Casino Capers

by Dan Kelly

  “Judging from what the Chameleon told Jillian, the Chameleon in now considering two possible causes of the fire, arson or negligence. He’s determined to make Red pay for his brother’s cover up actions in either scenario and will continue to harass Red until the owner is brought to justice. Maybe there’s a better way of going about cornering this guy than pretending to use Jillian as a negotiator for the Chameleon with the team of fire investigators in Chicago with the hope of making the owner pay for his crime.”

  Chuck said, “What do you have in mind?”

  “Well, we know that the convoluted conclusions this guy has drawn regarding the origins of the fire, the owner of the apartment complex, Nate and Red are rooted in his grief over the untimely loss of his twin brother whom he has been yearning to meet for years, but couldn’t search for until his dad passed away. Just when the road was clear for him to start looking, he finds that his brother was killed in what he considers to be a suspicious fire. The man is hurting big time. He’s extremely angry over the unfairness that life has thrown his way and is lashing out at the person whom he thinks is responsible for no punishment being meted out.

  “I think we should use his twisted way of looking at his brother’s death to get him to refocus his vendetta on the people whom he thinks are directly responsible for his brother’s death and lack of appropriate punishment, the owner of the apartment complex and Nate Borman. Any normal person would have zeroed in on them from the very beginning.”

  Chuck responded with, “All this would accomplish is take the heat off Red and put it on Nate and the owner of the apartment complex. How would this improve the odds of our successfully trapping him?”

  Red jumped in with, “Well, I’m thinking of several good reasons for getting him to make the switch. First, this ruse we’re using with Jillian and the arson team in Chicago isn’t going to hold up much longer because, as we know, no new finding more to the Chameleon’s liking is going to be coming down the pike. This ruse was fine for the short period of time we needed to set things up at the ski resort, but he’s going to get very anxious when nothing new develops and will probably look deeper into what’s going on in Chicago. It won’t be long before he finds out that he’s being set up. If we don’t come up with something else to hold the Chameleon’s interest, we’re going to lose him.

  “Second, with each failed attempt at ruining me the more frustrated the Chameleon has become. He may be a little looney, but he’s not stupid. I’m sure he’s aware that as his frustration increases so does his temptation to take greater risks, perhaps foolish ones, to bring me down. I think he would welcome a change in game plan that offers a greater chance of him getting what he wants, justice for the death of his brother, while at the same time reducing his frustration and temptation to take foolish risks. He’s told Jillian that he believes his chances are slim of getting what he wants out of the renewed fire investigation, so I’m thinking he might be open to accepting a new way to reach his goal.

  “Third, bringing other players into the game will give us a broader range of tactics to select from to put an end to this guy’s vendetta.”

  Popeye added, “Sometimes when a high pressure situation is s suddenly decompressed the people dealing with it will relax too much, become careless and make mistakes they wouldn’t normally make in the pressure cooker.”

  Everyone nodded their agreement and then Bill jumped back in with, “If we decide to do this and we pull it off, we’re going to be escalating the danger level considerably. We’re going to be pointing a loaded gun at the apartment building owner and Nate. In the Chameleon’s mind, these two are the real culprits in all of this and we’ll be getting him to focus all of his hatred and lust for revenge directly on them instead of indirectly through Red. This will be an entirely different ball game from what we’ve been playing.”

  Red said, “Well, maybe we can keep using the same playing field though and rig the game in our favor.”

  This got everyone’s attention and they all turned to face him expectantly. Smiling in a cautious yet respectful way Jillian said, “Uh oh, folks. Break out the foul weather gear. Another brain storm’s brewing.”

  When the laughter died down, Red continued. “Hear me out before you duck for cover. I think a good place to try and nab this guy next time would be on the Floating Fantasies. We know that the Chameleon is comfortable in a casino environment and is somewhat familiar with Rex’s dreamboat. I’m sure his reconnaissance of this ship revealed that Popeye is its captain, Bill is its security chief and Jillian has been periodically visiting the ship in her quest to get a better grasp of what her competition is doing. Of course, he knows my role on the Floating Fantasies. Knowing this, if he sees us separately or all together here he will not be alarmed and take off.

  “Popeye knows this ship like the back of his hand and should be able to block any escape route available to the Chameleon once he’s been lured onboard.”

  Chuck asked, “What do you have in mind to use as a lure?”

  Red responded with, “My brother Nate and the Chicago apartment building owner.”

  Chuck followed up with, “What makes you think your brother and the apartment building owner will let you put them in such a position? By the way, who owns the apartment building?”

  Red said, “I’m pretty sure my brother will go along. When we were kids growing up, he was always sticking his neck out to help me with some scheme or other. As for the apartment owner, I think it’s high time he was told that he has a very dangerous enemy who holds him responsible for the death of his brother. I would suggest to him that it would be in his best interests to join us in trapping the Chameleon instead of doing nothing and maybe have to deal with him face-to-face alone.

