Vegas, Lies, and Murder

by Sibel Hodge

  I was concentrating so hard on listening that I didn’t even realise Bruce had finished patting me down.

  ‘I’ve finithed!’ Bruce said proudly, as if he expected a gold star for it.

  ‘Oh.’ I pouted at him. ‘I wath enjoying that.’

  Pinhead opened the door then and ignored me. I walked in and handed the cash box to Ivan, smiling sweetly even though I wanted to batter him with it. I mentally willed his head to explode before me in karmic payback.

  He took the box with just a brief glance at me then scooped out the dollar bills inside and put them in a pile on his desk. He handed me the empty box, and I went back to the bar. Suzy was still talking to the same guy. Actually, she wasn’t talking—she was giggling. Yes, I never would’ve believed Giggling Suzy existed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. What did she have to giggle about when Dana was dead? I growled at her as I walked past to the VIP rooms to check on drinks. The group and private areas were busy, and I took seven orders before returning to the bar to fill them.

  The rest of the night passed in a blur of drinks and boobs and bums. By the time we left at three in the morning, I was exhausted.

  ‘You’ll never guess what!’ Suzy said as we walked towards the Strip.

  ‘Um… you were really a cyborg in a past life?’ I said.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

  ‘You got fufu chafe?’ Mum said. ‘I’ve started to get it now.’

  ‘What’s fufu?’ Suzy scrunched her nose up.

  ‘You know! Your fufu.’ Mum glanced down in Suzy’s crotch area.

  Tia did her snorty giggle.

  Suzy shook her head with annoyance. ‘No! Actually, I was talking to a guy in there who was a talent scout and thought I should enter into the International Pole Dancing Competition this year.’ Suzy smugly raised her chin in the air as if she was talking to a complete bunch of morons.

  ‘Great,’ I muttered. ‘That’s something to get really excited about when a woman is DEAD!’

  Suzy stopped and grabbed my arm. ‘What’s your problem? You’ve always been jealous of me, haven’t you?’

  ‘Me?’ I pointed a finger to her chest. ‘Jealous of someone so cold and miserable and rude?’ I barked out a fake laugh. ‘You’re joking, right?’

  ‘OK, OK. Stop it now.’ Mum stepped in between us. She didn’t usually get involved in our squabbles, but then we didn’t usually spend so much time with each other. Suzy was doing my head in. Did I have any cocktail sticks in my bag? No? Damn!

  ‘We’re all upset and tired and angry. Let’s not say things we don’t mean, OK?’ Mum said.

  I nodded. Suzy sighed.

  Tia’s phone beeped with a text message. She read it then looked up at us. ‘Hacker says they’re still at Peppermint Rhino, and they’ll meet us back at Hell.’

  ‘OK.’ I resumed walking at a fast pace, trying to stop Suzy distracting me from my thoughts. Something was wrong about the Peppermint Rhino theory, and I needed some space away from everyone where I could think clearly.

  I got to my empty room and kicked off my shoes. My blisters screamed a sigh of relief. I peered into the minibar, which had fortunately been restocked after Elvis had annihilated it. I poured out a miniature bottle of red wine and sat back on the bed, turning over everything in my head. Why would Ivan go to Peppermint Rhino to plant drugs at midnight when there would still be so many people around? Why not wait for the club to close? It didn’t make any sense. I was betting Peppermint Rhino had a lot of bouncers, too, just like Polesque, so why risk getting caught, or even shot at, by going there at this time of night?

  I replayed Ivan and Paul’s conversation in my head. Ivan had mentioned the raid on Saturday. Then Paul said how the police would be called off regular duties to cover the boxing match and all the fans who’d flown in. And he’d said something about Rhino. Then Winger had said he was horny and wanted another girl to dance for him.

  What was I missing here?

  I swilled the wine around in my mouth, deep in thought. About an hour later, the door opened, and Brad walked in, the first few buttons of his shirt undone, his jeans looking rumpled.

  His face lit up with a smile. ‘Hey, Foxy.’ He crossed the room in a few strides, leaned over me, and planted a kiss on my lips. ‘Mmmm, I needed that.’

