Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 (8 page)

I checked my quiver, and the top slot was empty, meaning I had already shot, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was shooting well, and I was holding it together by the skin of my teeth. I turned around and found Liam in the crowd. Moo was lying across four chairs with his head in Liam's lap as Liam talked to another archer. A steady group of people had come by to say hi to Liam and drop subtle hints about potential sponsorship.

I had gone back to sit with him a few times, but even the polite greetings from people were a distraction to me right now. I took a slow, deep breath in, held it for a count of four, and let it out just as slowly. I had been working on my expectations and nerves since the last tournament went sideways, and I felt that I was holding it together.

The whistle blew, and the announcement crackled overhead, echoing around the room. "That was your final end. Congratulations."

My head jerked around in surprise, and the instructions continued overhead. How had I not noticed that we were done?

Mary bounded over to me, her armguard, finger tab, and chest protector already removed and hung on her quiver. "How'd you do?"

My target had been far enough away from her that except for the occasional thumbs up when we caught each other's eyes, I hadn't seen her since we arrived for practice.

"I... I don't know. Okay, I think. I made the best possible shots I could in the moment. But I didn't realize we were done. I have no idea what my score is." The fact that we were done shooting for the day was sinking in, causing the adrenaline that had been pumping through my body since I woke up to trickle away. I felt like a wet noodle.

She chuckled at me. "You were calling arrows?"

When I nodded back, she gave me a knowing smile and skipped away to her target. For this tournament, each target had three people recording the scores, two on paper and one into the handheld electronic receiver. Those scores were updated after every end, meaning anyone looking at the monitors through the venue or on the Internet could see the scores in real time. The remaining person's job was to call, or recite out loud, the value of the arrows of the four competitors on each mat.

I had called the arrows on my target and, as such, had no clue what end it was. I was sure there were one or two ends left. I shook my head and realized that my target mates were waiting for me to finish up.

By the time we had finished scoring, filled in the appropriate boxes, and signed the score cards, the hall had filled up with the next group that would shoot. People pressed close as our group tried to leave and the next group attempted to occupy the exact same space.

Jess bounded up to me and threw her arms around my neck. "I'm so, so proud of you. Your shots looked amazing. I got some video to look at when you get home. How are you feeling?"

"Uh, fine? Tired, I guess." I scanned the crowd for Liam and Moo. I found Mary and Loggin walking toward me instead. "Why?"

"You shoot a new personal best and you feel fine? I know we are focusing on form and execution over outcome, but you can be a little happy."

"I what?" I flipped over my scorecard to look at it. Then I looked again. Sure enough, it was a new personal best. "Well, I'll be. That's pretty cool. I had no idea. " An unexpected feeling of joy and accomplishment welled up inside of me. I looked at it again, tracing each number with my eyes.

Loggin slapped me on the back. "Good job, Di."

Mary hugged me. "I'm so proud of you. You shot great today."

"What? How do you guys know?" I hadn't even known, and I shot the round.

Mary stepped back and balanced the bottom limb of her bow on her toe while she took off the long stabilizer that stuck out front. "Liam told Loggin before he took Moo out to go to the bathroom. After we turn in our scorecards, we're supposed to go find him."

I grabbed my bow off the rack and unscrewed the stabilizer. "How did he know?"

Loggin chuckled and stepped closer as people pushed past him to hang their equipment in the empty spots of the bow rack. "He used your binos to watch every shot and had the scores pulled up the whole time. He didn't want you to see in case it made you nervous."

My stomach flipped. "Let's get out of here."

We weaved through the throng of people into the wide hallway outside. Activity bustled around, and I followed Mary as she got in a line. She knew the person ahead of her, so I contentedly listened to her conversation with the man. He was asking about her custom bow and what equipment she used and why.

When my turn came, I presented my scorecards to the lady behind the table only to realize it was Becca. "Hi, Becca."

"Oh, hi, Di. How'd it go today?" She ran two fingers over the cards, comparing the value in matching boxes to make sure the cards were in agreement.

"Good. How about you?"

She stamped one card and handed it back. "Busy, busy."

The person behind me stepped to the table, and I walked away trying to spot Mary. I spotted her walking with Unc and Loggin toward the main shooting venue, the arena beyond the trade show. I started to follow, but as I caught sight of Liam and Moo, I changed direction.

Liam was hugging a wall far enough away from the shooting hall entrances, bathroom, bar, and lines to have a bit of open space. As I approached, Moo rushed forward to greet me. Liam extended a hand toward my bow and quiver. I passed them both over so I could greet Moo properly with scratches and a kiss in the soft fur under his ear.

I stood up and smiled at Liam but before I could say anything, Orion joined us.

"You ready?" Orion ducked as a bow limb cut through the space where his head had been a second ago.

I turned to him. "Ready for what?"

"To meet Elizabeth. Where's Mary? I was going to ask her how she shot." He looked around the crowd.

I decided that it wouldn't hurt to nudge things a little. "I'm not sure how she shot. I think she's watching the pro compound men shooting in the arena next. I saw her walking that way with Unc."

His head jerked back to me. "Unc? Like Uncle Mike? Mike Uncalous?"

"Yeah, that's him. He's probably trying to convince her to go on a date again."

Orion's eyes narrowed a little then drifted toward the arena.

I pressed my lips together to avoid smiling as I watched his internal struggle. It would be kinder to mention that Loggin was with them, but I let him stew on the choice he had made. "Did you say we are meeting Elizabeth?"

Orion dragged his attention back to me. "Yes, come on. We managed to grab an empty office down this way."

