Handbags & Hooligans

by Laina Turner

  After Jesse left, Anna, Jared, and I sat up for a while discussing all the potential theories we had on Ashley’s disappearance, which took all of five minutes as we didn’t really have any.

  “I’m beat,” I said. “I was tired before, and this wine did me in.”

  “That and the time difference,” Jared said. “It’s almost three in the morning back home. Let’s get some sleep and then check out the pool when we wake up.”

  “We aren’t here to lie by the pool, Jared.”

  “Don’t be such a stick in the mud. Jesse will be sleeping when we get up, and we have to wait for Cooper to call. I wasn’t aware of any other ideas we had, so there’s not much we can do but wait.”

  “You’ve got a point. See you in the morning.”

  Chapter 8

  I was startled out of a sound sleep by the ringing of a phone. After a few seconds, I woke up enough to realize it was mine, opened one eye to locate it on the nightstand, and then reached over to grab it. Thinking it was probably Anna being super excited she was about to get married, I was a little surprised when I saw instead it was Cooper.

  “What are you calling so early for?” I said.

  “Good morning to you, too, sunshine, and it’s not early. It’s ten in the morning.”

  “Maybe for you, but here it’s early, only seven, and I haven’t had coffee yet. You know I can’t function until I’ve had my coffee.”

  “Sorry, sugar, but I thought you might be interested in finding out about Ashley. I got the background check back this morning.”

  I sat up, suddenly wide awake without the benefit of caffeine. “What did you find out? Anything that will help us?”

  He chuckled. “I thought that might put you in a better mood.”

  “C’mon, you know what I’m like when I haven’t had my coffee, so you knew the risks of calling me this early,” I teased. “What did you find out? Is it bad?” I pulled the covers around me so if it was news I didn’t want to hear, I could get off the phone and retreat back to dreamland. If only it were that easy.

  “Calm down, Pres. No, it’s not bad. It is somewhat interesting.”

  “Just tell me already.”

  “All the information on the application was accurate except for her leaving out her stint at The Pink Pony, which we knew. She was arrested once but quickly released and all charges dropped. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “She was arrested? For what?”

  “Now that’s the part I find interesting.”

  “Why? Tell me!”

  “I’m trying to. Stop interrupting. She was arrested about a year ago, but I can’t find any records as to what she was arrested for or who the arresting officer was. Just that it was in Vegas. Two standard pieces of information. It looks like it is a processing error of some kind, but to me that’s a red flag.”

  “Why?”

  “Usually when I see something like this it means there was something done to the record on the behalf of law enforcement. Could be friends in high places, which with her position at The Pink Pony, makes me wonder whose side she’s on—the good guys or bad guys.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, working at The Pink Pony, she would come across just as many unsavory characters as good guys. Maybe she was working for someone dealing with something illegal.”

  I didn’t even want to think about that possibility. Jesse would be devastated. “If someone wanted to bury it, why would it come up at all, then? Wouldn’t they just have the entire record deleted so it didn’t exist?”

  “It’s extremely difficult to eliminate something totally from the database. It’s much easier to just mess with the information. And unless someone is looking for something specific, nobody would really pay attention. The system is like any other; it has issues and is only as accurate as the person inputting the information.”

  “Then how can you know this isn’t just a legitimate processing issue?”

  “Because it just doesn’t happen that often. I would say maybe one out of five is an actual clerical error. The rest are intentional. I’ve learned to assume all errors are intentional until I can prove otherwise.” Cooper’s company provided top security to well–known figures and many celebrities. He was trained to find the truth no matter how buried. I was glad Jared made me call him—for many reasons.

  “It's great having this information, Cooper, but what exactly should we do with it? Is there any way to find out why she was arrested? Can we go to the police station and ask? It’s public information isn’t it? Whoever might have messed with the file couldn’t have deleted all the documents, could they?”

  Cooper laughed. “Well, there’s public information and then there’s public information. Presley, if someone went to the trouble of trying to cover something up, you don’t want to just waltz in and casually ask what the real scoop is. That course of action would be sure to alert the wrong people, if indeed the wrong people are the ones who buried it in the first place. You have to handle these things with finesse, and even then you may not get anywhere. Let me make some calls and see what I can find out.”

  “Thanks, Cooper. I appreciate it. We all appreciate it.” I was happy he was around.

  “There is something else I need to tell you that may make your appreciation for me drop a little bit.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly, knowing that if Cooper didn’t really want to tell me something, it must be pretty bad, and I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to hear whatever bad thing he had to say.

  “I also ran a background check on Jesse.”

  “You what?” I yelled. “Why in the hell did you do that? Did you check me out, too?”

  “Now wait a minute, Pres. I had a good reason, just hear me out. I thought that I might find some connection between her background and his that might be a reason for what has happened. Why she is missing, whether or not it’s sinister. Anything.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said grudgingly. “So, I take it you found something in Jesse’s background that you feel is a problem?”

  “Not really a problem but interesting. Did you know he also has an arrest record?”

  “What? Uh, no. Of course I didn’t know that.” What the hell had he gotten himself into? Our parents were going to flip when they found out. Their golden child with a record, Mom wasn’t going to be happy.

