He leaned in a bit closer as he whispered, "Since you swooned into my arms."
"I wasn't swooning... then."
"Oh?" He leaned in and his lips barely brushed mine when Mary's voice broke the moment.
"Di, we have to go!"
I inhaled sharply. "I'm busy."
"I'm sorry, but Loggin's hurt. He was run over by a chariot then caught on fire!"
***
"No, I'm fine. The fire was small." Loggin's eyes were wild, far too much of the white showing, and his face was pale.
"I think you might be in shock," I said gently. "I think you should go to the hosp--"
"No! I'm not leaving this room."
Orion, Liam, Mary, Moo, Minx, and I were huddled in the boys' room, where Loggin was sitting on the fold-out couch.
Minx sat next to him rubbing his back. "The paramedics gave him a quick once-over before they took Lucky away. They wanted him to go to the hospital just in case, but Loggin refused, and they didn't push it. He didn't hit his head, nothing appears to be broken, and the burn is very mild."
We had left the water show as soon as Mary found out. She had no details beyond what she already shared. Apparently, Minx had been crying too hard to say much more than that we needed to get back.
Loggin was looking around with wide eyes, a pillow clutched to his chest, with a baggy full of ice wrapped in a towel resting on his leg. Moo lay on the bed next to Loggin, his paws across Loggin's lap. He looked around the room, ready to attack anything that threatened Loggin's safety. Minx's eyes were red, but she seemed to be in better control.
"Minx, what happened?"
"Before the gala, they did the same thing they do every year. Give out some awards, have a speech from some celebrity that also shoots a bow, inductees to the Hall of Fame, and lastly, they present the archers that are still clean. It was in the arena. Afterwards there's free food and a cash bar. Becca came and got Loggin. Next thing I know, they dim the lights and a horse-drawn chariot comes out with flames shooting out the back with Lucky, then Unc, Fox, and Roo. Loggin was in the last one. When Lucky's chariot turned, the wheel came off. He fell then..." She sobbed and covered her mouth.
Loggin stared at the opposite wall with no emotion on his face. "They ran right over him. Thump, thump. I didn't want to ride in a chariot at all. I tried to get out of it, but Big Bobby said if I didn't do it, I would be disqualified, but when I saw Lucky disappear under Unc's chariot..."
Minx hugged him. "The horses stopped and more chariots tipped over. I thought Loggin was run over, then people started screaming that Loggin was on fire."
"It was just my pant leg. The chariot driver helped me. I might have been hit by something. I don't know..." His face was getting whiter as he trailed off.
Minx dabbed at her eyes. "Everything went crazy. They evacuated the tournament. They covered Lucky up. He didn't make it."
"I think we need to go. Loggin and Minx need to sleep this off. They must be cancelling the tournament now."
Liam stood up and headed toward the door. "I'll make some phone calls."
There was no chance that this was an accident, not after the way things had gone this whole weekend. "Was anyone else hurt?"
Minx shook her head. "I don't know. I had Moo with me, and we were standing on the top level. Security forced me out of there as soon as the accident happened. That's when I called you. I was freaking out about Loggin when I remembered the elevators security had told Di about. No one was guarding that exit. I found Loggin."
He reached out for her hand and squeezed it.
"They tried to make me leave, but Loggin refused so they had to let him go. We've been here ever since. What took you guys so long?" she snapped at me, her frustration and fear finally finding a place to land.
"We got here as soon as we could. It's Valentine's Day on the strip."
"Oh. I hadn't thought about that." She sniffled and dabbed at her nose with a crumpled tissue.
"I know." I patted her knee. Her bark and her bite were intense, but she was pretty scared right now.
Mary was unusually quiet, her eyebrows all knit up as she quietly observed.
"The tournament's still on," Liam announced as he entered the room.
"Are you serious?"