I turned back to Liam. "Are you coming?"

He shook his head.

I swallowed hard at the idea of having a private meeting with Orion and Elizabeth. Was I going to get a formal warning? They wouldn't fire me, would they?

Liam handed me Moo's leash. "Moo can go with you for moral support. I'll put your bow in the Andersson booth."

I nodded to Liam then Orion and said a silent prayer as I followed Orion down the hallway.

We passed where I had just competed and continued down the hall toward the pet area we had used yesterday. Moo was tugging on the leash to go outside when Orion stopped at a door propped open with a trash can. It was next door to the tournament office. I nodded to Becca as she passed.

The room wasn't particularly small, but someone had placed banquet tables around the perimeter and one in the middle of the room. Once Orion shut the door, the cramped space felt even smaller. Elizabeth sat on the opposite side of the middle table. I took a deep, slow breath as I sat opposite Elizabeth.

Her face was smooth and unreadable. She was cool, a little distant but not angry. "I've given considerable thought to what you said yesterday about women's payouts. We've discussed it, and we have a proposition."

Her use of the word "proposition" was all that kept me from flinging myself from the chair and begging for forgiveness. The single word gave me hope. I nodded.

"First off, no one knows about this except me and Orion. Not even Liam knows the full extent, so there is no pressure for you to accept. If you decline, as you should if you aren't committed, then no one will ever know."

My fear and trepidation were diminishing in the rising curiosity. "I understand." I didn't fully, yet.

"We can offer an additional five thousand for the pro women's compound division for payout regardless of who wins, and we can double the contingency paid out in that division for any shooter that receives a check from a company owned by Westmound-Andersson Industries."

My mouth fell open in surprise. "So if they get three thousand from Andersson and one thousand from Knight Accessories for four thousand, then you would give them another four thousand in contingency money?"

She nodded. "Yes. They'd get an additional check for four thousand from Westmound-Andersson directly from our new Advancement of Female Archers campaign."

"Wow. That would be great. That is a big difference in pay out. They're going to be thrilled." I smiled at Orion, but he didn't smile back.

"Hold on, Di. Right now this is just a proposed idea based on you doing your part."

I looked between them as I realized the other shoe was about to drop. "Okay, and that is?"

"We can't just give money away. We also can't single-handedly try to fix the pay inequality in the industry. This would be an investment with the expectations that over time, the AFA campaign, as we're calling it, would pay for itself through an increase of sales to female archers. And that would be your job."

I felt sure that I had missed something. "What would be my job?"

"You would need to run the AFA. Decide the tournaments where we would raise the payout, figure out matching contingency, advertising, set up social media for it, get women to interview, basically make the thing work."

My eyes went wide as the extent of the project ran through my head. "I don't have that kinda training. That's Orion's job. He should do it."

She shook her head. "He has a full-time job. This project would fall under his umbrella, but you'd do the work."

He gave me a little smile. "I think you could do it. You ask the right questions. Your focus is in the right places. We could have some meetings this week, and I would always be a phone call away to guide you."

"But..." I slowed down to think. This was important to me, and they were giving me an option to help improve the situation. "Why not someone like Loggin? He works at Andersson Archery doing a lot of this already."

"They already have their budgets set for the year. And once again Loggin already has a full-time job. This is going to take a minimum of twenty hours a week, we think. I called Robbie at the center, and he told me that since the center is no longer in the setup stage, you have that extra twenty within your work week. We didn't tell him why but he's confident that many of your daily tasks can and should be shifted over to the department heads at the center. But the biggest reason we want Westmound-Andersson Industries to be directly in charge of this project through you is because of a point you made. Our brands are so tightly enmeshed that it makes sense to have us lead the way rather than trying to force a dozen smaller companies to create, implement, and advertise on their own."

I sat back and let everything sink in. The amount of power Elizabeth was offering me was scary. But close on the heels of fear were excitement and eagerness. It was a huge project that could lead to big changes. It could positively impact the community that had embraced me. Plus my geeky heart sang at the thought of all the charts and spreadsheets I could make. My voice was confident. "What kind of timeline are we talking about?"

A smile peeked around Elizabeth's mouth. She knew she had me hooked. "Outdoor season, for both the national circuit and 3D season, which starts within a month. So we need a strong plan to Orion within a week so he can review it and spend a week with you tweaking it. It would need to be announced within two weeks. If we wait much longer, we risk not getting a return at all this year."

"A week?" I needed to learn everything in a week? "I don't think that is possible, not if you want any research done. If I take twenty hours of the work week and all my evenings and free time, I don't think I could do it." My heart fell in my chest. I couldn't take on a project knowing I would fail, and the opportunity was slipping through my fingers.

"You could use basically all forty hours of your workweek for the next two weeks. Robbie said he could do that so long as you answer questions. He says that you have that place so automated that it basically runs itself."

I rubbed my chin. I might be able to do it, but the biggest issue would be trying to grab the nuances of the sport. There were numbers on one hand but also perceptions. I needed an expert. "Can I have Mary to help me?"

Orion started to protest, but I spoke quickly to explain. "She has knowledge in this industry as both an athlete and a journalist that I might never learn. I might be able to pull up the attendance for different events, but she knows off the top of her head that tournament A has more room for growth than B because of the field layout. Or that costs are too high. I know she would love to help out, I think she would add to the project, and honestly, I don't know if I can pull anything together in a week without some help. I mean, I'm not even sure I understand what you want in a week." But I knew I wanted to do it.