The Gold Dragon Caper: A Damien Dickens Mystery (Damien Dickens Mysteries Book 4)

by Phyllis Entis

  “What’s this about, Boss?” he asked, his eyes lingering on Millie’s face and figure with the relish of a connoisseur as he fingered the clasp of his bolo necktie.

  “Mrs. Dickens wants to talk to you about Hewitt.”

  Davila turned his head to look at Millie, who had taken a seat to his right. “You have information for us, ma’am? You seen the suspect? You know where he is?”

  “No,” she replied, “I don’t. I…”

  Interrupting her with an impatient grunt, he addressed his chief. “Boss, I don’t have time for social visits or for reporters. I’m working overtime to get a line on the perp.”

  “Sit down, Davila,” Dietrich’s voice cut whip-like across the table. “The lady says she’s Hewitt’s sister.”

  The lieutenant dropped back into his seat and waved at Millie to speak her piece.

  “As the sheriff said, I am Colin Hewitt’s sister,” she confirmed with a nod in Dietrich’s direction. “I’m also a private investigator, licensed in the state of New Jersey.”

  “You’re a long way from home, Mrs. Diggins,” Davila drawled. “How do you come to be in Las Vegas?”

  “I received an urgent phone call from my sister-in-law. She was trying to locate Colin, and thought he might be visiting me. I could tell she was in a panic, so I came to Las Vegas to help her.”

  “When was this?”

  “She reached me yesterday evening.”

  “How did you get here so fast, Mrs. Diggins? You sure you didn’t plan this trip in advance? Sure you didn’t already know what your brother was up to?”

  “I took a red-eye flight from Philadelphia late last night, and arrived in the early hours of this morning. I had no idea Colin was being sought by the police until my sister-in-law telephoned me. I read some of the details in a newspaper I found on the plane, including the information that you are apparently in charge of the investigation. And the name is Dickens,” she added with asperity, the flush in her cheeks betraying her annoyance. “Spelled D-i-c-k-e-n-s, like the author.”

  “And you want me to believe you dropped everything to fly more than 2000 miles simply because your sister-in-law mislaid her husband?” Davila turned to Dietrich. “Sorry, Boss, but I don’t buy this. I think Mrs. Diggins knows more than she’s letting on.”

  “May I?” Holmes’s quiet interjection forestalled an angry retort from Millie. “I’ve known Mrs. Dickens and her husband for several years. I was in charge of Homicide for the Atlantic City Police Department before moving to California, and worked with them on more than one occasion. I would trust both of them with my life. You can take Mrs. Dickens’s word to the bank.”

  Millie flashed a grateful smile at Holmes, took a deep breath to calm herself, and addressed Davila. “I understand your skepticism, Lieutenant. In your place, I might have a similar reaction.” She paused to gauge the effect her words were having on the homicide lieutenant. Frowning, he gestured for her to continue. Glancing back and forth from Davila to Dietrich she said, “I would like to know why the Las Vegas police consider my brother to be a suspect.”

  Without consulting the folder on the table in front of him, Davila heaved a theatrical sigh and recited in a monotone, “We were called to the scene of the burglary on the morning of 12 February. The object in question had been stolen during the night from a secure display case. Certain aspects of the theft pointed to an inside job. We obtained a list of all staff members and interviewed them one by one. Hewitt didn’t show for work that day. He was the only person not accounted for. We went to his apartment. His wife didn’t know, or wouldn’t say, where he was. His vehicle was missing, and his wife didn’t know anything about that, either. We put out a BOLO on him and on the vehicle.” With a patronizing smile at Millie, he added, “That means ‘be on the lookout for.’ ”

  “Don’t condescend to me, Lieutenant,” Millie snapped. “I am well aware of the meaning of BOLO.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you are, ma’am. You must come face to face with all sorts of nasty characters while typing and filing your husband’s reports. It’s dangerous work, I’m sure. Paper cuts can become infected.”