He nodded. "I talked to my mom. She was at the meeting as one of the major sponsors. The tournament board was there along with the sponsors, and they voted to continue. Bobby recommended against it, along with most of the sponsors, but the archers on the board insisted and said the rest of the divisions agreed. It was a pretty heated meeting. But the tournament can only be cancelled by--"
I finished his sentence. "A two-thirds vote by the tournament committee. If the tournament is canceled before the shoot-off, then no shoot-off amounts are paid out, and only the non-shoot-off payouts are given which are much lower. The same thing happens if there's no shoot-off."
Liam raised an eyebrow.
"We read the rules last night. A much bigger point is that if they cancel the tournament, then something similar happens to the payouts across the board in every single division, not just the huge payout in the pro male compound. I'm sure a lot of archers were pushing to continue to tournament. Loggin, you have to pull out. This is way out of control. If you had been in the first chariot--"
Minx stood up and pointed a finger at me. "Shut up! Don't say it!" Tears streamed down her face.
"It's okay, Minx. It's okay. He wasn't. He's safe." Things were rapidly getting out of control. "Mary, can you take Minx back to her room? I'll take Moo on a walk, then we can go to bed."
Mary nodded. "Good idea. Come on, Minx, I'll tuck you in and everything. If you need us"--she cast the comment to the entire room--"just call."
I pulled Moo off of Loggin's lap, and Liam followed me.
"I'll go with you," he said as he grabbed a key card off the dresser and followed me to the hallway.
We saw Mary and Minx into our room then continued down to the elevators.
"Mom's pretty disgusted." Liam stepped into an elevator and pushed the button for the lobby. "People were screaming and threatening to sue the organization and Bobby personally for their expenses if the tournament was cancelled. Bobby tried to convince them that everyone's safety was more important than any tournament, but no one would listen."
I shook my head in disgust as we exited the elevator. There was a pet area near the elevator, and Liam pushed the door open for us to step through. "It's just a tournament, and already two people have died."
"Unc was apparently one of the loudest. Mom said that she thought he was about to leap the table and punch Bobby across the face."
"He's in the shoot-off. He has one hundred thousand dollars to lose."
"That's a lot of money. Men have been known to kill for less."
Moo sniffed a bush and claimed it as his.
Liam held the door open for me. "This isn't quite how I thought tonight would go."
I stifled a yawn. "I'd say it was pretty awesome for the most part if you ignore Loggin almost getting flattened."
A few archers crowded into the elevator with us, complaining about a rumor they'd heard about cancelling the tournament. Liam and I held hands in silence on the way up, although Moo insisted on standing between us.
Stepping out of the elevator, Liam gave the men a nod. "Good evening."
As we approached my door, passing groups of people huddled in the hallway, I could have kicked myself for not considering that Liam and I weren't going to have a private moment to say goodnight. Why hadn't I thought of that when we were alone outside?
When we got to the door, I poked my head inside to see if maybe we could sneak in there, but Mary was in her pajamas already. I flipped the lock and turned back to Liam.
He wrapped me in a hug, his lips brushing my forehead. "I'll try to come over and watch you shoot in the morning, but Mom wants to meet for breakfast."
"Sleep well." There was more I wanted to say, but it would need to wait.
Mary waved me over to the computer. "I want to show you this. Remember Indy saying they were filming the tournament? They filmed the thing tonight too."
I gasped. "They didn't film Lucky being killed, did they? That's not right."
"No, no. Here, watch." Mary pressed a few buttons and the screen popped up. The chariots were barely visible in the dark arena. "I skipped over the other stuff."
The first chariot, carrying Lucky, rolled out. Lucky waved to the crowd while the handler snapped the reins on the horse's rump.
My heart twisted in my chest knowing that this was the last image of him alive.
Following behind him was a second chariot, then a third, a fourth, and lastly the fifth chariot came out from behind the curtain into the arena, carrying Loggin. Lucky's chariot had just disappeared from the left side of the screen when the crowd, as one, gasped and cried out. A second later, the arena was obscured as people stood, blocking the camera, but the screams were still audible until the video stopped.