  ‘Me too. How was your night?’ I raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Elvis was a bit of a liability.’ He took my glass, swallowed some wine, and handed it back. Then he lay on the bed next to me, his torso propped up with pillows. ‘He kept disappearing to the men’s room and crying. I feel terrible for him.’

  I shook my head sadly. ‘Me too. What did you find out about Peppermint Rhino?’

  ‘The private offices are at the rear of the building that backs onto a car-parking area. That’s probably where Ivan will plant his stash before tipping off the police. There are security cameras everywhere and a high-tech alarm system, but Winger said he was going to use his bent connections in the police department to deactivate them. Ivan could get in and out without the staff or owners realising anyone’s been in there.’

  I twisted around on the bed to face him, drawing my knees to the side. ‘Well, I overheard Ivan telling Pinhead they were going to hit the place at midnight tomorrow, which doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘Midnight?’ Brad thought about that for a moment. ‘Why do it when the club’s still open?’

  ‘Exactly. I’ve been thinking, and I don’t think they’re raiding Peppermint Rhino at all. I think something else is going on.’

  ‘What?’

  I chewed on my lip. ‘I don’t know. I’ve been racking my brain, going over and over the conversation Paul and Ivan had, and I can’t think of any other clues as to what they might be doing.’

  Brad took the wine glass from my hand and set it on the bedside table. ‘Well, how about I take your mind off things for a while?’ He pulled me into his arms.

  ‘How about I give you a lap dance?’ I shot him a sexy smile. ‘Or have you had enough of those for one night?’

  ‘That was just a job.’ His gaze roamed my body with appreciation. ‘This is personal.’

  I stepped off the bed and pulled him up by his hand. ‘Take your clothes off,’ I said, my voice husky. ‘I don’t want any secondhand germs.’ I thought of all the lady-garden bits rubbing up against them and did a silent eek! ‘Actually, I’ll take them off.’

  I stepped in closer to him and stared into his eyes, unbuttoning his shirt slowly, kissing behind his ear, his collarbone, the hair on his chest, going lower until I reached the buttons of his jeans. He threw his head back and moaned. My girlie bits moaned in response. I kneeled down in front of him, undoing each button of his jeans slowly, kissing his navel, the line of dark hair that disappeared into his boxers. I slid down his jeans and pushed him to sit on the edge of the bed, watching him watching me. I didn’t ask if he was enjoying it—the evidence was rock hard and staring me in the face.

  I slid his jeans off and stood up. I unhooked my bra so I stood in just some lacy cheeky knickers.

  ‘OK, sod the dance. I want you right now.’ He reached out a hand to my waist, trying to pull me towards him, but I slapped it away.

  ‘No touching. You naughty boy!’ I grinned saucily.

  He groaned again. ‘Oh, God, you’re killing me.’

  I straddled his lap, rubbing myself up and down against him. He leaned in to kiss my breast, but I arched my back so it was out of reach. ‘No touching,’ I whispered in his ear. ‘You are so horny!’

  ‘I’ve definitely got the horn for you, Foxy.’ His gaze wandered slowly down my body, his eyes hooded with desire.

  That’s when something clicked in my head, Brad’s words penetrating my consciousness. ‘Omigod!’ I froze.

  ‘Mmmm. It’s absolutely working for me, too,’ he groaned, pushing his crotch into me.

  ‘That’s it!’

  ‘I know,’ he murmured, eyes closed now.

  ‘No!’ I put a hand on his sho
ulder and he opened his eyes. ‘They weren’t talking about Peppermint Rhino or being horny. They were talking about rhino horn.’

  Brad’s hands slid up my back, his eyes refocusing on me. ‘What?’

  ‘Ivan didn’t mention the Peppermint Rhino. He just said rhino, and we assumed it was that club. And then I thought Winger said he was horny, but I just assumed that again because of the circumstances, and I couldn’t hear him properly. I think they were talking about rhino horn!’

  Brad frowned. I felt him deflating beneath me. ‘Damn. And I was so getting into that.’ He rested his forehead in between my breasts, waiting for his breathing to get back to normal.

  I climbed off his lap and started pacing the room, my mind spinning.

  ‘Please put your bra back on if you’re going to jiggle in front of me. I can’t take any more.’ He ran a hand over his head.

