The Case of the Sin City Sister (32 page)
It was exactly what Daniel and Eve had thought it was: a credit card theft ring. Robbie was getting card numbers from casinos and cash machines and from Dorisanne at the lounge where she worked. She was caught by the FBI the first time she skimmed numbers and was then set up by the feds to catch the guys who were the real leaders of the theft ring. First she was brought in by the feds and then Robbie.
Dorisanne supplied Robbie with phony numbers and fake receipts, and that was how the loan sharks finally figured out the couple had been turned by the FBI. They would try to make purchases from the cards and they kept getting turned down. The guys put two and two together and realized that Robbie and Dorisanne were working with law enforcement. It was the risk the couple knew they were taking but thought the FBI would protect them.
Once they found out they had been discovered, that the men they were working for were after them and that the FBI wasn’t providing the protection they had hoped for, the couple went into hiding. They had been on the run for three weeks. Pauline had found them the house on Lone Star Place, and that was where they had been hiding ever since. They had tried to ask for help from the FBI, but because they hadn’t gotten enough evidence for them to make an arrest, the agents had told them they were on their own.
“I’m sorry,” Dorisanne said.
“Why are you sorry?” Eve asked. “You did what anybody would have done. You didn’t have a choice. This isn’t your fault.”
“I knew Robbie had a gambling problem. I knew I shouldn’t marry him, but I did it anyway.” She shook her head. “The Captain gave me his full background report when I told him about the
engagement. He had the entire history, but I still didn’t listen. I still married him even though . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Even though you were in love with somebody else?” Eve reached over and touched her arm.
“How did you find out about that?” Dorisanne asked.
Eve shrugged. “We’ve been together looking for you for three straight days. Something that important eventually just comes out.”
Dorisanne nodded slowly and both women turned their attention to Daniel, who still had not awakened.
“You think he’s going to be okay?” she asked Eve.
Eve nodded. “I do,” she answered. “He’s almost as hardheaded as you are.”
Dorisanne smiled. She reached over and rubbed Daniel’s arm. “He said it could never work for the two of us because of the Captain.”
“I know,” Eve responded. “He told me the same thing.”
Dorisanne looked up at her sister. “Do you think that too?”
“No,” Eve replied. “But if he couldn’t bring himself to tell him, then you would never really get the chance to give the relationship a try. So, I guess in a way, if Daniel thought it was too big of an obstacle to overcome, it was.”
Dorisanne nodded.
There was a pause as they both heard the sirens heading in their direction.
“By the way, how did Daniel know that Mr. Winters would give us the clue to where you were? Who is Mark Winters?”
Dorisanne smiled. “Winners, not Winters,” she explained. “It was something Daniel used to say to me when I first moved here.”
Eve waited.
“He said that he knew I would do well in Vegas because I was marked as a winner, that I was lucky, special.” She shrugged. “So, we just started calling the guy our guardian angel, Mark Us Winners. It was just a silly thing we shared, so I wrote the name on the receipt, hoping Daniel would find it.” She looked away. “Find me,” she added.
Daniel started to stir at that moment, and as Dorisanne rushed to his side, Eve headed to the front door to let in the paramedics, who, by the sound of the approaching sirens, she knew were just around the corner.
Daniel was admitted to the same hospital where Pauline had been a patient. Eve found herself hiding her face every time she saw a security guard or a nurse. She was worried that Patsy from the fifth floor might recognize her or that there was still some search going on for her and she would be dragged away to jail.
“What are you doing?” Dorisanne finally asked after seeing her sister quickly turn away or jump up from her chair and face the wall or run into the bathroom every time a health-care worker came near them.
“She thinks they’re after her,” Daniel said, answering the question put to Eve.
The sisters glanced over at Daniel, who hadn’t been very responsive since he’d been admitted. He had regained consciousness just as he was being placed in the back of the ambulance, but he had not been able to stay awake. He was diagnosed as having a concussion; luckily, tests revealed that there was no brain damage
and no severe consequences. The doctors had been a bit concerned that he was unable to stay awake, but they also said that everything else appeared to be normal.
“Well, look who’s joined the party!” Eve said, not addressing Dorisanne’s query. She didn’t really want to have to explain about her early morning mad dash through the hospital halls or about hiding in the morgue.
“You found her,” he said softly.
“We found her,” Eve responded. She reached over and squeezed Daniel’s hand. “You had us pretty worried,” she added.
He started to sit up but then seemed to think better of it. He winced as he raised his head off the pillow.
“Whoa there, Detective,” Dorisanne said, stepping near him. “I think you may have quite the headache for a while. He hit you pretty hard.”
Eve watched as the two looked at each other. She stepped back, giving Dorisanne a bit more room and the two of them a little more privacy.
“You had me really worried,” Dorisanne said. She had leaned down and was stroking Daniel’s cheek.
“Aw, you should know the best place for me to get hit is the side of the head.”
She laughed. “I think you used to tell me that.”
He reached up and touched Dorisanne on the arm. There was a smile spread across his face. “You okay?”
She nodded. “I am now,” she responded.
“I guess we owe all of this to your big sister over there,” he noted, turning his attention in Eve’s direction.