  “It seems like your brother not only works in a casino helping people gamble and lose money, but also likes gambling himself. He has been betting on the ponies and got himself in some hot water with some folks you don’t want to be in hot water with.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “His arrest was for racketeering at its lowest form. Which means he was at a very low level, probably collecting for someone. He maybe didn’t even know exactly who he was working for.”

  “What do you mean ‘collecting’?” I didn’t like where this was going.

  “I am making an assumption here, but he was probably working to pay off a debt by collecting money from other people who owed whomever it was he owed. The information contained in his file stated the detectives who arrested him were looking for information as part of something bigger, that Jesse was of much importance to them.”

  “That’s not a lot of information. What do you mean something bigger? Please put it in into layman’s terms.”

  “From what I can gather, he was a small fish in a big pond, and the detectives could have cared less about him. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was arrested and fined and put on probation. As long as he doesn’t get in trouble in the next year, all is good.”

  “How was he able to get a job at a casino with an arrest record? Seems to me they would be sort of strict with that kind of thing, “I said.

  “He was arrested after he got his job, and as far as I know, once someone is employed they’re safe unless the casino senses something is going on, or has a reason to do another background check. So he’s probably saf
e unless they do random checks.”

  “Hmmm…” I was silent as I processed what Cooper had just told me. How could Jesse not tell me this? Especially in light of what was going on with Ashley? We were close and rarely kept things from each other. I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t tell me something like this.

  “Still there, Pres?”

  “Yeah. Just thinking. Not sure what I’m supposed to do with this information. Do I confront him and let him know that I know?”

  “I think you have to, Pres, but it’s not that big of a deal, so I wouldn’t make it into one.”

  “What do you mean it’s not that big of a deal?” I hissed into the phone. How could Cooper not think my brother being arrested wasn’t a big deal? It was a huge deal.

  “I just mean that it’s in the past. Before you get mad and yell and put him on the defensive, tell him calmly that you know what happened. Let him tell his side of it and then decide if it warrants getting mad or not. The bigger issue here is finding Ashley, not berating your brother for something that already happened.”

  “I guess you’re right.” I pretended to agree with him, but fat chance I wasn’t going to let Jesse have it from keeping this from me. I was his sister, after all, and that was my job—to rub his face in his mistakes. I looked at the clock. “Jared and I were going to try and catch up with him after his shift, which is in about an hour. I’ll see what he has to say and then call you back.”

  “Okay, take care,” he said warmly.

  I hung up the phone feeling happy from talking to Cooper, but my smile faded as I thought about Jesse and the explaining he had to do.

  I left a message for Anna that we’d be back soon. I didn’t want her freaking out, thinking we had disappeared, since it was her wedding day.

  Jared and I headed to the casino to meet Jesse after his shift. I was anxious to tell Jesse what we found out about Ashley. I was assuming he didn’t know, and I was even more anxious to ask him about his arrest, even though I begrudgingly agreed with Cooper that I should wait to hear what he had to say before getting upset. Jared and I hung out sipping on coffee from the stand just at the edge of the casino floor, waiting for Jesse. By the time he walked up, I had convinced myself that, yes, it would be best to calmly ask what happened. I’d told Jared what Cooper had said, and he agreed. There was nothing to be gained by flying off at the handle, and Ashley was our main concern.

  Jesse slid into the empty chair between me and Jared. He looked exhausted. Between the double shifts and worrying about Ashley, he probably hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in days, poor baby. If our mom were there, she would be fawning all over him. Don’t get me wrong; she would do it over me, too. She was just good like that.

  “Can I get you a coffee, Jesse?” Jared asked.

  “That would be great. Tell them it’s for me. My employee number is 991155. It gets me half off.” Jared walked over to order Jesse’s coffee.

  “Long shift, bro?”

  “The usual,” he replied. “Nothing difficult. I’m just so worried about Ashley I can’t concentrate. Did you guys go back to The Pink Pony?”

  “Yes, and it only took me going on a pseudo date with the bartender tomorrow to get some information.”

  “Really?” Jesse’s eyes perked up.

  “First, I have a question to ask.”

  “What?” He looked confused. I could tell he wondered what I possibly had to ask him that was more important than sharing what I had discovered, or rather hadn’t discovered, at the club.

  “As you know, I called Cooper and asked him to do a background check on Ashley. To see if we could get any clues as to what happened or where she went.”

  “Yeah, I know. I gave you her info. So what?”

  “Well…. Cooper also did a background check on you.”

  “What?! What the hell did he do that for?”

  “Jesse, calm down. He did it thinking there might be some commonalities between the two of you. That maybe it would give us a clue to where Ashley was.”

  “He had no right! Neither did you, Presley.”

  “Geezz, Jesse. Calm down. For one, I didn’t tell Cooper to do it. And why get so bent out of shape, unless you have something to hide? Do you?” I couldn’t resist asking. It was hard enough for me to hold back and not just yell at him. Accuse him, rather, if I were being honest. It wasn’t that I was mad he did something wrong, though that was part of it, but that he didn’t tell me about it. I was his sister. Why wouldn’t he want to tell me, confide in me? He had always done so in the past.