  “I’ve been confronted with much worse than paper cuts, Lieutenant. I’ve looked down the wrong end of a gun barrel more times than I care to remember. I will thank you to keep your male chauvinism to yourself.” Millie swallowed her anger, and continued in a calmer voice. “You said aspects of the theft pointed to an inside job. Would you care to elaborate?”

  Davila glanced at Dietrich, who nodded for him to respond. “Well, it’s like this, ma’am. The object was in a display case with a bulletproof plexiglass front. The case could be accessed only from a secure room adjacent to the central alarm control panel. That area was off-limits to everyone except senior security personnel and senior management.”

  “How was the case secured?”

  “With twin combination locks. One combination was known to the chief of security and to the owner of the property. The combination for the second lock was safeguarded by the insurance company’s regional vice-president. The display case could only be unlocked in the presence of both parties.”

  “How was the object removed?”

  “The display case is adjacent to a bank of elevators. The perps appear to have entered the elevator shaft next to the case during the night. They cut through the cinderblock wall and the rebar reinforcement, and accessed the object through the opening they made.”

  “And no one noticed?”

  “They put up one of those partition screens with a ‘Caution. Work in Progress’ sign on it. Very few people pass through the lobby in the middle of the night, and no one gave it a second thought.”

  Millie shook her head. “Ingenious, but you still haven’t explained why you are focusing on my brother to the exclusion of other possibilities.”

  “He is the only one unaccounted for, ma’am,” Davila said with exaggerated patience. “And he is, or was, a security guard. He knows the routine. He knows the layout.”

  “You’ll need more than that to convince me. Colin is bright enough, but he operates purely on impulse. My brother couldn’t plan his way out of a paper bag.” Millie shook her head. “He’s no angel. Possibly, I could see him having been duped in some way. Roped in as an accessory. But this calibre of operation is way out of his league.” She rose, and the three men stood out of courtesy as she took her leave of them. “I intend to get to the bottom of this. I would appreciate your cooperation, but I will investigate on my own, if I must.”

  “And when you learn something?” Chief Dietrich asked.

  “You’ll be among the first to know.”

  As she rode the elevator back down to the lobby, Millie thought about her next move. She approached the constable at the Information kiosk and asked for the location of the public library.

  “Public library?” The puzzled officer pulled an earlobe. “Gee, miss. I don’t really know. Never used it.”

  “Would you mind looking up the address for me, please?” Millie flashed her most winning smile at the baby-faced constable, who took a well-worn directory from a shelf beneath the counter.

  “Here we go,” he said, his finger on the listing as he read out the address. “1726 E. Charleston Blvd.”

  “How far is that? Can I walk from here?”

  “Gee, I don’t think so, miss. It’s a couple of miles, and your route would take you through a pretty rough area.”

  The Las Vegas Public Library was housed in a double storefront unit inside a small neighborhood shopping plaza surrounded on three sides by a large parking lot. The plaza was anchored by a K-Mart store on one end, and a discount grocery story at the other. The space between the two was occupied by a small, indoor mall. Millie found a parking slot near the entrance to the mall, locked the car, and walked inside.

  The recent recession had taken its toll of the local economy. Several of the units were vacant, with ‘Store to Let’ signs mounted with adhesive tape to the inside surfaces of their
plate-glass windows. Only a bank branch, a bakery and a small hardware store were still around to keep the library company.

  Millie pushed open a metal-framed glass door with the words ‘Public Library’ stenciled in black at eye level. She was greeted with a blast of hot, dry air, and quickly shed her wool jacket, draping it over one arm as she approached the circulation desk.

  “Newspaper archives?” The volunteer behind the desk wrinkled her brow. “I think you’d better ask Ms. Vasquez, our Reference Librarian. You can find her at the back of the main reading room, over there on the left.”

  Francesca Vasquez was seated behind a desk stacked with books and papers. A pair of bookends held several 3-ring binders upright on one corner, the spines facing her. As Millie approached, the woman looked up from the Rolodex file she was in the process of consulting. “Yes? May I help you with something?” she asked.

  Millie identified herself and explained what she was looking for.

