Pepper and Misty turned serious and they both nodded.
“Are they watching us, too?” Misty asked. “You know, with hidden cameras.”
“I’m about to find out,” he said.
“How you going to do that without them seeing you?”
“Watch and I’ll show you.”
He removed the roll of toilet paper from the dispenser and unspooled the paper until all that was left was the cardboard tube. He powered up the flashlight app on his Droid so a bright yellow beam was emanating from the back of the cell phone. He returned to the bedroom with the girls, shut the blinds, and then turned off the lights so the room was pitch dark.
“This is getting creepy,” Pepper said.
“Shhh,” he said.
Casinos went to a great deal of effort to catch thieves, and smart thieves went to a great deal of effort to avoid being caught. He placed the tube over his right eye like a telescope and shut his left eye. He slowly swept the flashlight beam over the room, paying attention to any small glimmers that reflected back at him. A pinhole camera often had a charge-coupled device called a CCD sitting behind a wall or object that could be spotted this way.
“No cameras,” he whispered.
“Like strange men haven’t seen us naked before,” Misty whispered back.
He turned the lights back on and tossed the paper tube into the trash.
“Shop till you drop,” he said.
Cory and Morris sat at the baby grand in the living room playing a “Chopsticks” duet. They’d grown up in a foster home and were as inseparable as Siamese twins. They also shared a bad reefer habit, and Billy instinctively sniffed the air. Doing drugs had ruined more than one cheater’s career, and he’d warned them the next time it happened, they’d be on the street.
“What’s that funky smell?” he asked.
They sprang off the piano bench and stood in front of him.
“We started smoking e-cigarettes to help kick the habit,” Cory explained. “We’re really into the specialty flavors. Mango, clover, dragon berry. They’re really tasty.”
“You’re not mixing it with dope, are you?”
“No, sir. We kicked the habit for good.”
“Show me.”
Cory’s e-cigarettes were called Joysticks. Cory took a drag and puffed out a bluish cloud that swirled mysteriously above their heads before evaporating. It had an artificially sweet smell, and Billy could only imagine the number it was doing on their lungs.
“Does it get you high?” Billy asked.
“Nope,” Cory said.
“We won’t let you down again, and that’s a promise,” Morris added.
Billy dropped his voice. “The suite is bugged. Watch your mouths.”
Their eyes grew wide. It made them look like little kids, and it reminded Billy of how young they were. If any members of his crew were liable to screw up, it was Cory and Morris, and he made a mental note to keep his eye on them.
Billy found Gabe and Travis in lounge chairs by the pool with their shirts off, sunning themselves. Both men picked up their bottles of beer and saluted him.
Billy got a bottle of Evian from the fridge by the pool. Then he bellied up to the guard railing and gazed at the Strip. It was quiet, and would not come alive until the sun dropped and the night creatures came out to play. He’d spent a long time planning this heist, analyzing every angle and trying to anticipate every situation that might occur. Only when he was certain the scam would work had he brought his crew into the fold and begun the necessary preparations. Nothing had been left to chance.
Except one thing.
Every scam he’d ever pulled in Sin City was short and sweet. Get into the casino, rip off the game, get the money, and get the hell out. No scam he’d ever tried had put him inside a casino for longer than a few hours. It wasn’t safe to hang around too long.
The Carnivale scam was different. Billy and his crew were going to be inside Carnivale’s hotel for several days. During that time, they’d be watched by security and taped by surveillance cameras and have their rooms bugged. If Carnivale’s security people figured out they were up to no good, they’d be arrested and hauled off to jail.
His crew was vulnerable, and so was he. He hadn’t mapped out an escape because there was no way to escape from Carnivale if things broke bad. The security was as tight as Fort Knox. Thinking about it gave him the willies, so he tried not to.
Gabe edged up beside him and clinked his beer bottle against Billy’s water.
“The joint’s bugged,” Billy said.
“Out here, too?” Gabe asked.
“No, we’re safe out here. Too much other noise.”
“You and I need to talk about that asshole Cory.”
“What did he do now?”
Gabe glanced over his shoulder into the suite. Billy did as well, and through the glass spied Cory and Morris horsing around on the piano. Gabe turned back around and sipped his beer. Billy looked at Gabe’s profile and saw a simmering rage hiding below the surface.
“Tell me.”
“Cory took advantage of my daughter.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No, I’m not kidding you.”
Gabe’s two beautiful daughters meant the world to him. For Cory to be getting horizontal with one of them was a serious transgression, and it needed to be dealt with.
“Let’s go find a bar where we can have some privacy,” Billy said.
Seven
Every Strip casino was a destination unto itself, filled with bars, restaurants, and live entertainment. The Rio was no exception, and it featured a recreation of New Orleans’s Bourbon Street called Masquerade Village. A musical performance had just ended with lip-synching singers, overhead floats, and gyrating dancers tossing beads and confetti to the crowd. Billy and Gabe entered the Masquerade bar and grabbed a booth. Gabe ordered a draft beer, which Billy nixed.
“Bring us both coffee,” he told the waitress.
“I can’t have a beer?” Gabe said.
“You’re steaming. You need to calm down.”
Gabe’s face turned sour. Gabe was old enough to be his father and Billy hated talking down to him, but he didn’t have much choice. He needed to get this situation under control before Gabe did something rash like smash a chair over Cory’s head.
“Which one of your daughters is Cory seeing?” he asked.
“Alexis. Her mother called me this morning with the bad news.”
“How old is Alexis?”
“Eighteen. She came to visit three weeks ago and we went to UNLV to tour the campus. Cory came by the house that afternoon and they started talking about a business course he’s taking at the school. When I wasn’t looking, the little fucker made a pass at her.”
“You saw him make a pass?”
“No, but that’s what happened. My ex told me the whole story. After I went to bed, Alexis slipped out of the house, and she and Cory went to an under-twenty-one club called Frozen75. Then Cory took advantage of her in his car.”
“Did Cory force himself on her?”
“That’s what my ex thinks.”
“But you don’t know for sure.”
“My baby wouldn’t sleep with a jerk like that.”
The waitress brought their coffees, which Gabe spiked with artificial sweetener. Gabe was big on diet drinks and fake sugars, yet he never seemed to shed any weight.
“How did your ex find this out?” Billy asked. “Did your daughter come crying to her?”
“No, it wasn’t like that.”
“Then what happened?”
“Alexis got a phone call from Cory this morning. She went into the other room to take it, and my ex stuck her ear to the wall with a glass and overheard the whole conversation.”