  ‘Why would they be talking about rhino horn?’ I said, pulling a vest top over my head. ‘In the middle of the desert?’ I thought about the Titanic exhibition Dad had mentioned on the plane. ‘Is there an African exhibition going on here in one of the hotels or something?’

  Brad stood up and helped himself to a bottle of wine from the minibar then topped up my glass. He sat down again, sipping it slowly, thinking. ‘I don’t remember seeing anything like that advertised.’

  I grabbed my mobile phone out of my bag and brought up the Internet browser then typed in African Exhibition, Vegas.

  I scrolled through all the hits. There was a link to an African-American Museum, Sports Betting in West Africa, an LED Lighting convention, and lots more irrelevant stuff. ‘No, there’s nothing like that.’ I flopped onto the bed. ‘So, what is it, then?’

  ‘Try searching for rhino horn in Vegas,’ Brad said.

  I typed that in, and then I hit something that made my blood curdle in my veins.

  Chapter 20

  ‘You will not believe this!’ I said, eyes wide, staring at the screen and reading. ‘I’ve found several news articles on here. In a secret warehouse somewhere in Las Vegas, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has a stockpile of fifteen tons of illegal ivory and rhino horn that it’s seized over the last ten years. They’ve amassed a collection of whole elephant tusks and rhino horn, carved ivory figures and statues, knives, jewellery, chopsticks, and a lot more. Recently, President Obama issued an Executive Order trying to combat wildlife trafficking, and the White House announced that they’ll be destroying the stockpile in a ceremony in one month’s time to send a message to the world. It follows recent similar ceremonies in the Philippines, Zambia, Gabon, Congo, and about nine other places around the world. When Kenya burned twelve tons of elephant tusks in 1989, it captured the media’s attention and helped lead to a ban in the international trade of ivory the following year.’ I read through more articles. ‘It says here that the illegal poaching and wildlife trafficking of animals is estimated to be worth about forty billion dollars per year and involves the same criminal networks that deal in drugs, weapons, and human trafficking, and it also funds terrorism. It’s now the third-largest criminal industry in the world.’ I took a deep breath, letting it all sink in as I read more information.

  Many of the articles quoted facts and figures about the devastating effects of what was happening to these animals. About thirty-five thousand African elephants were lost each year to poaching, and one elephant was killed for its tusks every fifteen minutes. At that rate, they’d become extinct in fifteen years. A recent survey in Mozambique had shown they’d lost 48 percent of their elephants in the last five years. Several species of rhino had already been declared extinct. In 2014, more than one thousand rhinos were killed in South Africa alone, and rhino conservationists estimated one was killed every seven hours. It didn’t bode well for their survival if the poaching and wildlife trafficking carried on.

  I glanced up at Brad, who was reading the screen over my shoulder, with tears in my eyes and a stabbing pain in my heart. ‘This is horrific stuff. Ivan’s going to raid the warehouse and steal all of it. No wonder Dana wanted to do something about what Ivan and Paul were planning. Being an animal lover who wanted to be a vet, this must’ve spoken to her deeply. And the cost of her compassion was getting killed.’ An overwhelming anger built up inside me for Dana and for the animals that had lost their lives for the sake of blood money. Because humans were so greedy they wanted to exploit those beautiful creatures for their own selfish gains.

  Brad whistled. ‘I know the poaching is driven by demand for Eastern medicine in Asia, particularly China and Vietnam, where some people believe rhino horn is a cure for all sorts of ailments, from hangovers to cancer. And the more endangered the animal, the more power they put in its worth, even though rhino horn is made of keratin, which is what human hair and nails are made of, and has no scientifically proven benefits at all.’ He shook his head angrily. ‘It’s known as “white gold” because in some places the animal products are so valuable.’

  ‘I feel sick to my stomach,’ I said, staring at a photo of one rhino that had been butchered for its horn, its face hacked to pieces.

  ‘So, they must have police guarding this warehouse until it’s destroyed, but Paul Winger knew they’d all be pulled off that duty on Saturday night, and he told Ivan about it. I bet the articles don’t mention where the warehouse is, do they?’

  ‘No. They just say it’s all stored in a secret location. They’re not going to want to advertise it, are they?’

