The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas (25 page)

FORTY

‘You’re honestly saying it was Caitlin?’ Victoria asked me.

‘Cross my heart. And Ricks admitted as much. Eventually.’ I lifted my eyebrows. ‘Mind you, he wouldn’t say a thing until we were outside the hotel and walking up and down the Strip. We must have covered a couple of miles talking it through.’

Victoria shook her head. ‘I did not see that coming. She seemed genuinely upset when we found Josh’s body.’

‘She was genuinely upset. She had no idea that he’d been killed.’

I reached for the bread basket and slipped a chunk of warm ciabatta into my mouth. The Italian restaurant we’d selected was a smart establishment, with well-dressed waiting staff, immaculately laid tables and an appealing menu. It also happened to be situated in a corner of St Mark’s Square – the indoor version at the heart of the Venetian resort-casino.

We were surrounded on all sides by the mock façades of pastel-coloured grand palazzos, and above our heads a domed, Renaissance-style sky was marred only by the visible sprinkler system. From the far side of the square, beyond the gelateria stall, I could hear the warble of a gondolier navigating the chemical-blue canal. Above the canal, on an arched bridge, a bride and groom exchanged vows in the glare of tourist camera flashes.

Sure, it was kitsch, but I can’t deny that I really quite liked it. And I especially liked that I was able to share a meal with Victoria without the threat of imminent death hanging over us.

‘You’re sure that Caitlin wasn’t working in partnership with Jared?’

‘As sure as I can be. I very much doubt that she even knows who Jared is.’

‘But Ricks knew?’

‘He did. In fact, he probably had more information than anybody else. His problem was timing. And I’m afraid I have to shoulder some of the blame for that.’

Victoria frowned, as if she was about to assure me that I was talking nonsense. I wagged my finger. She deserved all the facts before she made that call.

‘By early this afternoon,’ I said, ‘Ricks had got around to reviewing the footage from the surveillance cameras covering the theatre exits. He managed to catch a glimpse of Josh making his getaway. Once he had the timing right, he was able to follow his route out to the staff parking lot on the connecting cameras.’

Victoria snorted derisively and reached for her glass of Pinot Grigio. ‘And he couldn’t have done that before?’

I felt a tic in my cheek. ‘Don’t forget, to begin with he was faced with questioning Jared about the roulette scam, and then he had you and me to contend with. And since nobody knew about the juice list back then, I’m pretty sure Ricks expected Josh to turn up after a few days with his tail between his legs.’

‘By which point we might have been dead.’

‘Maybe. But don’t you think that’s why Ricks focused on us to begin with? I know he didn’t exactly make things easy on us, but he could have made them an awful lot worse. And I’d say we have your father to thank for that.’

‘Forgive me,’ she said, sipping some wine, ‘but it would have been a lot more helpful if he’d just talked some sense into the Fisher Twins.’

I tossed my head from one shoulder to the other, then popped another piece of ciabatta into my mouth and spoke from behind my hand. ‘Easier said than done.’ I chewed, then swallowed, and pointed a finger at Victoria. ‘But let me get back to the surveillance footage. According to Ricks, Josh spent twenty minutes in the driving seat of his Lexus, talking on his mobile.’

‘Who did he call? Maurice?’

I shook my head. ‘Maurice never heard a thing from the moment Josh disappeared. No, he called Caitlin. The register on his mobile confirms as much.’

Victoria’s face tangled. ‘But why?’

‘To say that her brothers were onto him.’

‘Over the roulette fix?’

I shook my head again. ‘Over the juice list.’

‘Right,’ she said slowly, and set her wine glass down. ‘Because Josh had it on him when he vanished.’

‘Actually, no.’

Her brow furrowed. ‘No?’

‘Caitlin had it.’

‘But wasn’t Caitlin upstairs in the bath?’

‘I’m guessing his call probably roused her. According to Ricks, when she appears on the footage she’s wearing a robe and her hair is wet. And she doesn’t seem terribly happy. They rowed. For eight minutes.’

‘Okay,’ she said doubtfully. ‘Then what?’

‘Then she shut Josh in the trunk of his car.’

Victoria showed me her palms and a puzzled expression. ‘We’re missing a step. How did she get him into the trunk?’

‘We’re missing plenty of steps. But the trunk part is easy. Josh climbed in voluntarily.’

‘He did? Why?’