  “As for who owns the apartment building, you’re not going to believe this, the brother of our own Commissioner Curtis Crowley. I asked Rex Spaulding to use his contacts to find out who owned the building and when he told me I almost fell off my chair. His name is Clyde Crowley. We currently have three brother and one brother in-law relationships in this mess. That’s quite a coincidence. If any more show up, I might seriously consider writing a book about the dangers of brotherhood.”

  This got some more chuckles and then things got serious. Somewhat amazed and puzzled at her lapse of memory an embarrassed and somewhat angry Jillian says, “Oh forgive me, Red. I completely forgot that the Chameleon mentioned that Clyde Crowley was the name of the owner. I never made the connection. I don’t know how I could forget such a thing.”

  “Forget it, Jillian. A lot more happened at that cabin than we anticipated. You were able to recall a lot more than we had a right to expect.”

  “Well thanks, Red, but I’m still angry with myself for forgetting something as important as that.”

  “I said forget it, Jillian. You and I aren’t pros at something like this. I’m just thankful we accomplished what we did. We got his admissions recorded for posterity and you didn’t get hurt.”

  “Okay, I’ll try to forget it. I guess I’m going to be the catalyst for putting our new game plan into action, so don’t keep me in suspense. What’s the new game plan?”

  Intently scanning the faces sitting around the conference table and lingering on Jillian’s he said, “As much as I hate meetings, I’m going to call a special one ostensibly for discussing the Chameleon’s accusations concerning Nate and Clyde to be held here in my office, but only if 1. The Chameleon responds to the code on your web site to call you, 2. He tells you that the reason he took off like he did was just because he got the jitters over King disobeying him and 3. He’s willing to continue to work with you.

  “If these three conditions are met, you can then tell him what we’re planning to do and ask him to sit tight and wait to see what comes out of the meeting. I’m banking on him not wanting to sit tight. I think he’ll want to get up close and see what his enemies look like. I think he will be overwhelmed by the opportunity to do something that will give him the satisfaction he cra
ves and he will get careless about the risks he is willing to take. He might decide to try to take Nate and Clyde hostage and scare them into admitting their complicity in covering up the real cause of the fire or do something a lot worse. In any event, I think he’s ripe for the picking.”

  Chuck said, “I don’t like the ‘something a lot worse’ part. If this guy is as unhinged as we think he is, the Chameleon isn’t the only one taking a hell of a lot of risk here. Everyone in the meeting will be at risk, especially Nate and Clyde Crowley.”

  Jillian said, “ I have an idea about how we can reduce the risk to nil, but my sharing it with you is based on Red’s promise that the Floating Fantasies nor any of the other casinos will use it in their casinos until after I have implemented it at the Go For It and for six months thereafter.”

  With a quizzical look on his face Red said, “I will keep my word as will the other casino managers, I can assure you.”

  “Very well then, here’s what I propose. I have been working on putting several new acts together at the Go For It that employ the use of holograms. The technicians involved are extremely creative, ingenious even, in the application of holograms for entertainment purposes. We could conduct our meeting at this conference room table, have it recorded on video as a hologram and then transmit the hologram into this same conference room at the appointed time. These images are so lifelike that they’ll fool anybody, even if they’re standing only a couple of feet away.

  “Red, the only visual access to your office is the two large windows behind your desk and they’re at least thirty feet away from the conference room table. The conference room table would have to be removed from your office until our little “show” was over and you’d have to keep the drapes drawn over the windows until the time of the meeting, so we don’t tip off the Chameleon that something unusual is going on. We can open both windows about six inches from the bottom, so the Chameleon will be able to hear what’s being said.”

  For several seconds, it was so quiet that you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Then Chuck says, “I don’t know about this, Jillian. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. I can see the attraction. Knowledge of the meeting will definitely pique his curiosity, but a lot can go wrong with electronic gizmos. If something does go wrong while the Chameleon’s eavesdropping and he sees that he’s being had, he just might go ballistic and start shooting at everything in sight. This is a very dangerous ploy we’re considering here.”

  Popeye chimes in with,” I kind of like it. This will keep Jillian and everyone else in the meeting out of harm’s way if this guy wigs out. Besides, Red’s windows open onto a small walkway that leads to a stairwell that goes down below deck to give maintenance personnel access to the plumbing and a portion of the Floating Fantasies electrical plant. The walkway is only about ten feet wide, stretching from the outside wall of Red’s office to the ship’s railing. Entrance to the walkway is blocked off by a chain with a sign attached that reads, ‘Maintenance Personnel Only’, so no one is going to be out there but the Chameleon if he shows up.”