  ‘We need Hacker to do some checking. There must be a trace of it somewhere high up. And we need Jerry Dansinger in on this. This could get dangerous.’

  ‘Has he still not returned Dad’s call?’

  ‘No. And we’re running out of time. It’s going to happen in’—he glanced at his watch—‘nineteen hours.’ He swallowed some more wine and phoned Hacker, who’d just got to sleep. We explained what we needed him to do, and he knocked on our door five minutes later, his faithful laptop in hand.

  ‘Yo.’ He sat on the sofa and fired it up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. ‘I’ll need a holiday after this holiday.’

  ‘Yeah, me too. And a wedding.’ I glanced at Brad.

  After a few minutes, Hacker said, ‘OK, I’m into the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s network.’ He tapped away, staring at the screen.

  I downed some more wine, my stomach fluttering with raw energy.

  Hacker did yet more tapping. Then he said, ‘I’ve got it. The ivory and rhino horn is being held at a government warehouse on the outskirts of town. I’ve got an address. Hang on—let me bring up my GPS mapping system, which is kind of like Google Earth, only better.’ Tappety tap, tap. ‘Right. Here we go.’

  I sat down next to him. Brad stood to his side. Both of us looked at the screen, which was zeroing in on the building and its surroundings. The warehouse was large, in an industrial part of town. High chain-link fencing separated it from a neighbouring warehouse on its right and another large building with smaller outbuildings on the left. The government warehouse was set back from the road and had high gates at the entrance with a booth for a security officer.

  Hacker zoomed in on the picture. There were security cameras all over the place. ‘It’s got a loading bay with roller shutters at the side of the building, hidden from the main road.’

  ‘The government won’t want people seeing what they’re loading and unloading in there,’ Brad said.

  ‘So, where could the FBI sit up and watch them from?’ I asked. ‘It’s not like they can stake it out from across the road if they can’t see the entrance.’

  ‘There.’ Brad pointed to the site next door.

  It was made up of a huge building in the centre with smaller, garage-sized units along the boundary fence, which sat directly opposite the entrance to the government warehouse. In between the small units were gaps.

  ‘Zoom in on it,’ Brad said.

  Hacker obliged. Judging by the way the roller-shutter doors were spaced out on the larger building and the other unit
s arranged along the perimeter, it looked like some kind of storage facility.

  ‘Are these storage units?’ Brad asked Hacker.

  He minimised the screen and pulled up another one, checking the address. ‘Yes. It’s a public storage company. A-Plus Storage.’

  ‘Good,’ Brad said. ‘Look at these gaps between the units along the boundary that face the government warehouse. Part of Jerry’s team should be able to wait up in between those buildings, and they’ll get a good view of Ivan and his gang raiding the place. Their boundary fence is probably about sixty metres away from the warehouse loading bay.’

  ‘Great stuff,’ I said. ‘If Dad still can’t get hold of Jerry, we can leave a message for him telling him what’s going on. Then hopefully we can hide in those gaps and film the raid happening to pass on to him if no one from the FBI gets there in time.’

  ‘We’re going to be outmatched,’ Brad said. ‘They’re going to have guns, and we don’t have access to any here. We need to scope out the storage facility just to make sure the gaps are secure places we can watch from without being seen so we can catch it all on camera.’

  ‘Yes. I don’t want Mum or Tia or Suzy with us, though. I wouldn’t want them to get caught up in anything that might get them killed. I think the rest of us should head out there tomorrow morning and pretend we want to rent a unit so we can take a look around. Then we’ll go from there.’

  Brad nodded. ‘Sounds like a plan.’

  Chapter 21

  I couldn’t sleep. I was too wired. Being ex-SAS, Brad was used to sleeping in stressful conditions, but even then, he was still alert to the slightest sound. I tried to slip out of bed quietly so as not to wake him, but as soon as I shifted my weight, his eyes were open.

  ‘Morning, soon-to-be Mrs Beckett.’

  I leaned over him and kissed his lips, wanting to stay in bed with him forever and just forget about everything that had happened—and everything that might happen later if Agent Dansinger didn’t get back to us. ‘Morning. I’m going to grab a shower. Then we can round up the troops and meet up for breakfast before we go to the storage place.’