Mary moved the mouse to rewind the video. "There are only a few seconds, but look at the wheels on the chariots." She hit Play and pointed to the wheels as they popped off. "The left wheel fell off on every single one. Like someone went down the line and loosened them."
"I figured it wasn't an accident. Can we see who is behind the curtain?"
"Good idea." She scrolled around in the video. A number of people could be seen behind the curtain. All the shooters that were clean--Lucky, Unc, Fox, Roo, and Loggin--tournament staff, judges, Big Bobby, and Becca along with two dozen sponsors and archers. "Basically anyone."
"Let's make a list. That's what we normally do."
Mary flipped open her notebook. "I'm putting Unc, Fox, and Roo at the top; they have the most to gain."
"Lucky could have done it and made a miscalculation," I pointed out.
"If that's the case, then he's already paid for his crimes. Next, Pinkie and the rest of the angry female compound shooters that protested."
"We haven't heard anything since Westmound announced the additional prize money. If they were behind it, then wouldn't they still be angry and protesting?"
Mary pointed her pencil at me. "You may not have heard about it, but I heard plenty. Pinkie came over to complain after she was done fighting with Lucky and Katie. Speaking of which, what if Lucky dying had a two-for-one motive? Not only was he a pro male, but he also cheated on Pinkie."
"Oh! Mary, I didn't even think of that. Put Pinkie at the top of the list. We can sniff around some more tomorrow. Who else? Anything tie the remaining shooters together? Like could a company have eliminated the competition so their people would win?"
She shook her head. "No, all different bow companies, arrows, et cetera. They aren't friends or anything. Who else benefits? Maybe the tournament organization wants it cancelled so they can keep the shoot-off money."
"Who would that be? Becca, Big Bobby, and who?"
"Just the two of them. The rest of the decisions are made by the board that's elected into office. They're spread all over the country. I'm putting Becca and Bobby on the list. Remind me to ask Liam if they get back the money if the shoot-off is cancelled."
"Unc is on the board and in the shoot-off. Maybe he has a plan to use the money to his advantage either way."
"I don't think Unc would do that."
"Don't let yourself be influenced by a flirty smile."
She gruffed at me but underlined Unc's name in her notebook while covering her mouth with the other hand.
My bed started to creak under Moo's weight as he ran after invisible rabbits in his sleep. "I think I'm about to fall asleep standing up. After we're done shooting tomorrow, we can focus one hundred percent on catching the killer. Deal?"
Mary grabbed the financial sheet I had stolen and stuffed it into the notebook, then shoved both into her backpack. "Deal."
CHAPTER EIGHT
I scanned the crowd looking for Liam.
"Di, will you stop that and focus? We only have one end left." Mary had her arms crossed and wore her sternest expression.
We had forgotten to set our alarm for this morning. I had rolled over to check my phone only to realize that it was the time we had planned to leave for breakfast, and we were still in bed. The rest of the morning was a race to get ready and get to the shooting venue on time. Orion had taken care of Moo and gotten us each a breakfast sandwich, but both Mary and I were a bit testy.
Moo pressed his head into my hand, and some of my frustration melted away. His brown eyes looked up at me, and if I leaned down a little, we could touch noses. As I got close, his pink tongue whipped out and caught me across the lips.
"Ew, Moo, gross." I dragged the back of my arm across my face to remove errant doggy germs.
Mary giggled, sounding less cranky and more like her jovial self. "Yeah, Moo, there's only one guy that she wants the tongue from."
"Mary! Shh." I looked around hoping no one had heard her teasing, but everyone was happily absorbed in their own activities. "I need to talk to Liam about that."
"You are not getting cold feet now, are you? You two are per--"
I cut her off and leaned in close. "No, of course not. I'm crazy about him. But my divorce is so close to being finalized and since we work together, I don't need everyone watching our every move. I want it to be just him and me for a while."
She shrugged. "Everyone knows, but whatever, as long as I still get all the good gossip. Come on, we're up."
