Page 76 of Reckless Chance

Opening the door, I invite Paxton in, signaling for the security guys to wait outside my door.

“Let’s get to business. What did you find out? Which of my employees were your guys hassling and why?”

“You should know that the guys in the video no longer work for the Rossi family. Before we parted ways, we had a productivetalk.They only knew your employee as A.R. Those could be his initials or something else. They didn’t know.”

“Are you sure they didn’t know?”

“Zero doubt.”

“I won’t ask how you’re sure. Why were they involved with A.R.?”

“Your employee was into us for a large gambling debt. The guys in the video had taken the bets and wanted to collect. The gambler promised that he would have the money shortly. In the video, my guys were emphasizing that it would be bad if he were lying.”

“They shouldn’t have been doing business on my property.”

“Of course not. They no longer work for me.”

“Did you know they were also at our show the night an audience member died? They had VIP passes.”

“Oh, hell. No, I did not know that. Too bad I can’t fire them again.”

“We’ve had a few unexplained mishaps on the show. Mr. Brentwood died as a result of the last one. It’s suspicious that your men were onsite with backstage passes that evening.”

“Are you suggesting my family had something to do with his death?” he asks sternly.

“I’m merely sharing facts about two guys you recently let go,” I say as I turn my palms up.

“Okay, but for the record, I certainly didn’t have anything to do with sabotage on your show. No one else in my family would do that to you. If those two idiots who used to work for us did something without our permission or knowledge, then we’ll find out. They will not get away with it. That’s not acceptable.”

He’s turning bright red as he punches his right fist into his left palm. I’ve rarely seen Paxton mad, but he’s seething now.

“Thanks for confirming that it wasn’t you or your family. I couldn’t imagine the Rossis would mess with my family after our long history. It’s still strange that your guys repeatedly violated our longtime pact to keep our businesses separate. It’s worked for our families for decades. Why would they take bets from one of my employees?”

“In their minds, taking a bet from someone who worked here was unrelated to your family. They have since disavowed that belief.”

“You said you’ve moved away from violence.”

“I never mentioned violence.”

“Touché. I’m still left with figuring out which of my employees is gambling more than he can afford.”

“I have one more thing for you that may help.”

Paxton pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to me.

“What’s this?”

“A photo of your gambler.”

“Where did you get this?”

“The two guys had a habit of taking photos of the people placing bets in case they had to track them down later. Do you recognize him?”

“No. Your guys aren’t even good photographers. A shadow covers half his face.”

“They didn’t excel at many tasks that are useful to me.”

“I’ll see if our security team can figure it out. Between this mediocre photo and the initials A.R., let’s hope they can work their magic.”