  “The Gold Dragon?” Vasquez tapped the end of her pencil against her pursed lips as she thought. “I remember when it was acquired by the owner of the casino. It caused quite a flurry of publicity at the time, even making the rotogravure section. That was in 1980, I believe. Give me a moment.” She walked over to a card catalogue, pulled open a drawer and began to flip through the index cards. “Yes, here it is. The article is on microfilm. It will take a few minutes for me to access it for you. As for the information on the theft of the nugget, those articles will still be in the current news cabinets, against the wall.” She waved her arm to indicate a series of low-rise metal cabinets lining the wall to her right. “You can get started, if you wish, while I retrieve the microfilm for you.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Millie chose a table in the far corner of the dimly lit bar. Seated with her back to the wall, she had a clear view of the entrance. She ordered a Coors and settled in to review the fruits of her day’s activities as she waited for her mysterious informant to arrive.

  Her visit to the library had given her some insight into the importance of the stolen piece. By all measurements, it was the largest intact nugget ever discovered. It had been unearthed in 1980 by an Australian prospector who was sweeping the surface of a dry lake bed with his metal detector. Acting through a nominee, the owner of a downtown Las Vegas casino acquired the piece the following year. The nugget’s shape reminded its new owner of a mythical beast, and he named it ‘The Gold Dragon.’ After trademarking both the name and the shape of the gold piece, its owner had embarked on a major renovation and rebranding of his casino. On the day of the casino’s grand reopening, guests lined up to gawk at the famous nugget, which was on display in a theft-proof case next to the elevator bank in the main lobby of its namesake hotel/casino.

  The launch of the revamped Gold Dragon Hotel & Casino ushered in a revival of the entire downtown business district. Tourists flocked to the area, drawn by the legend of the Gold Dragon, and by the relatively inexpensive table limits compared to the casinos on the main Las Vegas Strip. No wonder, then, that the disappearance of the Gold Dragon from its impregnable case had thrown the downtown casino industry into a panic. Millie believed the police were under pressure to make an arrest. She feared her brother was a convenient scapegoat.

  She had tried to reach Sonya from a pay phone at the library, but there had been no answer. After leaving a short message to tell her sister-in-law she wouldn’t be returning to the apartment until late in the evening, Millie drove back downtown. Leaving her car in the Gold Dragon’s parking garage, she crossed 1st Street to the hotel’s south entrance, and walked north along a long corridor overlooking the pool deck. As she passed the main check-in desk for the hotel, she stopped to examine the empty display case, which once had held the stolen nugget. Now, all it contained was a placard, which read, ‘REWARD. Aces Insurance Company of Nevada and The Gold Dragon Hotel & Casino offer $100,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the Gold Dragon nugget, stolen from this case on the night of February 11, 1983.’

  Millie nursed her beer as she watched the entrance to the bar. Nine o’clock had come and gone, and nine-thirty was fast approaching. She would wait until 10:00pm, then leave. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a woman turn away from the bar and walk in her direction, a half-empty stein of beer in her hand. The woman’s eyes were hidden behind oversized sunglasses. Her hair, a brassy blond color that looked as though it had been poured out of a bottle of generic hair dye, was puffed into a bouffant. She wore a black, leather skirt ending at mid-thigh, revealing black, fish-net stockings. Her cherry-red, high-heeled shoes matched the polish on her long, manicured nails.

  “Mind if I join you?” she asked.

  Millie scrutinized the woman, whose voice she had last heard inside the casino. With a wave of her hand, she indicated a chair opposite her own. “You’re late,” Millie said.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been watching you from the bar. I wanted to make sure you were alone.”

  Millie nodded. It was the sort of maneuver she might have used, had their roles been reversed. With a smile, she offered her hand to the other woman. “My name is Millie. What’s yours?”

  The woman hesitated before answering, “You can call me Jane.”

