Murder or Bust (We're Not Dead Yet Club Book 3) Read online

  It was a convincing argument if he was in court, but something told Percy that it wouldn’t necessarily be a convincing argument here.

  They hadn’t even travelled that far from the casino – probably a block or two at most – but Percy didn’t feel any less lost or isolated. The longer he sat in the room, the more an unnerving thought began to enter his mind. This thought was only small to begin with, but as time ticked on it began to grow and dominate his mind until his body was practically quaking with fear.

  Nobody knows I’m here, said the thought. They could do anything to me, and no one would ever know.

  The door flew open and the two suits walked in. They stared down at Percy with complete passivity, showing nothing of their expressions as they took up position opposite him.

  “Now listen here,” Percy muttered. “You can’t do this…”

  “Are you Cecil?”

  Percy was about to correct them when an idea popped into his head. If this really was something serious – if they really had worked out he was cheating – he didn’t want them to know who he really was. If the worse was going to happen, he’d much rather it happened to Cecil than to him…well, Cecil could handle this much better...at least he thought so.

  Sorry Cecil…

  “I am,” he said, in the most convincing tough-guy voice he could muster, which – incidentally – was probably the leas convincing tough-guy voice anyone had ever put on – ever.

  “Then we can do this…”

  Percy blinked. He could feel his heart rate and breathing quicken. He knew he needed to stay calm – the most obvious way to be caught out was if they got even a whiff of him looking guilty. But the more he tried to calm himself, the more panic seemed to set in. In less than a few seconds, his mind was nothing more than a blur of disjointed thoughts. He had ceased to be Percy the logical, intelligent lawyer, and had actually become Cecil the half-witted former solder…

  Sorry Cecil…

  Percy took a deep breath and tried – and failed – to steady his breath.

  “Look here…” His voice had gone peculiarly high-pitched. “I did not cheat. I never have cheated. I challenge you to give me evidence to the contrary…”

  The main suit stepped forward. The light of the single overheard lamp seemed to bounce off his forehead as he leaned forward and stared Percy straight in the eye.

  “I have a message for you and your friends…”

  “I won that money fair and square. No amount of intimidation is going to convince me otherwise…”

  The suit blinked hard, a wave of confusion flitting across his face.

  “Listen to me…”

  “No, you listen to me. Do you know who I am?”

  “Cecil…”

  “No,” Percy replied, before quickly adding. “I mean, yes.”

  “No, you mean, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, you are Cecil?”

  “Yes.”

  The suit lowered his eyebrows. “You don’t seem so sure…”

  Percy took a deep breath. “I can’t help what you think.”

  The suit nodded. “I need you to take a message to the We’re Not Dead Yet Club…”

  “Don’t get them involved in this, they had nothing to do with it…”

  “With what?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “What don’t they have anything to do with?”

  “Um…” Percy thought for a moment. “Nothing?”

  “They have nothing to do with nothing?”

  “Yes…” Percy thought again. “I mean, no.” A bit more thinking. “Maybe? I don’t know, you’ve confused me now…”

  “We’ve confused you?”

  “Yes. And a dirty trick it was too…”

  The suit began to look a little agitated. He took a step backward and turned to his colleague who, so far, hadn’t said a word throughout the entire proceedings. The colleague, who seemed a little younger and had the advantage of hair and no broken parts to his face, cocked his head to one side and said:

  “You are meddling with things you don’t understand. The We’re Not Dead Yet Club need to back off…”

  “Well,” Percy replied, folding one leg over the other with a slight laugh. “That’s easier said than done…”

  “Then make it easy.”

  “And how precisely do I do that?” Percy asked. “Their not involved in the first place, so how can I convince them to back off when they’re not even on, hmmm?”

  The colleague turned to the suit as seemed to give a little shrug. He pinched his forehead between his finger and thumb and turned back towards Cecil…

  “Get them to leave Robert and his manager alone. I don’t care how…”

  “Robert?” Percy replied quizzically. “You mean Joe?”

  “Joe?”

  “Yes, the fellow with the gun…”

  “He had a gun?” The two suits exchanged nervous glances. “But… What are you…?”

  “He had a gun,” Percy said, looking between the two of them. “Really, I can’t think of any simpler way of saying he had a gun than saying he had a gun. It was a gun. A pistol. You know, the thing that goes bang…”

  The suit frowned a little. “Not a trophy?”

  Percy eyes lit up. “We were playing for a trophy? I didn’t know that. That means they’ve conned me out of a trophy as well. Cheating scoundrels…”

  There was a knock on the door. The two suits took a step back and made their way towards it. As they pushed it open, a large, broad-shouldered man stepped inside the room and began to talk to them in a hushed voice. Percy couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he was sure it was something to do with him.

  When they finally stopped chatting amongst themselves, the two suits stepped back away from the door and new arrival disappeared back out again. The bald man stepped forward and leaned forward to put his face right in Percy’s.

  “Will you pass on our message or not?”

  “What message?”

  “To back off.”

  “Oh? Well, if it gets me out of here, of course I will. But I can’t guarantee they’ll know what I’m talking about.”

  The bald man smiled. “Explain it to them.”

