15. Reed #2
Why the hell was she still whispering? It didn’t matter.
I couldn’t exactly answer her question yet.
So far, all I knew was something didn’t feel right.
Motioning with my head, I instructed her to follow me to the surveillance room.
Once we were behind closed doors, I inspected the chips further.
I flipped one of the chips over and then another.
To the naked eye, they looked legit, but something was definitely off.
The details were intricate. Even the company logo and engravings were spot on. They were top-tier fakes but fakes, nonetheless. They could have fooled almost anybody. Almost. The chips were way too light.
One of Sawyer’s bright ideas was to use weighted chips. They were light enough that the patrons of the casino wouldn’t notice, and just heavy enough that one of us would know immediately if they didn’t fit the bill. Only a few people knew about the weight.
“They’re counterfeit,” I confirmed to the cashiers as I headed back out to speak with Randall. Sawyer burst through the door with two burly men behind him before I could walk out. “They’re fakes,” I told him.
“Damn.” He shook his head. “How the hell does this keep happening?”
“The hell if I know. Aren’t you head of security?”
“I haven’t noticed anybody moving wrong. You know I would have shut it down from the onset.”
“Fuck!” I snarled as I worked out what needed to be done.
“Shut down the high roller tables,” Sawyer instructed, making the call that I didn’t want to make. This was his area of expertise, not mine. I had to deal with the fallout.
“They’re fakes, Randall,” I notified one of our best customers as I stepped out of the cage with Faith on my heels.
“The hell if they are. One of those little girls gave them to me.”
“I don’t doubt that. I’m just letting you know that they’re counterfeit.”
“So, what now?” he asked.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do until we complete our internal investigation. Once the dust settles, I will personally rectify the situation.”
“You know I wouldn’t pull a stunt like that, Reed. I know how you guys operate. I wouldn’t cross you.”
I almost said that I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but honestly, I knew exactly what he meant. Soon, someone else would find out what Randall already knew.
“We’ll be in touch. As of now, the high roller section is closed down.”
Randall said something in response, but I didn’t hear a word he said. I was already moving. My wheels were already turning as I ran through scenarios and inconsistencies happening since the first time the counterfeit chips were found on the floor.
Fake chips didn’t just fall out of the sky.
Someone had to bring them in. The more obvious thing was that someone on the inside had to have helped put them in circulation.
For the past eighteen months after Darius’s arrest, we had worked to rebuild everything to make sure nothing like this happened again.
We reworked the security systems and protocols. We even changed the chips. No one knew about the weight of the chips. Although it had to be an inside job, I knew for sure that it wasn’t from my circle.
Nicholas loved to say that the circle was closed for a reason.
That couldn’t be more apparent than it was as I burst through the doors to find the high rollers being escorted out of the section.
We needed to handle this situation with haste.
The longer it took to resolve the issue, the more money we would lose.
Faith had been on my heels with every move I made. She moved to my side with her trusty tablet clutched to her chest.
“What’s going on, Reed?”
“I don’t know yet,” I confessed, glancing over at her as we headed for the elevator.
Her brows knitted slightly as she searched my face for answers I didn’t have. I was genuinely baffled. Just as the elevator dinged, a man dressed in all black with an earpiece stuck in his ear approached. It was one of the floor security guys.
“Mr. Fuller, we found something.”
At this point, I needed a drink, so I motioned for him to follow me onto the elevator.
Once we boarded the elevator, I took the tablet from his hand.
Surveillance footage covered the screen.
There was a shot of the blackjack tables.
Large sums of chips were being exchanged, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
We were looking at the high roller blackjack section.
Right before I asked what I was looking for, I saw it.
It was just a dealer exchanging chips, but there was something off about the hand off.
He moved quickly and efficiently, but the set he exchanged from wasn’t our standard set.
Not only that, but I didn’t recognize him.
We personally vetted the regulars in the high rollers section.
Vacation coverage and scheduling arrangements had them shuffling the deck literally.
Some of the dealers and cashiers from the main floor had been shifted into the high roller area for the past couple of months.
Since nothing had gone wrong, I hadn’t pressed the issue about making permanent decisions. We were just going with the flow.
My chest tightened as I considered the possibilities of what had been missed. This was Sawyer’s area of expertise until it affected the guests and players, then it fell on me.
“Who the fuck is that?” I finally asked, looking up from the tablet.
He took it from my hands before hitting a few buttons to change his view.
“Let’s see. That’s table 113. Today’s assignment is Carlos Springer,” he mumbled to himself.
I watched as his fingers glided across the screen. The elevator stopped on my floor. I ushered Faith out in front of me with the security guy right behind us all the way to my office door.
“Shit,” he hissed just as I opened the door.
“What is it?” I demanded.
“It’s this guy. I need to call Sawyer.”
“What about him?”
“His file doesn’t exist,” he revealed.
“What the fuck do you mean his file doesn’t exist?”
“His employee number isn’t registered in the system.”