Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Holy crap.” Zahra sat upright. “This is the only man who ever beat this Daniel Wallin at a game of cards? He ended up tortured, shot and buried to the neck in sand in the desert? We need to get you out of here.”
“It isn’t as if Wallin never lost a hand at cards, or he didn’t get bad cards,” Vienna said. “No one would ever have played him if that was the case. It’s just that when it was a huge pot or it really mattered, he was unbeatable.” She knew, because that was how she played. Carefully, so she didn’t look as if she won every single hand.
“What was the prize?” Stella asked. “How much were they playing for?”
“That’s a good question,” Vienna said. “Daniel was building the casino. It was in construction, and he had backers, but according to all the propaganda, he managed most of the financing himself. He was really young at the time, and no one believed he could do it. He owned seventy-five percent of the casino and a corporation owned twenty-five percent. I believe it’s still that way.”
“During that time, it was highly possible that ‘corporation’ meant one of the Mafia families,” Raine said. “They were still entrenched until around 1985.”
Harlow made a face of complete disbelief as she shook her head. “Where would a man his age get the kind of money it would take to build a casino like the Northern Lights? Seventy-five percent? That’s a lot of cash. Even if he was gambling and winning huge pots, I can’t see him making the kind of money it would take for the construction of a casino as first-class and luxurious as the Northern Lights.”
“I agree with Harlow,” Stella said. “Is it possible he inherited money? Raine, can you find out anything about his background?”
“I looked that up first thing,” Raine said. “His father, Norman Wallin, came to the States from Sweden under murky circumstances. I say that because it looks as if he may have been escaping a scandal in his country involving a good deal of money and jewels he’d conned from his fiancée and her family. She did give them to him of her own free will, so they couldn’t bring charges against him. The parents had given the money to him as an investment.”
“Wallin’s father was a con man?” Zahra asked.
Vienna was fairly certain the man had the ability to use his voice in the same way Daniel did. Rather than playing cards, he conned people out of their money and jewels.
“What happened when he came to the States?” Vienna asked.
“He seemed to run with the rich and famous,” Raine said. “The ladies loved him. There are pictures of him with various movie stars and singers on his arm at club openings.”
“Did they find out who killed Liam?” Harlow asked.
“They investigated, of course, but remember, some of the cops at that time were corrupt. The FBI came in and did a huge sweep, cleaning up Vegas a few years after the murder took place,” Raine answered.
“Was Daniel Wallin a suspect?” Shabina asked.
Vienna was very interested in the answer. Had she been a detective, Daniel would have been very high on her list of suspects, alibi or not.
Raine nodded slowly as she went back to reading the various reports. “Newspapers claim he was a person of interest but that he had an ironclad alibi. He also said Liam was a good friend of his and he was extremely distraught over his death. He had many, many interviews, really taking advantage of his disappearance and death. He knew how to turn things to his benefit even then. It will be interesting to see how he spins your win.”
“Is there anything on what the prize was? It must have been news that Daniel lost such a big game,” Stella persisted. She gathered the plates and took them into the kitchen.
Zahra immediately began taking the food warmers from the dining room into the kitchen. There wasn’t much food left, but she scraped it into the compost container. The archway between the rooms was very wide, so they could see and hear as the conversation continued.
“I’m searching,” Raine said. “That might be much more difficult than finding the facts about a murder.”
“Daniel wouldn’t dare have Vienna disappear and then be killed like this Liam Gram was murdered, would he?” Zahra asked. “Suspicion would fall on him right away. If the Mafia no longer has a stronghold in Vegas, he wouldn’t get away with it.”
“He might not think that if he’s had his way all this time,” Vienna pointed out. “I certainly am not going back to play anyone in person. When I play, I’ll go back to anonymity and play online like I’ve always done. I don’t know what I was thinking accepting the invitation to play in the tournament when it was in person.”