  Percy thought about this for a moment. He shrugged his shoulders and slowly got to his feet, finally releasing hold of the chips in his pocket.

  “Very well. I’ll do my best…”

  He started to walk towards the door. The suit with hair still stood in front of the door, and he didn’t seem to move as Percy approached.

  “May I go now?”

  The two suits exchanged glances before the one with hair smiled and gave a rather polite, if not totally sincere, nod of respect.

  “You know,” he said, “It’s hard to tell whether you’re incredibly clever, or totally stupid…”

  Percy nodded, shrugging his shoulders. “I know. I think the same thing all the time…”

  Strangely enough, I don’t think they were talking about the same thing…

  Chapter Fifteen – Five Again

  Percy found the three girls at the bar of the hotel, where Cecil still sat at – apparently drowning his worries with a particularly cheap brand of whiskey. He quickly explained his story to them, enjoying himself as their eyes widened and they gasped at the appropriate places.

  “Oh, Percy,” Hazel said. “How awful for you…”

  “Stupid if you ask me,” muttered Cecil, taking a swig from his whiskey. “I mean, what kind of idiot pretends to be someone else…”

  He hadn’t taken the news of Percy’s impression of him particularly well but, strangely enough, he hadn’t been nearly as angry about it as Percy had suspected he might be. In fact, he’d kept very quiet about the whole incident…

  “Quite,” Clara chipped in. “That was a very dangerous thing to do, Percy. What if they’d killed you for cheating? It’s bad enough having one investigation without trying to solve your murder as well.”

  Percy gav
e her an odd look. “So, you are looking into it?”

  “Of course,” Ida May replied indignantly. “And we’re doing a much better job of it than you are.”

  Hazel nodded her agreement.

  “Yes, I must admit Percy, your botched attempt at representing Robert didn’t exactly do him any good…”

  “What do you mean?”

  Cecil cleared his throat loudly. “Anyway,” he said, suddenly taking a remarkable interest in Percy’s plight. “What did they say exactly?”

  “They told me to tell the We’re Not Dead Yet Club to back off investigating Joe and that Ely Jacobson and the others…”

  “But we’re not investigating them,” Hazel said earnestly, before turning to Ida May and muttering: “Are we?”

  “Certainly not.”

  “But,” Percy said, feeling awfully confused and slightly disorientated. “You said you were looking into it?”

  “We’re looking into Steve,” Clara replied. “Not this Ely Jacobson fellow…”

  “But they’re the same person.”

  “What?”

  “Well, not Ely Jacobson…”

  “What are you talking about Percy?”

  Percy took a deep breath. “The Joe character and this Steve guy you’re interested in – they’re the same man.”

  The girls stared back in stunned silence.

  “Are you sure?” asked Ida May.

  “How do you know?” chipped in Hazel.

  For once, Hazel had the better question.

  “The security guys told me…”

  “Security guys?”

  Percy nodded to Clara. “You know, the burly guys in cheap suits. Not too bright, but very intimidating…”

  Clara thought for a moment.

  “So, Steve and Joe – they’re the same man?”

  “Yes…”

  “And you’re sure of this?”

  “Of course, I’m sure…” Percy thought for a moment. “Well, I think I’m sure…”

  “Not good enough,” Clara replied, shaking her head. “We need some positive proof of this. Let’s go team…”

  She started to move off in the direction of the theatre. Within a few steps, she began to feel distinctly like the rest weren’t following her. Sure enough, when she turned back to face them they were still loitering by the bar, looking very confused and slightly lost.

  “Come on,” Clara urged. “I have a plan…”

  Ida May frowned at her. “Let’s go team?”

  “Look, we have a live lead here. And I think I’m finally getting a handle on this whole case.”

  “We have a handle,” replied Hazel, shrugging indifferently. “Steve is the killer. We just need to prove it…”

  “Look, the guys who took Percy told him we were working on the same thing from different directions right? Why else would they tell him to back off if this Joe guy and Steve weren’t the same person?”

  The others stood still and thought for a moment. It was Cecil who answered first:

  “So, we need to prove that Steve and Joe are the same person…”

  “Exactly,” Clara said triumphantly. “If we can get Percy to meet Steve, he’ll be able to identify him.”

  “But we lost him,” Hazel replied. “He disappeared after he ran out of the show…”

  “And we would have found him if we hadn’t wasted time because someone was trying to undress the dancers,” muttered Ida May, looking pointedly at Hazel.

  “He has to be around somewhere,” replied Clara. “He works here, so he couldn’t have gone far. If Percy identifies Steve as the man he played poker with, then we’ve cracked the case…”

  “Great,” Hazel said happily. She stared around cheerily at everyone before her face suddenly began to sink as her brain thought about it for a moment. “Why?”

  “Yeah,” Ida May chipped it. “How does that solve the case? I mean Steve can’t be in two places at the same time…”

  “Maybe not…” Clara replied thoughtfully. “But it does point us in a very definite direction…”

  “And what has that got to do with the hotel security?” Percy asked. “Why are they so eager to protect this Steve guy?”

  Clara smiled.