This was not only the last end of my tournament but also of Mary, Minx, and me--Loggin's Angels, who were either doing an awful job at protecting Loggin, because he kept having near misses, or a great job since he was still alive. Orion had left him sleeping in the room this morning.
I had slept fitfully the night before. Far too much had happened for me to slip into an easy sleep. As I grabbed my bow and got to the line, the same thoughts that had run through my mind last night assaulted me again. Did we need to tell Elizabeth about Liam and me since we were coworkers? Did Westmound have rules about coworkers dating? Would it be weird at work now?
I did my best to stuff those thoughts away as the whistle blew to shoot my three arrows. I set my shoulders, took a slow, deep breath, and focused on smooth, consistent motion as I drew back the arrow.
After I shot the last arrow, I stepped off the line and blew out a breath. It had been a few points lower than the other two days, but I had held it together. Now to solve two murders.
Stripping off my equipment, I searched the crowd again, this time finding Liam. He stood next to Orion. The sight of him curled my toes and heated my face.
I raced through the process of filling out and signing my card. I stepped away then had to race back to thank the archers I'd shot with and shake their hands, a basic courtesy that couldn't be ignored just because I was eager to get to Liam, my... boyfriend? Man I kissed? There were a lot of things we needed to figure out.
I grabbed my bow, bag, scorecards, and jacket and pushed through the crowd to Liam. "Hi."
He gave me a quick hug that I couldn't return with my arms full. "I'm sorry; I couldn't get over here sooner. You did great." He took the bow and my quiver from me.
"If you want out of this madhouse, I can meet you after I turn in the scorecards."
Liam tipped his head to the side at Orion. "Sure, we'll take Moo to the pet area. You and Mary can meet us out there."
I nodded and found Mary in the throng of people pushing to leave the shooting area as they fought against the next division of archers trying to get into the same space. She passed off her things to Orion, and I followed her to the scorecard turn-in line. Catching up with her as she stepped to the back of the line, I peeked over her shoulder to see how she'd shot.
"Awesome, Mary."
She smiled and looked at my scorecard. "Not so bad yourself. How did Minx do? And have you seen Tiger?"
I rol
led my eyes. "Tiger is neck-deep in pretty she-archers. I saw Minx but haven't spoken to her. She could have knocked on our door to make sure we were awake before they left this morning."
"We'll short-sheet her bed when we get back to the center." Mary handed the tournament official her score cards.
Once we got back our copies of our scorecards to keep, we pushed through the long lines of people. Mary stepped around a gaggle of kids and came to my side as we moved down the hallway to the pet area outside the tournament office.
"Who's shooting now?" I asked.
"The pro divisions. I hear that Roo hopped on out of the competition. A guy on my target is friends with Roo's roommate. Roo separated his shoulder in the chariot fall."
"I didn't think anyone was hurt?"
"He woke up in the middle of the night in pain. Maybe the shock wore off. And Fox's wife made them check out of the hotel last night. With Loggin pulling out of the tournament, there will be no shoot-off."
"Shut up." I pushed the door open out onto the pet area. "No shoot-off at all?"
"You can't have a shoot-off with only one person. Does this mean that Loggin's safe now?"
"I guess so, if that was the motive. Hey Liam, what will happen to the thirty thousand from Westmound?"
Liam stared at me blankly. "What?"
"Sorry, I kinda jumped into the middle of the conversation. The thirty thousand that Westmound donated to the Casino Cup to raise the payout for first place for the pro compound male winner of the shoot-off. If there is no shoot-off, then the shoot-off money isn't paid. Does the company get the money back, or does the tournament keep it for future years?"
Liam looked at me, one eyebrow quirked up, then looked at Orion who shrugged. He looked back at me. "Thirty thousand?"
I looked at Mary, who seemed equally confused. Apparently, we were speaking two different languages. I wasn't sure which part was throwing him. "Yes, thirty thousand. It was like ten thousand from Westmound, five from Andersson, or something like that for thirty total. Why are you looking at me like that?"
Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 Page 9