orion?"

Orion nodded.

Becca seemed to be losing some of her confidence. "But I saw the check. I saw all the checks. I stamped the back so Bobby could deposit them."

"Does he normally deposit the checks?" I pushed her. This was the weak link to the mystery, though I had no clue what any of this meant.

Becca stared off into the distance. "No, they came on Thursday. That's my salsa night, and I leave early. In fact, a lot of checks came on Thursdays." Her hand shook slightly as she took a puff. "Why would Bobby lie about getting the money? Was he stealing money?" She turned to me with wide eyes.

"I don't know, but something's way off." I tried to figure out what it meant.

Mary threw her backpack over a shoulder. "There's no shoot-off money. Come on, we need to tell someone. Becca, stay with us."

We strode into the hallway and ran into Minx, who was crying as she raced over. "What are you guys doing?"

Mary hooked an arm through hers. "We think we solved the mystery. Bobby had some scam to keep the shoot-off from happening."

Minx stopped. "But nothing has been decided yet. There could still be a shoot-off."

"No, Lucky's gone. Fox and Roo pulled out so even if Unc shoots clean right now, there'll be no shoot-off. The rules require a minimum of two archers with a score of nine hundred to have a shoot-off."

"Loggin's shooting. He took off with Unc after we fought."

My jaw dropped. "He what?"

Minx started crying. "He came to get me and asked me on a date instead of shooting, and I said I didn't think of him that way. Then Unc started yelling at him that he had to shoot, otherwise Unc couldn't win the shoot-off unless Loggin shot and shot clean. Then I yelled at Loggin not to do it, and he said I couldn't..." She hiccupped and sobbed.

If Loggin was going to shoot, then he was at risk. "I can't get into your mess of a love life right now, Minx. Loggin is in danger. Where did he go? We have to warn him!"

Minx went pale. "I don't know. Bobby told Unc and Loggin that he had a room for them to wait in."

"Where?"

Minx shrugged. "I... I don't know. They went off that way."

Becca started. "I know. There's a room down by the arena." She started jogging down the hall, and I fell in close behind her. She barked ahead, "Move out of the way, people. Move it!"

The crowd surged out of her way then closed in behind us. I grabbed Mary's hand and pulled her close to me, but the rest of the group was cut off.

Becca cut through a door and down a staircase I hadn't seen. "Bobby had said we should have all the archers that shoot clean the first two days make a big entrance on day three. But he canceled this morning when he heard that there was no shoot-off. This way."

The hallway we ran down was dank and cold with its cement floor and cinderblock walls.

Becca screeched to a stop in front of a nondescript door. She grabbed the handle and tried to turn the knob. "Locked."

I banged on the door. "Loggin! Open the door. Loggin!" My palms were slick. I left wet handprints on the door.

Becca shoved me out of the way. "I have a key." She unlocked the door and kicked it open. The door crashed into the wall with the force.

Hot, wet air rolled out of the room, a gas heater going full blast in the far corner. Unc and Loggin were collapsed on the floor, their bows and arrows spread across the floor.

I screamed. "Help! Help! Security!"

Mary pointed. "We have to get them out. Hold your breath."

Becca was yelling for help as she ran down the hallway.

Mary and I held our breath as we raced in and grabbed Loggin by the feet and dragged him into the hallway.

I was getting lightheaded from the effort to get him clear of the doorway when men shoved us out of the way and went into the room. Liam caught me under the arms and pulled me away. "It's okay. Loggin and Unc are okay." He lifted me under the legs and carried me out into the arena. "I've got you."

***

Liam and I were gathered around Loggin's hospital bed later that night. I felt a bit nauseated from the carbon monoxide in the room. The gas heater would have easily killed Unc and Loggin if they had been left in there much longer. Orion had carried Mary out right after Liam got me out. Liam and Orion insisted that Mary and I get checked out at the hospital, and once we were cleared, Liam and I had found Loggin while Orion and Mary checked on Unc. Moo was with Jess and Minx back at the casino.