  “Oh, Percy. I’m afraid I think those men were far more dangerous than hotel security…”

  Chapter Sixteen – Steve and Joe

  “The Mob?” Percy spluttered. “You can’t be serious!”

  Clara guided Percy through the casino and into the theatre. As they reached the stage, they headed straight around the side and into the backstage area where several dressing rooms were neatly stacked along a long corridor. As they started moving down, Percy stuttered to a halt.

  “No way,” he protested. “I’m not getting involved with the mob…”

  Cecil appeared behind them, grabbing hold of Percy and spinning him back around.

  “You will, Percy…”

  “You can’t make me…”

  “You gave them my name, buddy. I’m sure I could find ways of making you…”

  Percy gulped. He turned back towards Clara, his eyes pleading desperately with her.

  “How do you know it’s the mob?”

  Clara smiled. “Casino security don’t go around threatening people, not about murder cases at any rate. The mob is big in Vegas – it’s the only thing that makes sense…”

  “So, those men were…”

  Cecil hissed in his ear: “They could’ve killed you in a heartbeat…”

  Percy swallowed hard. “And you think the mob murdered this girl you’re talking about?”

  “Ava Lemiux,” confirmed Cecil. “My friend’s partner…”

  “Yes, her… Why would they do that?”

  Clara shook her head. “I don’t know yet. But if Steve is being tracked by the mob, he must be up to something…”

  Between Clara and Cecil, they managed to guide Percy down the corridor, stopping him at each dressing room until they finally found one with a familiar figure cowering inside.

  “Hi Steve,” Clara said as they stepped inside the dressing room.

  He was now fully clothed, but his muscles were still obviously rippling beneath his tight t-shirt. Despite their protests, Clara had decided to keep Hazel and Ida May out of the theatre for this particular job – she didn’t trust that they might lose Hazel forever in the arms of an over-zealous dancer.

  Steve looked up at them. There was shame written all over his face, but he smiled all the same.

  “Hi there,” he replied – he almost sounded cheerful compared to the last time they’d crossed paths. “Come on in.”

  Clara maneuvered Percy into the dressing room and moved across to where Steve kept a small stack of personal photographs. She picked one up and looked hard at it. The photograph was of Steve and a beautiful girl among a group of others – most of whom were smiling.

  “Look, I want to apologize to all of you,” he said, looking to Clara and Cecil – even looking to Percy. “I’ve not been myself since Ava…”

  “It’s understandable,” Clara shrugged.

  “Yeah,” Cecil piped in, still keeping close to Percy, who looked like he might bolt at any second. “It’s tough for everyone. Think nothing of it.”

  Steve smiled gratefully and returned to his dressing table. As he stared hard into the mirror, his mind seemed to drift elsewhere as though a distant memory had returned to him after a long absence…

  “I really do miss her,” he muttered.

  “Is this Ava?” Clara asked, holding up the photograph.

  Steve nodded. “That was at a family gathering up in Canada. We were talking about getting married back then…”

  Clara nodded, but her eyes were transfixed on a single figure who, unlike everyone else, was not smiling. She looked hard at it before holding the picture up to Steve again.

  “He doesn’t look happy.”

  Steve only needed to glance for a brief second. He chuckled nervously to himself. “My brother,
” he muttered. “He looks like that a lot. Can never be happy in life. He used to dance with Bountiful Mounties before he found himself a more lucrative job.”

  “What’s he do now?”

  “He’s based here in Vegas,” Steve replied. “It’s mostly because of him that we got this gig in the hotel.”

  “Hmmm…” Clara hummed, depositing the picture and moving back across the dressing room. “Why did you rush off stage today?”

  Steve gave an odd sort of smile. “Dodgy stomach,” he replied, patting his belly. “I think I got a bit of food poisoning.”

  “Ah, I see,” Clara replied, nodding her head knowingly. “We thought it might be because you were worried what we might see…”

  She gave a little wink and, before Steve could reply, began to shepherd Percy and Cecil out of the door. They moved a short way down the corridor before Cecil turned to Percy.

  “Well? Was that him? Was that Joe?”

  Percy looked terrified out of his wits. His hands were shaking and his face was as pale as a ghost. And yet, despite this overwhelming sense of fear and terror, he shook his head ever so slightly.

  “What do you mean, no?” Cecil asked. “Why else did they warn you off?”

  “Are you sure, Percy?” Clara intervened, holding Percy’s shaking hand and stroking it softly. “You’ve never seen that man before?”

  “I didn’t say that,” replied Percy, his voice quivering with fright as the air stuttered out of his mouth. “It’s not Joe. It’s not even Ely Jacobson. But I have seen that man before…”

  “Where?” Cecil and Clara said in unison.

  “When the mob took me away,” Percy replied. “That was the man stood outside the door…”

  Clara’s jaw dropped open. “Are you sure?”

  Percy nodded solemnly. “Dead sure,” he replied. “Not a shadow of a doubt - that man works for the mob.”

  Chapter Seventeen – Cecil Solves the Case

  The three of them rushed outside to where Hazel and Ida May were patiently waiting. Upon seeing Percy’s colorless expression, Ida May immediately turned to Clara and muttered: