3 Bad Guys Get Caught (20 page)

“I’ll take Holiday Inn over jail any
time, and Dennis, I think it’s time you started following your own advice.”

At eight thirty p.m., Janet made her way
downstairs where Roman was already waiting for her. Together, they walked to
the casino entrance. While Roman punched in the electronic lock sequence, Janet
edged herself closer to him to allow for the camera in her pendant to have an
ample view of the lock and sequence that Roman was punching in.

“You know the drill, Janet,” Roman
instructed her once they were inside the casino. “Go and change, and I’ll check
on the tables.”

Janet made her way downstairs. Regina
was already there, and Janet wondered if she’d been told to keep an eye on her.

“I see you’re back,” Regina observed
without much enthusiasm.

“Hello.” Janet smiled, but her gesture
wasn’t reciprocated.

“You even got new shoes,” Regina added,
eyeing Janet’s shoes. “Those must’ve cost you a pretty penny. So I guess Marina
won’t be coming back after all, but then I’m not surprised. She’s in pretty bad
shape.”

“What happened to her?”

Regina fixed Janet with an icy stare.
“Too much coke, and I don’t mean the kind that comes in the can.”

Janet gulped. “Is she going to be okay?”

“She’d better be. I don’t think that
Roman is too keen on taking a girl without papers to the hospital for a drug
overdose. Are you going to change or what? I’ve got to get back to work, or
they’ll be looking for me upstairs.”

Janet forced indifference into her tone.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch. They can wait a few minutes.”

She slipped into the hostess dress. This
time she came prepared with her own padded bra that made her a whole size
bigger in the chest. The pendant chain slinked down her neck, with the pendant
almost falling into her cleavage; hopefully her amplified bosom would provide
the needed distraction. Not that a layman would ever guess that the lovely
pendant was hiding a camera; only half an inch in size, the stone was sparkling
blue gray in color and looked like labradorite, which had become a very
fashionable gem in the past year. Who would’ve thought that the FBI followed
fashion trends? Or maybe it was just a coincidence. In any case, the pretty
surface concealed a powerful camera, making sure that everything that took
place inside Kovar’s hidden casino was being recorded. If things were to go
wrong, the FBI would know at once to come to Janet’s help; at least that was
what she had been told and was determined to believe.

“That’s a pretty stone.” Regina’s
fingers reached for Janet’s neck.

“It was my grandmother’s.” Janet touched
the pendant protectively, and Regina took the hint.

Janet went upstairs and took her place
next to Roman. In a few minutes the guests would start arriving.

***

The evening rolled on just like the one
yesterday. Janet seated the customers at their tables and smiled pleasantly at
them. The place was starting to get filled up. She checked her watch: it was
eleven p.m. She wondered if the FBI agents had been able to read the door lock
sequence from the camera. Falk had assured her that even if the agents couldn’t
see the keys Roman was hitting, they could deduce the sequence from the sound
made by each key and the model number of the lock. He had assured her that it
had been done before, and she had decided to believe him. Now, all Janet had to
do was play her part and wait for the good guys to do their job. She wondered
what Dennis would think about the plan. She hadn’t seen him since the morning,
but even if she had, she wouldn’t have been able to say a word about tonight;
this was classified information, the exciting stuff that blockbusters were made
of. Only this wasn’t a movie or a book; it was real life, and she was
terrified.

Just then, another patron entered the
room. When he flashed his green card, Janet could barely manage a welcoming
smile; Julius Libby was standing before her, in the flesh. If he had recognized
her from his previous encounter with her at Panther, he didn’t show it as he
stood there, politely waiting to be ushered to his table. Julius Libby was too
busy a man to bother with memorizing the face of every waitress he met. Tonight
he looked as sharp as ever, sharper even: dressed in an expertly tailored black
suit of very fine wool, white shirt, and a dark purple tie, he looked more like
a socialite than a government official.

