Diva Las Vegas (Book 1 in Raven McShane Series) by Caroline Dries, Steve Dries Page A

earlier was gone.
    “You look great,” I said.  “Every time I see you, I think I should have gone with C’s.  Mine are too big.”
    “That’s crap and you know it,” she said, smiling.  “By the way, your valet guy is gorgeous !  He can park my car anytime.”
    “Must be Tommy.  Working late.”
    She smiled lasciviously.  “Yum!  Now where’s this champagne you promised?”
    I got out a couple glasses and poured from the bottle that had been in the freezer.  It wasn’t quite cold enough yet, but we didn’t care.  We clinked glasses, took healthy gulps, and settled into the two reclining deck chairs on my balcony.  The giant fake hot air balloon outside the Paris casino was beginning to glow a deep blue.
    “I was in San Diego the last two days,” I said.  “Finally found Mel Block.”
    “So he’s still alive?”
    “Yeah, but not for long.  He’s got a nice pad in La Jolla and a little waif who acts as his maid.  Anyway, he has a theory that some insiders might have been skimming profits from the casino.”
    “When?”
    “He thought it’s been going on for awhile, but he was short on details.  More of a hunch kind of thing.  He just knows they’ve been paying him an awful lot of money for no apparent reason.  He thinks it’s so he keeps his mouth shut.”
    “Wow,” she muttered.
    “So George never mentioned anything about this?  He wasn’t suspicious that someone was ripping him off from the inside?”
    Rachel thought about it for a second.  “Not that I remember.  He would have gone through the roof, though.  As hard as he worked for that place—and his dad, too—to think that someone would be stealing from him is pretty scary.  Especially if it was his brother-in-law.”
    “No doubt.”  We’d managed to polish off our champagne in less than five minutes.  I poured us fresh glasses.
    “So does Mel think Cody was involved in this?”
    “He wasn’t sure, but he thought it was possible.  So you’re sure George never mentioned anything about this?”
    “Yeah, I’m sure.  I would remember something like that.  If they were stealing from George, they were stealing from me!”
    “Good point,” I said.
    “I suppose you might try talking to Amy herself.  I never really talked about business with George, but he and his sister were pretty tight.  She might have known if something was up.”
    I refilled my glass again.  “That will be a fun conversation.  Hi, I’m wondering if your husband was stealing from the casino and murdered your brother when he found out.  Can we talk?”
    “Yeah, I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Rachel said.
    “Anyway, it’s too nice a night to talk about business.  But I think now I can officially deduct the champagne as a business expense.”
    “Happy to help,” she said.  “Can you deduct Chinese food too?”  Her eyelids were getting a little droopy.  I had forgotten what a lightweight she was.
    “I don’t see why not.”  I went inside to get a menu, and we decided on the Happy Family Special, which seemed to come with two helpings of every kind of fried meat I could imagine.
    It was still hot outside, and we sat like steamed dumplings as we waited for our food and watched the daylight fade to black.  Rachel was well past her limit for champagne.
    She turned to look at me suddenly.  “You getting any these days?”
    “Any what?” I asked.
    She smiled mischievously.
    “What are you, in high school?”  I laughed.
    She frowned.  “I take that as a ‘no.’”
    “Actually, I should thank you.  My little San Diego trip gave me an excuse to get out of town with this guy I kind of work with.”
    “Do tell.”  She turned her recliner a few degrees to face me.
    “Well, he’s kind of shy.  Mike’s his name.  Actually, he’s supposed to be supervising my work during my first year as an investigator.”
    “So . . . he’s ugly?”
    I chuckled.  “Not even close.  You should see his abs.