Falling Down by David Cole Page B

she tilted her head slightly, and I felt her sweetness wash over me, so it wasn’t just a coincidence that I liked her.
    Sometimes, two people just hit it off. Bam. An emotional connection during the first ten minutes.
    â€œUh…let me show you the computer.”
    â€œWhat kind of facial muscles make these dimples?” I said. Held up a finger, reached out to touch the vertical lines above her smiling mouth.
    â€œActually, it’s the lack of muscles. You smile, but your whole face can’t smile with you. We’ve got to go upstairs.”
    Inside the building, she led me past photographs and exhibits, up a narrow flight of stairs, and past a closed office door.
    â€œJo’s office,” she said. “Jo Falls. Director of public programs.”
    â€œMary?”
    A man’s voice from an alcove overlooking the downstairs exhibits. Mary steered me around a corner into a work area, several computers placed at different stations along three sides of the alcove.
    â€œThis is Ken,” she said. “Ken Charvoz, Laura Winslow.”
    Tall, slim, long curly black hair, somewhere along toward handsome but definitely eroded somehow by life, and certainly on the other side of forty. He gave Mary a slight hug as we shook hands.
    â€œBob mentioned you,” I said. “Bob Gates.”
    â€œOh,” he said. Now both of his hands on mine. “He just called me. Said you’ve had a rough morning. A bad crime scene.”
    â€œI’ve seen worse,” I said finally. “But never a dead child.”
    The completely wrong thing to say in front of Mary.
    â€œChild?” she said. “Child, what dead child? Who is Bob Gates?”
    â€œNobody,” I said. Quick as I could, smiled a bit, got her automatic smile back. “Just something for the Tucson Police Department.”
    â€œFor an old friend of mine,” Ken said. “A good man. But, Laura. You’re not here to talk about TPD. You want to see the website.”
    He sat at one of the computers, opened the web browser.
    â€œTotally a coincidence,” he said. “It’s not bookmarked, not obvious. I’d Googled something last weekend, so I went to the browser history file. Found something that shouldn’t be there.”
    Clicked the mouse, waited for a site to load.
    Â 
    Welcome to
    ChupaLuck Casino Online
    Â 
    A variety of images loaded slowly.
    â€œChupa,” Ken said. “A small tribe, another Indian casino, my first thought. So I Googled the name. No tribes, at least in this hemisphere. You must be familiar with these sites,” he said to me. Page fully loaded, yes, very familiar.
    â€œFirst off,” I said. “The name means nothing to me. It could be real, mostly likely not. Got most of the traditional images for an online casino. Your account name, for logging in. Your password.”
    â€œKen,” Mary said. “Show her the other page.”
    â€œJust wait,” I said. “I’ve got my routines, I guess. So, by using this casino, you play totally online. You don’t download free games, like the legit online casinos offer. All this place wants is that you list a valid credit card or bank account, from which they say they guarantee they’ll use to pay out winnings.”
    â€œIs it a scam?” Ken said. “Like stealing credit card numbers?”
    â€œPossibly legit. See this image?”
    Â 
    24/7 Customer Service
    Toll Free Phone Lines
    Live! Chat Room
    Email Contact
    Â 
    â€œGot a registered eight-hundred number phone line. Email address. All this is traditional. They’re not out to scam you right away, they just want your money. The downside is how long they’ll stay in business. Most of these casino websites are located in Central America or on a Caribbean Island.”
    â€œCan you find out where?”
    â€œYou have to understand, all you’re looking at is a web page. On a web server, a computer that