“Right this way—” Janet nearly blurted
out “Mr. Libby,” but checked herself just in time. She wondered if Libby’s wife
was going to join him later. Somehow Janet couldn’t picture Mrs. Libby in a
place like this, but then appearances could often be deceiving.

Janet’s question was answered as soon as
she seated Libby at his table. No sooner had she begun to walk away when a
young woman joined Libby at his table. Janet didn’t remember seeing her there
before. Just like the rest of the girls the Kovars picked to service their
establishments, this one was no exception: long blonde hair, model-like body,
and large, blue eyes.

Janet slowed her step, pretending to fix
the tablecloth on a nearby table and strained her ears.

“Karina! How good to see you!” Libby’s
eyes lit up with a fire that wasn’t there when he was dining with his wife,
devouring the girl’s body, most of which was exposed by her very revealing red
cocktail dress.

“Did you miss me, honey?” the girl asked
in a raspy accent, perching on Libby’s lap.

“Of course I did. I brought you a
present.” Libby placed a small velvet box into the girl’s hands.

“I love presents!” She opened the box
and removed a gold pendant with blue stones. It looked expensive, certainly
more expensive than the jewelry Libby’s wife had worn.

“Sapphires; I thought they’d go nicely
with your eyes.”

“I love it!” the girl squealed. “Can you
help me put it on?” She turned her back to Libby and he fastened the chain on
her neck.

“It looks beautiful on you,” said Libby.
“Tonight I want to make love to you with it on.”

“Oh, I love it when you talk dirty.” The
girl wrapped her hands around Libby and pressed her glistening lips against
his.

As much as Janet would’ve liked to watch
Libby play tongue hockey with the blonde, she had to return to the hostess
station. There was only so much time one could spend fixing tablecloths.

“Everything all right?” Roman asked.

“Everything is fine. I had to fix a
tablecloth.”

“You don’t need to do that; we’ve got
waitresses for that.”

“Well, the waitress wouldn’t do it,”
Janet said pointedly.

Roman strained his neck to get a better
view of Libby’s table. “Karina is not a waitress,” he granted. “Her job is
different.”

Janet stared blankly at Roman. “What do
you mean?” she asked naively.

Roman shook his head. “You are something
else, Janet. Some clients like having a pretty girl by their side; that’s
Karina’s job.”

“Is she a prostitute?” Janet asked, her
voice astonished.

“That’s a dirty word. Our clients prefer
escort.”

“I see.” Janet nodded. Roman Kovar may
think her a naïve idiot, but in reality he was the idiot; their entire
conversation was being recorded.

“I’ll be right back,” Roman said. “Just
want to make sure that our customers have everything they need.”

“Okay.” Janet nodded.

The drapes around the entrance
fluttered, and Janet prepared to greet another customer. A moment later, two
men dressed in black suits entered the room. They didn’t look at all like
Kovar’s clientele, and they weren’t. In what felt like a flash of a moment, one
of them unleashed a series of complicated moves, quicker than lightning,
knocking out Ivan and Boris, the two beefy bodyguards. Ivan and Boris might
have been former Special Forces, but they fell on the floor like two potato
sacks.

The other man raced to the hostess stand
and flashed a card at Janet. It wasn’t green or gray in color; it was an
official id with the letters FBI printed on it prominently.

“FBI. We have a warrant. You stay right
there, ma’am,” the agent added.

Janet shrank into the wall adjacent to
the hostess stand. She had envisioned this moment hundreds of times throughout
the day; she had planned to exercise her self-control to remain calm and
collected, but now that it was here, her body was shaking like a leaf from all
the stress and the adrenaline. The only time she had seen armed FBI agents
raiding a place was on TV, but this was no movie. This was happening for real,
and she was smack in the middle of it.

