Casino Capers

by Dan Kelly

  Chapter 24

  He needn’t have worried. Sylvia had things well in hand and the gambling, partying, and laughing had resumed. Jillian walked up alongside him and whispered in his ear. “Has our friend paid another visit to the Floating Fantasies?”

  “We think so.” Red filled her in on what Popeye and he were assuming and told her about his intention to have her driven back to Bettendorf tomorrow.

  “That’s fine with me, Red. Even though Joe agreed to let me work with you on the Chameleon problem, I’m sure he’ll appreciate my putting in an appearance at the Go For It and doing some work for him.”

  As Jillian turned to watch the action at one of the crap tables, Bill came into the casino all flustered and apologetic.

  “I’m sorry, Red. I just finished talking with Popeye and he filled me in on what has happened. As your head of security, I’m not doing a very good job. I should have been in the face of the head guy at Sentinel Services and demanded a response within 48 hours to Popeye’s request for a list of names of all the security personnel assigned to the Floating Fantasies and the re-vetting of their backgrounds. I should also have had someone assigned to checking out every vendor or service person that came anywhere near the ship.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Bill. You know the old saying ‘Hindsight is always 20/20’. It may be so in the movies or in Barnes & Nobel fare, but in real life the perfect plan doesn’t exist. In everyday life, Murphy’s Law is more germane. ‘If anything can go wrong, it probably will.’ All we can do is keep swinging. Sooner or later we’ll connect and put this whacko down for the count. Stay loose and keep doing what you’re doing. We’ve closed a lot of doors on this guy. The last one will be the door to his cell.”

  “Thanks for the kind words, Red, but I’m still going to look for additional ways to make our security system stronger. It’s really bugging me that this guy keeps finding ways to circumvent it.”

  “Okay then, get to it.”

  As Bill is walking away, someone taps him on the shoulder. It’s Commissioner Crowley. “Borman, why is it that wherever you are, trouble is always close by? What the hell is going on with this overgrown tub’s engines?”

  “First of all, Commissioner, I wouldn’t let Rex Spaulding hear you calling his megabucks baby that. He’d take an immediate dislike to you and you wouldn’t want him to do that. He’s a very wealthy and well-connected man. He could make your life quite unpleasant.”

  Blanching uncomfortably, but ignoring the comment, Crowley gruffly askes “Do you know how long we’re going to be docked here? The security people won’t let me go up to the pilothouse so I can ask the captain. I’ve got important meetings coming up that I must attend.”

  In a somewhat disrespectful manner Red replied with, “I’m sure you do, Commissioner. You’ll know when I know. Captain Petersen is estimating that it will take a day, maybe two, to rectify the situation.” After pausing for a few seconds and letting a conspiratorial leer spread across his face Red added, “Relax. Why don’t you and your lovely secretary take in a show at one of the lounges? They are all terrific. I’m sure you’ll have an evening to remember.”

  Unsure how to react, Crowley just glared at him and then stormed out of the casino. If looks could kill, Red would be on his way to the morgue. Chuckling to himself Red’s thinking, “The Chameleon isn’t the only pain in the ass in my life right now.”

  As Red continues to mingle with the folks in the casino, he begins to wonder if they will ever be able put an end to the Chameleon’s harassment. “This guy is uncanny when it comes to figuring out ways to drive me up the wall.”

  It continued to pour for the next couple of days, but then as suddenly as it had started it stopped. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds and the still strong winds quickly blew them beyond the horizon. As the skies cleared, the Floating Fantasies had been refueled and Popeye had headed her out to mid-river to complete the cruise.

  The rest of the trip is uneventful and as they are pulling back into port in Bettendorf at mid-morning on Saturday Red is thinking, “This Chameleon situation is much more dangerous than I first thought. Thank God no one was hurt during the storm and I didn’t barf all over the place. I wonder how Jillian’s interview went with Tim Rollins. I’ll give her a ring after I give Rex the final numbers of the past week’s take on the Floating Fantasies.”

  As Red is settling in at his desk to work up the numbers for Rex, the phone rings. It’s Rex. “Popeye’s been keeping me in the loop regarding the fuel problem on the Floating Fantasies. We were damn lucky that you were near a docking facility when you began to run out of fuel and had enough left to dock. I’m glad that Popeye was at the helm. Nobody can finesse a ship like he can. Anybody else and you might not have made it into the docking area. Red we’ve got to lasso this yahoo pronto. We might not be so lucky next time.”

  “I hear you, Rex. I think we’ve got a real good chance to get a rope around this guy with the plot we launched last night on Tim Rollins show. I’m about to call Jillian to see how it went.”