  Millie leaned back in her seat, outwardly relaxed, and waited for the other woman to speak. Jane, if that was really her name, was on edge, fidgeting with her hands, shredding a cocktail napkin, her eyes barely visible behind the dark glasses. “This was a mistake,” she blurted after a protracted silence. “I shouldn’t be here. I can’t afford to be seen with you.”

  “Tell me why.” Millie leaned forward, her hands clasped on the table. “You arranged this meeting.Why do you now think it was a mistake?”

  Her words sounding as though they were being dragged from her mouth against their will, Jane said, “I was a friend of Colin’s. I heard you tell Rob he’s your brother. Is that true?”

  “Yes, Colin is my kid brother.”

  “I was surprised. You look about my age. No offense, but Colin is so much younger.”

  “No offense taken. I was an only child until I was thirteen years old.”

  Jane nodded slowly, searching Millie’s face. “I can see the resemblance. Are you here to help the police or to help Colin?”

  “Before I answer, would you mind telling me what your interest is?”

  Jane took a deep breath, let it out slowly, appearing to come to a decision as she did so. “Colin and I were lovers.” She flinched at Millie’s look of surprise “I know. I’m quite a bit older than him. We used to joke about it. He would call me Mrs. Robinson, saying we were like Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in that movie, ‘The Graduate,’ from the 1960s. But I made him happy. Until he met Sonya.” She paused to take a long swallow from her beer stein. “I think it made him feel good to be looked up to. To be her protector. He fell for her.”

  “That must have been hard on you,” Millie said.

  “I won’t lie to you. I was jealous. Crazy jealous. I confronted him repeatedly in the staff lounge. I used to make a point of ‘accidentally’ encountering him on my rounds delivering drinks in the casino. He finally threatened to complain to my boss if I continued to harass him.” Jane removed her glasses and Millie could see moisture in the corners of her eyes. “I’m not proud of what I did next.”

  “What was that?”

  “I got even. I set him up.” Jane winced at Millie’s barely suppressed gasp. “The customers usually tip us with gambling chips. I hoarded my tips until I had enough to put my plan into effect. Then I planted them in Colin’s locker at the casino, and told his boss I had seen Colin skimming chips during his shifts.”

  “Is that common? An employee skimming chips?”

  Jane shrugged. “There are safeguards, but it happens. It’s not something the industry likes to talk about, and it’s not a frequent occurrence.”

  Millie studied Jane’s face. Something wasn’t quite adding up. The woman was avoiding her eyes. �
�What aren’t you telling me?” she asked.

  “I’ve already said too much. Stayed too long. I need to go.”

  Putting her sunglasses back on, Jane stood to leave. Millie reached out and gripped her wrist. “Please. Just a few more minutes. Tell me about the theft of the gold.”

  Reluctantly, Jane sank back into her chair and removed her glasses, fiddling with them as she cast nervous glances around the room. “What about it?”

  “Do you think my brother was behind it?”

  Jane shook her head. “No, I don’t. I believe he was set up to be the fall guy.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do I think so, or why him?”

  “Either. Both.”

  Jane sighed. “I may as well come clean. I can tell you’re determined to worm the full story out of me anyway. Colin was skimming. He was part of a small ring, which included one pit boss, a couple of blackjack dealers and me. I was the diversionary tactic. While Colin and his partner were delivering chips to a table and changing out the cash boxes, I would walk up and take drink orders from the gamblers. Distract them from what was going on. The dealer would palm a few of the chips and sign a fudged receipt. The pit boss had to be in on the scam, because he was required to initial all the chits.”

  She paused to swallow a last mouthful of beer. “I’m the one who got caught. A senior security supervisor approached me, suggesting I could get even with Colin by planting chips on him. He didn’t explain why, but I got the impression someone wanted to paint Colin into a corner. When I resisted, he reminded me of Colin’s behavior toward me. You see, everyone knew about our break-up, and about my jealousy. Lord knows I didn’t try to hide my feelings. Even then, I hesitated. Finally, he told me in no uncertain terms that it would cost me my job to refuse.” She flashed a look at Millie that mingled defiance, contrition and fear. “I’m a single mother. I can’t afford to lose my job.”