‘It seems there’s a manned security booth at the exit of the parking lot. Josh was afraid he’d be stopped. His idea was for Caitlin to drive him out while he hid in the boot.’

‘Ah.’

‘But once she’d closed the lid, she left him there and stormed off to Mount Charleston.’

‘Right.’ She scratched her head. ‘And why did she do that again?’

I smiled. ‘That’s exactly what Ricks asked her. He telephoned her, you see, once he’d finished watching the footage.’

‘And?’

‘And he told her he wanted to help. Said he was worried about the mess she’d got herself in. Then again, the last thing I’d want to do if I was in Ricks’ shoes is to tell the Fisher Twins that their sister was the one who stole the juice list from them.’

Victoria leaned forward over her wine glass, her confusion deepening. ‘But hang on a minute. I thought Maurice asked
Josh
to steal the juice list.’

‘He did. But come on, Josh didn’t have the skills to get inside that safe.’ I poked my thumb at my chest. ‘Even I didn’t have the skills to get inside that safe.’

‘So, what – Josh got Caitlin to help?’

‘Don’t sound so surprised. She wanted that gig at Magic Land every bit as much as Josh. Perhaps even more. Remember, I’ve seen with my own eyes how committed she was to developing her new act. And she must have believed that the juice list could offer her a way to escape her brothers’ influence.’ I lifted my shoulders. ‘Maybe she thought Maurice could use the leverage to help her out.’

Victoria backed off from me and swirled the wine in her glass. She scrutinised the oily vortex that developed. ‘Not forgetting, I suppose, that she was in love with Josh. They were getting married, after all.’

‘Oh, mush.’

‘You’re saying she lied?’

I sucked on my lips. ‘I didn’t see an engagement ring on her finger.’

‘Trust you to notice that.’

‘Just observant, I suppose. But ask yourself this: could you lock your fiancé inside a car boot and leave him to stew?’

‘Of course not. But then, I’m not Caitlin. She must have been angry.’

‘Try furious. From what she told Ricks, Josh had kept her in the dark about his roulette scam. Not that I’m surprised by that. I still don’t understand why he did it.’

Victoria pouted and took another sip of her wine. ‘Maybe he wanted a little extra spending money in Hawaii.’

‘Yeah, or maybe he was simply arrogant enough to believe he’d get away with it. But instead, he drew the attention of the Fisher Twins. And that was the last thing Caitlin needed.’

‘Right. Because she planned on stealing the juice list.’

I wagged my finger. ‘Because she already had it. Don’t you see? Caitlin could visit her brothers’ office when they weren’t around without arousing suspicion. And she could get close enough to one of the twins to sneak a look at his PDA and locate the safe code. The twins told Ricks that they’d last accessed their safe two days ago. So at some point between then and when Josh disappeared, Caitlin stole the list. Actually, I imagine it wasn’t long before I found her in the bath. She wouldn’t have wanted to give the twins too much time to discover the list was missing. And that would explain why she didn’t perform in the show yesterday evening. Perhaps her nerves were frayed.’

Victoria pulled a face that suggested her wine tasted foul. ‘She didn’t tell Ricks all of that, surely.’

‘So I’m filling in a few blanks. But she told him enough for him to convince her to come back to Vegas. That would have been shortly before you showed up at her house and asked her to do the same thing. No offence, but I think she was already planning on returning.’

‘I see.’ Victoria reached for her knife and spun it on the tablecloth, her mouth twisted in concentration. ‘She was quite easy to persuade, now that you mention it. At the time, I assumed that was because she was concerned for Josh.’

‘Yeah, concerned that he didn’t screw up. Ricks was prepared to erase the surveillance footage and turn off the cameras in the parking lot. The idea was for him to meet Caitlin at the Lexus and release Josh. Then they were going to work together to return the juice list to the safe.’

‘Only Caitlin had me to contend with.’

‘There’s that. But more to the point, it was soon after they finished talking that Ricks got the call to say that an attempt had been made on the Fisher Twins’ safe. He had to head to their office right away. And that’s when he found me, and the whole thing became a whole lot more complicated.’

‘More complicated?’ Victoria blew a puff of air towards her fringe and twirled her knife some more. ‘Honestly. I know I’m tired, but it seems bad enough already.’

‘Imagine how Ricks must have felt. I’m kind of amazed his head didn’t explode.’

‘He’s one cool customer, all right.’