  “I tuned in and I think she did a terrific job in getting the Chameleon’s attention. Keep me posted as things develop. Oh, before I forget, the main reason I called was to let you know that I got a call early this morning from another one of your arch enemies, Commissioner Crowley. He really wants your head in a noose. He’s insisting that I fire you because, and I quote, ‘You cast a nefarious and impious image of the gaming industry and are a flagrant danger to the patrons of the Floating Fantasies.’ I’m telling you this because I want to remind you to watch your back when he’s around. Don’t take him lightly. He definitely wants your butt in a sling.”

  “Thanks, Rex. I’ll heed your warning. I’ll e-mail you the final numbers for the cruise in about 30 minutes.”

  Red hangs up, mumbles a few choice epithets not normally uttered in mixed company, all aimed at the ignominious ignoramus, the buffoon of buffoons, that currently holds the title of Mississippi Gaming Commissioner, completes tallying the week’s take and e-mails it to Rex and then heads for the casino to get a stiff drink and calm down before he calls Jillian.

  Red’s not a tea totler, but he’s not a boozer either. There are just times when a couple of shots of Bushmills ten year single malt is just what the doctor ordered and this is one of those times.

  Chapter 25

  After his drink in the casino, Red stops by Sylvia Paganino’s office to ask her to join him on his call to Jillian, so the three of them can discuss the interview, the chances of it having the desirable effect on the Chameleon and any new dialogue ideas that might come up as they break down the interview into its component parts.

  “Hi, Syl. I’m getting ready to call Jillian to go over the Tim Rollins interview. I’d like you to join me.”

  “Okay. Do you want to call from here or your office?”

  “Here’s fine. See if you can get her on the line.”

  Jillian answered on the second ring. “You’ve reached the Go For It casino. This is Jillian Prevot. How may I help you?”

  “Hi, Jillian. This is Sylvia at the Floating Fantasies. How’s it going over there?”

  “It’s going. Where? I don’t know yet. What’s up?”

  “I’ve got Red in my office and we’re on the speaker. If you’ve got the time, we’d like to go over the Tim Rollins interview with you.”

  “Hi, Red. I’m up to my neck in meetings with my staff regarding the changes in the entertainment venue I want to present to Joe Amato in a few days. You were lucky to get through to me. If I hadn’t needed to use the facilities, your call would have gone to voice mail. Busy or not though, hang on a minute while I go tell my people that our meeting will reconvene in about an hour. This Chameleon business is just too serious to take a back seat to what I’m doing here. Will an hour be enough time?”

  Getting a confirming nod from Red, Sylvia said, “That should be all that we’ll need.”

  “Okay. Hold on.”

  In les
s than three minutes, Jillian was back on the line and started the meeting with a resounding, “Class A all the way! The interview couldn’t have gone any better. Sylvia, Tim Rollins couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating. I think he likes you if you know what I mean. He asked me to get to the station an hour before the show so we could go over the script you and I prepared. The teleprompters were situated so that it appeared to the viewer that we were talking off the cuff. The bait has been cast just the way we planned. Now for the hard part, waiting to see if we hook anything.”

  “Rex called me earlier today before I got together with Sylvia for this call and he told me that he caught the interview and thought that you did a terrific job. I’m sorry Sylvia and I didn’t get a chance to watch the show as the storm knocked out the dishes on the Floating Fantasies and they weren’t back up until after the show was over. Do either of you have any other ideas about what could be put on the web site to further entice the Chameleon to make contact?”

  Jillian responded with, “The chances are good that the Chameleon will not make contact right away upon pulling up the web site and seeing what I have to say. He’s way too cautious to act impulsively. Over the next few days, I think it would be a good idea to reinforce the initial commentary with additional reasons for him to make contact with me. I could beef up my offer to help him get justice for his brother by offering to open a channel of communication with the owners of the Palladian Palace and the Floating Fantasies as well as the police in order to try to convince them not to press charges against him if he returns the funds he has stolen and cheated to get and promises to give up his vendetta against Red. I could suggest that if this were to happen, he could return to his normal life and use his ingenuity and creativeness on much more pleasant endeavors.

  “This would be a hard sell to a normal person, but the Chameleon is an emotional mess and I think he will be inclined to buy into what I’m offering. He’s got to be getting pretty frustrated over the fact that Red has managed to stay employed despite what he’s been throwing at him.”

  Red’s thinking, “Beauty and brains. I’ve got to get to know this lady better”, but says, “I agree with you. It’s a good idea and I say let’s run with it. Syl, if she needs anything from you, make yourself available, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  Chapter 26

  After the phone call, Red returned to his office and got back to running a casino.

  Four days went by with no response from the Chameleon, but on the fifth day BINGO! When Jillian checked her e-mail there was a very short message. “Call 563-222-3131.” Jillian called and got another recorded instruction. “Call 563-375-4608.” She called the first number again to double check the second number and got nothing but a continued ringing and then a disconnect.