  “That’s not the point, Presley. It’s an invasion of my privacy.”

  “Jesse, I know about the arrest.” I couldn’t help it. I had to tell him I knew so I didn’t have to suffer through him being angry on principle that Cooper ran a background check on him. Jesse didn’t look surprised. Obviously, he knew the background check would reveal it, and that was why he had gotten so bent out of shape.

  His face fell, and he looked like the little boy who got upset when I ate the last chocolate chip cookie our mom had made when we were kids. “I figured as much.”

  “Jesse, I do want to hear what happened, but why didn’t you tell me? I’m your sister.”

  “It's embarrassing, Pres. I’m a grown man. I shouldn’t be making these stupid decisions that get me in trouble. I knew better. It was stupid.”

  “You can be irresponsible, but so can I.”

  Jesse smiled at the comment.

  I went on. “We all make stupid mistakes, but if you knew it was stupid, why did you do it? What exactly is it that you did, anyways?”

  “Cooper didn’t tell you?”

  “Well, he told me what he knew, but it wasn’t that detailed. The report just said you had been arrested as part of a sting with these bad guys who were in the racketeering business. Cooper said you seemed to be a very small fish, and the authorities weren’t all that interested in you. What did you get yourself mixed up in?”

  “Pres, I feel like such an idiot to admit I got caught up in gambling. I mean, I’m around it all the time and make fun of these people who just can’t seem to stop. I know better.” Jesse pounded his fist on the table in frustration. “I’d started just having some fun at the track. I’d won a few races with what I had thought was a system. That got me all excited, but really in hindsight it was just dumb luck.”

  “I guess I don’t see how you went from just having fun betting on a few horse races to getting involved with guys who were involved in racketeering. How exactly does that happen?”

  “They were loan sharks basically. People feel lucky but don’t have any money, and these guys loan you what you need at an unheard of interest rate. When you’re on a lucky streak you are confident you can pay it back, and you don’t worry about the interest rate. You think you have everything under control. That nothing bad will happen. And it’s not like you can to go to the bank for a loan for playing the ponies. So really, what other options are there?”

  “I don’t know, maybe not betting in the first place. If you don’t have any money, don’t spend any.”

  “Really, Presley? You’re one to talk. Your credit card debt isn’t any different. You buy things you can’t afford. You just charge them, and the credit card companies aren’t much better than loan sharks. They’re just regulated, and they don’t threaten bodily harm when you don’t pay.”

  I had to admit he had a point. “Okay. I guess what I don’t understand is how you went from borrowing from loan sharks to working with them? Both things are illegal, but one seems so much worse than the other. Is that even what you were doing? Are doing? I’m confused.”

  “It’s pretty simple. I borrowed money, I lost at the track, and then owed money with a lot of interest. I couldn’t pay it back, and so they offered me a way to work it off. It’s a lot more common than you think. It’s how a lot of good people get sucked into doing bad things.”

  “But why you? I mean, I’m sure they don’t offer jobs to all the guys who can�
�t make good on their debt.”

  “It’s not just guys, chicks gamble, too, and no, they don’t always offer an alternative. I guess where I got lucky—or unlucky I suppose—is that the guy I was borrowing money from comes into the casino all the time, and he knew me, liked me even. When I told him I couldn’t pay him back but would as soon as I could raise the money, he said he appreciated my honesty instead of what most guys did, which was try to hide from him. He said he would forgive the debt if I would do a few jobs for him. It was just going to a few houses and collecting what was owed. I knew it was technically wrong, but I wasn’t actually in the transaction business. I was just collecting on what had already been done passing along a message. It might seem strange, but I like this guy. For a criminal, he’s a straight shooter and very likable, and it was the quickest way to pay off my debt and put the whole mess behind me.”

  “Jesse, he’s a criminal. Shouldn’t that prevent him from being your new BFF?”

  “Presley, everyone makes mistakes. I knew there was a small risk, but I never thought I would get in as much trouble as being arrested. Stupid, I know.”

  “When you got arrested, what happened to the guy? Who was it, by the way?”

  “Why? You know a lot of Vegas loan sharks do you?” Jesse chuckled.

  “You’d be surprised at who I know.” It wasn’t far off, thanks to my involvement with exposing Dirt, a high school friend who’d become a cop in my hometown, as the person who murdered Senator Tom Daniels a few months back. He had killed the senator for the mobster Garrison Palazzo, who was now behind bars serving a life term prison sentence for extortion and murder. Six months ago, I would have laughed at anyone saying I would know these types of people, but the world could be a strange place.

  “Bud Greer is the guy’s name. Big Bud is what folks call him.”

  I hadn’t heard of him, but Cooper might know who he was, and surely Simon did. I made a mental note to ask him next time we talked, whenever that would be.

  “He was arrested and is currently out on bail. He’s a smart dude and has a lot of money. I’m sure he has a great lawyer and will get off, if not completely, then I’m sure just a slap on the wrist. He’s a good guy, even if he is into illegal dealings. I mean he really just provides a service. He told me that he would wipe away my debt because he felt bad I got into trouble.”