“I think we owe it to Mr. Marcus Winners.” She moved closer. “How come you didn’t say anything when I told you that name? How come you didn’t let on that you knew it was a clue?”
He shrugged gingerly. “I wasn’t sure about it,” he answered. “It’s been a long time since I heard that name being used.”
Dorisanne squeezed his hand. “I didn’t know who might find the book,” she noted. “But I thought if it was you, you’d know to call.”
“Who was the guy?” he asked, recalling that a man had answered the phone and given the address that had helped them find Dorisanne.
“It was Jason, the former bartender over at the Rio,” Eve blurted, answering the question for her sister.
Both Dorisanne and Daniel glanced over at her.
“How did you know that?” Dorisanne asked.
Eve smiled. “I recognized his voice.” She stuffed her hands into her pockets. “I didn’t know it at the time,” she explained. “I thought it sounded familiar, but I wasn’t completely sure. But afterward, I thought about it, and I remembered that I had talked to him before. I knew it was Jason. He said to tell you hello, by the way. I called him back and told him you were all right.”
Daniel shook his head. “She thinks she’s a nun.”
Dorisanne made a face. “I know. Crazy, right? She’s always been good at this kind of thing.”
“What?” Eve asked. “What kind of thing?”
“Solving mysteries, remembering familiar voices, knowing things,” she answered. “You were always more like him and I was always more like Mom.”
This way her sister had of telling family history surprised Eve.
She had never heard her sister make a positive comparison between her and the Captain. The thought of such a thing made her feel proud.
“Speaking of,” Daniel piped in. “Did you call him?”
Dorisanne waited for her sister to answer. She seemed to notice that Eve was waiting for her to answer. “Well, don’t look at me. I haven’t talked to him. I thought you were making that call.”
Eve shook her head. “Yes, I called him. He’s very relieved that you weren’t hurt any worse than you were,” she said to Daniel. “He said he owes you a very big thank-you for saving his daughter.”
Dorisanne didn’t respond.
“You talk to Rob?” Daniel asked.
She backed away just a step from the bed, slid her hands up and down her shoulders. “He left for Los Angeles this morning. He’s supposed to call me when he’s safe.”
“You didn’t call him to tell him the guys have been arrested, that the metro police rounded them all up?” Eve asked.
Dorisanne had a sheepish look on her face. “I left the phone at the house in Pahrump. I don’t know how to call him.”
Eve looked at Daniel, who was staring at Dorisanne. Neither of them said anything further.
“Don’t you think he might be worried about you?” Eve asked, breaking the awkward silence.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I told Pauline what happened. He’ll call her when he can’t reach me, and she can tell him that we’re fine.” She kept a close watch on Daniel.
“Did she hear the news about Steve?” Eve asked, wondering
if Dorisanne’s neighbor had been informed about her boyfriend’s murder.
Dorisanne nodded.
“How did she take it?”
“She’s pretty upset about it, but she’s also a little . . . I don’t know . . . relieved, I think.”
Eve nodded. “She seemed pretty scared of him.”
“She was,” Dorisanne agreed. She was still looking at Daniel, who kept his eyes closed.
“Maybe I’ll go downstairs to the cafeteria and get a cup of coffee,” Eve said, leaving the bedside and moving toward the door. She figured her sister and Daniel could use a little time alone.
“Don’t get lost,” Daniel commented, showing a slight grin.
“Morgue’s on the third floor,” Eve said, making her exit. “Cafeteria’s on the first.”
She glanced over at Dorisanne and winked, hoping her sister understood she had the time and space to talk.
Eve watched him in the rearview mirror. He was resting in the back, able to stretch out a bit more than if he had taken the passenger’s seat beside her. Since his car had been crashed, stolen by the guy who had kidnapped Dorisanne and caused his concussion, he had to rent a car. He chose a brand-new Lincoln Town Car, and Eve felt like a limousine driver behind the wheel, teasing him that she should be wearing a little black cap and serving him beverages and snacks throughout the trip. It had brought a tiny bit of laughter from him. Once they started the drive home, he dropped his head down on the pillow and had been sound asleep for four hours. She had gotten them across the state line from Nevada to Arizona, and they were already heading east on Interstate 40. It was about lunchtime, and they were almost halfway to Madrid, having made very good time since traffic had been light and she was driving slightly above the speed limit. Eve preferred her Harley on the open road, but she found she was enjoying handling the
rented long sedan almost as much. And the view was still the same: the wide blue sky, the barren hills and mesas. Eve had always loved a western road trip.
She watched the highway in front of her and thought about their departure earlier that day. She had assumed all the way up to the last minute that Dorisanne would be going with them. She had even told the Captain when she called him first thing that morning to expect them both at home in time for dinner that day. She thought this had pleased their father, and she dreaded seeing his reaction when she arrived home alone. She wanted answers from Daniel or from Dorisanne, but she had left Vegas without knowing if anything had been resolved between her sister and their father’s former partner.
She looked in the rearview mirror again; he was still asleep. Even though she was sad that her sister wasn’t going home with her, she was glad for a few things. All the loose ends were tied up, and there was not going to be any federal or local charges against Dorisanne. No report had been filed about what happened between Eve and the Pahrump officer. She never even heard anything about her little motorcycle theft or her fleeing from the police.