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Dela Alvaro leaned against the corridor wall outside the conference area at the Spotted Pony Casino. As head of security, she was waiting for a casino employee that had been seen sneaking out the fire door by the conference area the last two days.
All employees were to leave through the security area as they clocked out. When Dela checked the woman’s time card, someone had been clocking the employee out, three and four hours after she’d been seen leaving the casino by the fire door.
“Athena left the Pony and is headed your way,” Marty Casper, head of surveillance’s, voice came through her earbud.
“Roger,” Dela spoke into the microphone clipped to the shoulder of her polo shirt. Being head of security for this casino on the Umatilla Reservation was the closest she could get to the job she had dreamed of while an M.P. in the Army. After losing her lower leg from an I.E.D. blast, she was shipped home for medical care and physical therapy. If she couldn’t be a law enforcement officer, she was going to be the best head of security this casino had ever seen.
Athena rounded the corner typing on her cell phone.
Dela stepped in front of her. “Athena, why are you leaving through the fire door?”
The woman’s head snapped up and she stared at Dela.
“Why have you left work the last three days around this time and yet your time card says you worked a full shift?” Dela crossed her arms and studied the woman.
“I’ve been leaving early because my daughter is sick.” The woman’s gaze was over Dela’s shoulder. She was lying.
“I see. But why would you need to leave early? Shouldn’t you be home with her if she’s sick?” Dela watched the woman shove her phone into her back pocket.
“She’s not that sick.”
“But sick enough you can cut out of here and still have someone clocking you out so you get full pay?” Dela wasn’t going to let the woman off. This was one of the reasons employees were to clock out in the security office. To keep track that they weren’t skipping work and they weren’t taking anything home they shouldn’t.
“I need the money. In fact, I need more than the casino pays me. That’s why I’m leaving early to go to another job.” Athena still wasn’t looking Dela in the eyes.
“I’m going to walk into the office and clock you out if you walk out that door. And then I’ll go talk to HR and see what they want to do about the days you left early and still expected to get paid.”
Athena finally looked her square in the face. “Please, I’ll tell the place I’m working I can’t come in until I finish my shift here. Don’t cut my hours short. I need the money.” Her gaze darted around the corridor.
“What or who are you afraid of? Why do you need money?” Dela dropped her hands to her sides and stepped toward the woman. “Are you in trouble?”
“I-I can’t tell you. I have to go. Please. Wait until tomorrow when I come on shift before you talk to HR. Let me make it okay with the other place to come in later.” Athena pleaded in a shrill voice.
“Where are you working?” Dela asked, wondering if it was a bar in town. Athena worked as a barmaid in the Pony Bar and Grill at the casino.
Athena shook her head. “No. I don’t want you going in there and causing trouble. I’ve got enough.” She nodded to the fire door. “I gotta go.” And ran down the corridor, slammed into the fire door, and left.
The reason the alarm didn’t go off, and hadn’t the other days, had to do with it having been turned off because employees in the Pony Bar & Grill and Stallion Restaurant used it to go outside and smoke on their breaks. It saved them time from walking to the employee breakroom and out into the outdoor area fenced off for them to smoke on their breaks. Many conference attendees also used the exit to catch a smoke on the patio outside the Stallion set up for outdoor dining.
“That didn’t look like it went well,” Marty said in her ear.
Dela pressed the button on her mic. “I’m coming in to see if we can find out who has been covering for her. Pull up surveillance video of the last three days an hour before Athena leaves the casino. She has to tell someone she’s leaving.”
“Roger.”
She walked out of the subdued décor and quiet corridor of the conference area and into the bright colors and chaos of machines, voices, and piped flute music. She waved to a security officer and headed to the large mural wall behind the gaming tables that hid the door to the inner workings of the casino.
Tapping her security card on a box on the wall that looked like part of the mural, a door opened and she walked through. Four surveillance employees sat in front of monitors watching the staff and clients at the casino.
“Afternoon, Dela. Things have been quiet,” Lionel, one of the oldest surveillance employees and past security officer, said.
“Hi, Lionel. It has been quiet. I’m looking forward to leaving early today and getting a run in before dark.” She nodded to the other three employees and walked into Marty’s office without knocking.
“Yo, Dela. Did you get the wedding announcement?” Marty’s smile spread across his face even larger than usual.
“Yes, but you shouldn’t have wasted an announcement on me. After all, I’m the maid of honor.” Dela sat in the chair to Marty’s right, propping her prosthesis on the box he kept there for her. He was a good friend and a good man. Her best friend was marrying Marty in two months. Molly had always wanted a Fall wedding. They would be married the first week of October. Dela was happy for both of them. Molly had been in a bad first marriage but had come out of it with a wonderful son.
“We wanted you to know you could bring a plus one.” Marty grinned. “And we are pretty sure it will be Heath.”
“I was thinking about bringing my mom,” Dela said, just to see how her friend reacted.
His smile waned. “Your mom? But we sent her an invitation. She can bring a plus one of her own.”