‘You don’t know the half of it.’ I stretched across the table and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from spinning the knife. I smiled by way of consolation. ‘When we were all leaving the theatre and the twins were arranging for Josh’s Lexus to be brought around to the front of the hotel, Ricks pulled Caitlin to one side and asked for the juice list. That’s when she told him that she’d been a little too clever for her own good. She’d hidden it under the sand in the cabinet when you were waiting for us to arrive.’

A light seemed to go on in Victoria’s eyes. ‘So
that’s
why Ricks went back.’

‘Damage limitation. Plus, he had no idea that Josh was dead, of course.’

‘Oh yes. So when did that happen?’

I reached for some more ciabatta, then thought better of it and fortified myself with a mouthful of wine instead. ‘It would have been some time after Ricks turned off the security camera,’ I said, swallowing. ‘Josh must have believed that Caitlin wasn’t going to return to release him. He’d been calling her from the trunk of the Lexus, but she wouldn’t answer her mobile. So out of desperation, he sent Jared a text.’

‘Big mistake. He didn’t know what the Fisher Twins had done to Jared. He basically sent the guy an invitation to come stab him.’

‘Yeah, with his damn barbecue fork. And then Jared stole Josh’s chips and made the error of trying to cash them out.’

Victoria shook her head and released a long breath. ‘He could have got clean away if he hadn’t tried that.’

‘So you see, Caitlin really didn’t expect Josh to be dead when the trunk flipped up. And you might remember that she did her best to avoid opening the boot in the first place. It was only when you suggested it, and when I pressed the button on the key, that she lost control of the situation.’

‘And suddenly he’s dead.’

‘Exactly. So you can understand why she was completely thrown by it. I mean, he was never going to be in the best of conditions, but she really didn’t suspect a thing.’

‘Hmm.’ Victoria folded her arms across her chest. ‘So what happens now?’

‘Now?’ I leaned back in my chair and laced my hands behind my head. ‘We let Ricks smooth things over. It seems like the twins are willing to buy the idea that Josh stole the juice list. They have his killer. So there’s probably no need for Caitlin’s name to be mentioned.’

She gave me a disapproving look. ‘That doesn’t sound right.’

‘She has to live with Josh’s death on her conscience, Vic. And if she’s even half as mushy as you believe, that’s going to be tough.’

‘And us?’ She winced.

‘We’re in the clear,’ I said, and watched her face begin to relax. ‘The twins wanted us to repay the money they lost on the roulette scam or have us find Josh for them. Well, they’ve got their casino markers back, and we did find Josh – although perhaps not in the state of health they might have preferred. And on top of that, we helped to return the juice list.’

‘We were aiming to
steal
the juice list.’

‘Originally, maybe, but they’re pragmatists, Vic.’

She let go of a dispirited sigh. ‘I’m not sure I like that they got their blackmail list back.’

‘I don’t like it either. But maybe it’s better that more people don’t have access to the information. And the part I do like is where Ricks comes in. The guy did us more than a few favours, and I don’t think we’ve left him empty-handed. He knows about Caitlin. Maybe he was even smart enough to make a copy of the surveillance footage before it got wiped. I’d say that if he waited a while and played things right, he could enjoy a very comfortable retirement.’

‘And Maurice? He can’t be very pleased.’

‘Disappointed, I suppose. But he didn’t pay my fee upfront, so he’s not out of pocket.’

‘Yes, but we don’t know what happened to Sal. If he’s still inside the twins’ office, they could find him and connect him to Maurice.’

‘Ahem,’ I said, and pointed over Victoria’s shoulder towards the back corner of the restaurant terrace. She hesitated, then turned and looked in the direction I was indicating just as Sal lifted his head from a bowl of pasta. I raised my wine glass to him and he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before grasping his beer bottle and encouraging Kojar to join our toast.

‘Is that really them?’ Victoria whispered.

‘You couldn’t make it up, right?’

‘Sal’s even smaller than I imagined.’

‘I know. I had to specifically request that high-chair for him.’

Victoria turned back to me and shook her head slowly. ‘You’re awful.’

‘Not so awful. I am paying for their meal.’

‘I should jolly well think so. But how did Sal escape?’

‘That would be Ricks again. After we’d finished talking, he went back to the twins’ office and found Sal hiding beneath the conference table. He reunited him with Kojar and got the pair of them out of the hotel without being seen. Oh, and he also released the security guard we’d tied up and let him know that it would be a bad idea to mention that he saw anyone other than me.’