  She called the second number and after the third ring a very deep yet soft voice said, “Thank you for calling. Do you really think you can help me?”

  “I’d like to try if you’ll work with me. I’ve talked with some of the people involved and I’ve been getting some pretty good vibes from them. Talking with them is one thing, getting them to act is a shoe of an entirely different size though. And speaking of shoes, getting what you want won’t be a shoe-in, but if you’re willing to try to work things out with Red and his brother, the owners of the casinos and the police I think we’ve got better than a 50-50 chance of being successful. If we do it right, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “It’s difficult talking about something like this over the phone. We really don’t know each other yet. It probably would be a good idea to get together somewhere to check each other out. If we’re comfortable with each other, then we can move ahead. Besides, if we talk on the phone, there’s always the chance of someone overhearing our discussion or someone interrupting us when we are in the middle of putting a game plan together. Would you be willing to meet with me at the Bettendorf Public Library? I could meet with you tomorrow afternoon at, let’s say, around two o’clock. We could meet in the computer area because there should be less people around there, so we’d have more privacy.”

  There was a long silence and then the Chameleon responded with what Jillian surmised was a somewhat reluctant and perhaps even suspicious, “I’ll be there.” and then he hung up.

  Jillian’s mind quickly leaped into overdrive amidst a flurry of emotions ranging from exhilaration, determination and anger all the way to self doubt and apprehension. “The man didn’t say much, but the way he said it gave me the willies. This guy is creepy. Well, it’s too late to turn back now. First, I’ve got to clue in Red, Bill, Popeye, Sylvia and Joe Amato. Second, I’ve got to go over what I want to say in the library meeting and how I want to say it. Third, I’ve got to agree with Popeye on a signal to flash him if things begin to go south during the meeting and I feel I’m in danger. I like Popeye’s suggestion of fluffing my hair. It’s something that’s natural for a woman to do. Fourth, and this is most important, what am I going to wear? Hmm. It’s good to know that in the midst of all this I still have a sense of humor. Something tells me that before this is over I’m going to need it.”

  Chapter 27

  At 1:50 p.m. the next afternoon, Jillian and Popeye are sitting at computer stations in the Bettendorf Public Library waiting for the curtain to go up and the show to begin. Popeye, who’s taken one of the computer stations close to the entrance to the large alcove, has been sitting there for the better part of two hours and his butt has gone to sleep. Jillian has selected a station six rows back into the area and three rows over from and facing Popeye.

  When Jillian first walked into the computer section, she didn’t recognize him, his disguise was that good. He was sitting in a wheel chair wearing a beat up old Stetson, a well-worn blue denim shirt and blue jeans, a pair of cowboy boots that have seen better days, he was sporting a dirty blonde mustache and a full beard that were neatly trimmed and he had donned a pair of wire rimmed specs to complete his ensemble. Across his lap he had placed an old army blanket and Jillian didn’t want to think about what he had under it. When she realized who he was, she had to work very hard not to let her surprise show on her face because the Chameleon could be watching from somewhere nearby, but inwardly she was greatly relieved that Popeye had pulled it off and was close by.

  Two o’clock came and went and no Chameleon. Two fifteen and then two thirty and still the Chameleon was a no show. “I guess something has warned him off. I’ll head back to the Floating Fantasies and let Popeye continue to play his role and follow me when he thinks I’ve been gone long enough not to arouse any suspicion if the Chameleon is around someplace and watching.” Disappointment replacing her nervous anticipation, she began to rise from her chair to leave.

  Maybe a half dozen people had come in to use a computer since she arrived, but not one of them tried to talk with her. As she started to head for the door, a nondescript woman walked into the computer section and sat at a station one row up and two stations over from where Jillian had been sitting. She appeared to be somewhere in her mid-thirties, 5’10”, 5’11”, slightly stooped, had straight black hair worn down to her shoulders and her eyes were a light chocolate brown. She wore little makeup, only some eyebrow pencil and light red lipstick, and was wearing white walking shoes, black slacks and a black long sleeved sweater. She was carrying one of those over-sized two-toned purses, black and brown, which appeared to be crammed with stuff. She opened it, took some papers out and signed on to the computer.

  Jillian normally wouldn’t have given her a second glance, but there was something about the way this woman looked at her that made her turn around and sit down again. “Could this be the Chameleon? If it is, she sure is a master at disguise.”

  After a couple of minutes went by, the woman came over and asked her if she could print from the computers in the library and, if she could, where the printers were located. Before Jillian could respond, the woman said, “Oh, aren
’t you the new entertainment director at the Go For It casino? There have been commercials about you and I saw your interview with Tim Rollins.”