Dela laughed at his disappointment. “Bring up the surveillance video, and I’ll be bringing Heath. But I don’t want either of you two pushing for us to get married. Like tossing me the bouquet or aiming the garter in Heath’s direction. My mom doesn’t need any more incentive to try and make us a couple before we’re ready.”
Marty clicked the keys on the keyboard in front of him and three monitors came to life. “The monitor on the right was today.”
They watched the video. Athena talked to three people before she went behind the bar, picked up her purse, and walked out.
“Let’s see who she talked to the day before.” Dela shifted her gaze to the monitor in the middle.
Athena talked to two of the same people before leaving. The bartender and a barmaid. The first day she left early, she talked to the same two people.
Dela pushed her chair back and stood. “It looks like I need to have a talk with Dexter and Natalie.”
“Did Athena say why she’d been sneaking out?” Marty asked.
“She’s leaving to go to another job. Something about she needed money, but she was also scared.” Dela was going to ask Heath what he knew about Athena’s husband. She would also ask Rosie, her friend who worked in the deli and knew everything about everyone who worked in the casino and lived on the rez.
“Needed money? Alex, her husband, has a good job doing tech work for Cayuse Industries. I never did know why she was working here as a barmaid.” Marty was staring at the monitor as if in thought.
“I didn’t know that about her husband. Cayuse Industries is the second place I applied for a job before they hired me here. I figured the casino and Cayuse were the top two employers on the rez where I could get a security job.” Dela now wondered if the Kindales were having marital problems for the wife to be working two jobs. She was pretty sure Heath or Rosie would know.
“See you tomorrow. I’m going to visit with the two in the Pony, then Rosie, and head home. Kenny will be here to take over by then.”
“Sounds good.” Marty pulled a pile of papers toward him as she walked to the door.
Dela scanned the monitors as she wandered through the surveillance room. She spotted Kenny, her second in command, stepping out of the security offices as his voice rang loud and clear in her earbud.
“Dela, I’m here.”
She stepped out of the surveillance door and walked toward the large man with a smile on his face. Many had wondered at her picking him as her second, but he had a way of putting people at ease, even if he was six-four and nearly three hundred pounds. And he had an honesty that was rare these days.
“There you are.” He smiled. “How was your day?”
Dela smiled back at the man. He was like a big teddy bear. Always welcoming and ready to help where he was needed. “It was a good day, other than discovering Athena Kindale has been leaving early and having someone else clock her out. I’m headed to talk to Dexter and Natalie at the Pony. You’re welcome to come along.”
“No, I want to check in with everyone on duty.”
She nodded. It was their custom to check in with the security guards on the floor when they clocked in. And since only she and Kenny knew the hours they were coming on duty, it kept the rest of them on their toes.
“I’ll check in with you before I leave.”
Kenny raised a hand as he ambled over toward Bruce.
Dela crossed the gaming floor and entered the Pony Bar and Grill. It was a sports bar. This time of year it was pretty quiet. There weren’t as many baseball fans as there were football and basketball fans in the area.
She walked up to the bar and sat down. Her stub was getting better and she could do a full shift without it bothering her, but she took every advantage to sit and take the weight off of it when she could. She’d learned it wasn’t a weakness, it was strength to know how to keep her body working at its best. Something it had taken her several years to learn due to her stubbornness.
Dexter Bane, a man in his twenties with long hair, tattoos on his arms and neck, and an easy manner with people, made his way down the bar to her. “Dela, need some coffee or something stronger?” He smiled as he wiped his hands on a white towel hanging from the waistband of his short white apron.
“Nothing to drink. Did you know that Athena has been leaving early the last three days?”
Dexter studied her and said, “It’s pretty noticeable since I only have two barmaids this time of day.”
She nodded. “Did you know someone has been clocking her out at her regular time?”
His eyes widened. “No. That I didn’t know. She just told me she needed to leave early because her daughter needed picked up from some after-school thing.”
The woman had told yet another lie. Dela was beginning to wonder what the woman was mixed up in.
Natalie appeared with a tray, carrying empty glasses. “I need two tap beers, a Pendleton, and two margaritas.”
She set the tray of empties on the bar. Dexter picked it up, took it to the sink where the glasses were washed, and started pouring the drinks she’d asked for.
“Natalie, are you the person clocking Athena out at her regular time?” Dela asked, not wanting to take up the time with small talk.
The woman shoved her dark hair back from her face and stared at Dela. “Maybe. She’s got problems she’s trying to fix. Once she gets things straightened out, she’s going to need every dollar she can get.”
“But she’s stealing from the casino by you clocking her out three to four hours after she leaves. And she’s doing it to go to another job.”
Natalie’s bright red lips parted as she stared at Dela. “Another job? She told me she’s been talking to a lawyer about leaving her husband. She wants to make sure he can’t take their daughter away.”
Dela studied the woman. She honestly thought she was helping Athena with a marital problem. “I’m starting to wonder if she told any of us the truth.” Dela slid off the stool. “When she comes to work tomorrow, don’t say anything. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
“I don’t like being played a fool,” Natalie said, her eyes glittering with anger.
“She’s going to be the fool when I discover the truth.”