  Red says, “I agree with Popeye. If these technicians are as good as Jillian says they are, I think her idea will work. The Chameleon should be riveted to what’s taking place at the meeting, giving you, Chuck, and your men the opportunity to take him down.”

  Bill says, “Jillian, your idea is way out there, but it’s so far-fetched that it has a good chance of doing the trick. This is something I don’t think even the Chameleon would dream up.”

  Chuck sighs and says, “Okay, if all of you are in favor of giving Jillian’s idea a whirl, I won’t stand in your way. If it doesn’t pan out, maybe a change in career wouldn’t be so bad. Anything would be better than what I’m going through right now. My captain is threatening to make me a school crossing guard for the rest of my so called career if I’m part of one more stakeout disaster.”

  Red laughed and said, “Don’t worry, Chuck. You can always come to work for me at my cab company in Chicago.”

  “Huh.”

  “Bill will explain it to you.”

  Popeye said, “Bill, did Sentinel Services ever get back to you with the results of their review of all of their personnel assigned to the Floating Fantasies?”

  “Yes they did and all of the background checks they originally conducted held up under the increased scrutiny. This doesn’t prove anything though. We know our guy is extremely smart and could easily pass himself off as someone with security experience when applying for a job at Sentinel Services, phony resume, credentials and all. I think we’d be safe in staying with our assumption that the Chameleon is passing himself off as a security guard here on the Floating Fantasies.”

  Everyone was quiet for a moment and then Red said, “Okay. The next step will be for me to call my brother Nate and Clyde Crowley to let them know what we’re up to and enlist their support and participation. Assuming that I’ll be able to do this, I’ll call you, Jillian, to let you know that we have the required quorum and you can proceed to try and connect with the Chameleon again. It might be a good idea to wait a few days before you place the contact code on your web site. This will give the Chameleon time to settle down as well as make the get together in my office appear more believable, something that Jillian would be likely to come up with and able to arrange in that amount of time. This should help Jillian convince the Chameleon that she is still on his side and determined to help him get justice for the death of his brother.”

  Everyone nodded their agreement and then Red ended the meeting with, “Alright, everybody out. Jillian, I’ll have Sylvia call you to set up a time for the two of you to get together with the hologram technicians to work up an agenda, staging and dialogue for our next ‘one act play’. Let’s hope that it will be the final act and when the curtain descends it will be curtains for our villain. Hey listen to me, will ya’? Maybe I have a flair for the theatric. If we don’t nail this guy, maybe I should shuck the cab idea and go into making movies.”

  Red got the laughter he was looking for, satisfied that during the meeting he was able to use a little humor to ease a lot of the tension in the room. The Chameleon isn’t the only one dealing with a lot of frustration. His team was experiencing it too. As everyone headed for the door with Jillian bringing up the rear, Red called out, “Jillian, it’s almost six o’clock. Do you have any plans for dinner?”

  “No I don’t, Red, what do you have in mind?”

  “Well, I’ve been keeping you tied up here for a while now. I thought it might be nice if we had dinner at the Go For It and invited Joe Amato to join us. It would give us the opportunity to bring him up to date about what’s been going on with the Chameleon. I’m sure he’d appreciate the gesture and he’d have the pleasure of our company to boot.”

  Smiling she said, “I think it’s a great idea and I’d love to. When?”

  “Terrific. Let me first try to reach Nate and Clyde Crowley. If we can get those hurdles out of the way before we go, dinner will be a lot more enjoyable.”

  “Okay, while you’re doing that I’ll extend the dinner invitation to Joe. Hopefully, he’ll be able to join us.”

  Red reached Nate and he agreed right off the bat, but he had to leave a message for Clyde Crowley on his voice mail. The message he left was brief, but to the point. “I’m calling regarding the fire you had at your apartment building. Please call me on my cell phone as soon as you receive this message regardless of the time.” He left his name and number and then hung up. He hoped the sense of urgency he was trying to convey wasn’t lost on Mr. Crowley.

  “Well, at least dinner will be half way more enjoyable. Let’s go. I’ll drive. How did it go with Joe?”

  “He’ll meet us at the Celestino Cocina. I hope you like Cuban food because if you do, you’ll love this place.”

  “I’m eclectic when it comes to food. In short, I’ll eat just about anything when it comes to food, especially when I’m hungry and right now I’m starving.”

  “Well th
en prepare yourself for a dining experience out of this world. It’s very name means heavenly cuisine.”

  Chapter 35

  Over dinner, Red and Jillian recap for Joe what has transpired regarding their attempts to put the Chameleon out of commission and brought him into the loop concerning their latest game plan.

  “Boy, you two have been busy. The amount of energy and ingenuity you’ve applied to nailing this screwball without getting any tangible results has got to be disappointing to say the least, but I think this latest scheme of yours might very well do the trick. Is there anything I can do to help out?”