A split second later, the room was
swarming with FBI agents clad in uniforms and bulletproof vests. Havoc erupted
as guests started jumping up from their chairs, upturning their tables and
spilling their drinks in the process. The croupier girls screamed, trying to desperately
cover their exposed breasts, as though the presence of the FBI agents had
awakened their previously sedated sense of propriety.

“Everybody calm down!” the man who had
flashed the id at Janet spoke into a mouthpiece. “The process will go much
smoother if everyone cooperates. Employees and owners step to the right side,
guests to the left—”

The agent’s command was cut off by an
unintelligible string of curses, followed by a desperate cry, “Freeze or I’ll
blow his brains out!”

Crouching by the hostess station, Janet
craned her neck to see what was going on.

Roman had Libby in a headlock, pointing
a gun at his head. “Don’t anybody move, or I’ll blow his brains out!”

“Calm down, sir,” said the FBI agent.
“Let’s talk this through.”

“Do you know who this is?” Roman held up
Libby by the scruff of his neck, as though he were a kitten. “This here is
Councilman Libby. He is a very important man! The newspapers said he will be
running for senate. How would you like to have your future senator shot?”

“This lunatic must have me confused with
someone else!” Libby squealed. “Please, help me!”

“You come here all the time!” Roman
snarled. “I know who you are!”

Ever the politician, Libby vehemently
denied the truth. “I’ve never been to this place in my life! I was lured into
this establishment under the false pretense of an interview!”

“Shut up!” Roman smacked Libby on the
head, making it bob like that of a bobble head doll. “Was Karina going to
interview your cock? Is that what you had in mind? You come here twice a week
to screw her.” Roman’s eyes searched the room, as if looking for Karina to
support his claim. He saw her too late. There was a dull thump and Roman sank
to the ground.

Karina stood by triumphantly; her
weapon, a wine bottle with which she had clobbered Roman on the head, still
clutched in her hands.

The FBI agents swiftly cuffed Roman and
dragged him away.

Karina dropped her now useless weapon on
the floor. “Oh, my baby! You didn’t think I was going to let Roman hurt you?
I’m here, honey!” Karina flung herself at Libby.

“Get this woman away from me!” Libby
screamed. “I have no idea who she is! She endangered my life; I could’ve been
killed by this lunatic!”

“Baby, calm down. Don’t be scared. The
bad man is gone,” Karina cooed, shoving her ample bosom into Libby’s face.

Libby pushed her away. “Get this nut
away from me! I don’t know who she is!”

Karina’s eyes narrowed as she thrust her
hands on her hips. “What? That’s not the way you spoke to me earlier this
evening. You said you wanted to make love to me with nothing on but this!” She
triumphantly held up the pendant Libby had given her earlier. “Now you squirm
like a coward? Are you ashamed of me? You pig, you dirty scoundrel!” She kicked
Libby in the shin, and he winced, jumping on one leg.

One of the agents took her by the elbow.
“Ma’am, please come with me.”

“Gladly!” Karina sputtered. “I will tell
you everything about this schmuck!”

The FBI agents began taking information
from the guests and the casino personnel, separating them into two groups.
Soon, two lines were formed on either side of the room.

Feeling safe under the protection of the
agents stationed by the hostess stand, Janet peeked from her hiding spot,
curious to see how things were progressing. There were many mortified faces,
mainly from the clients, and much cursing, mainly from Kovar’s staff.

“You have no right to hold me here! I’m
a Czech citizen!” Regina was yelling at one of the agents.

“Ma’am, please wait your turn to be
questioned. Your information will be taken down shortly,” replied the agent.

“Stop staring at my breasts, you
pervert!” Regina shot back, clearly eager for a fight.

“I wasn’t looking at your breasts,
ma’am, but being that they are hanging out in the open, I don’t see how you can
accuse anyone of staring.”

“My breasts are not hanging!” Regina
screamed. “My breasts are perky and firm! Here, try and squeeze them!” She
thrust out her chest.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, I have no
interest in touching your breasts. Now, please step back into the line.”