Death in the Casino: Target Practice Mysteries 5 (9 page)

Orion looked at Elizabeth and nodded.

She nodded back in agreement. "You made your point. Assuming that she is okay with it, I'll call Robbie today and see what we can work out. For now, we are only announcing this single-event increase of five thousand and double contingency. We'll announce your new position and try to introduce you to our pro-staff managers and marketers this week so you can set up meetings with them. I'm sure they will be excited to share the information with their shooters."

"Oh?"

She chuckled. "More money for their shooters that they don't have to spend? Win win."

My palms were sweaty. I was taking on a lot of extra responsibility, but I was excited. Moo leaped up and joined me as I stood.

Orion was typing into his phone, and Elizabeth stepped closer for a private moment. "I know that I said that you could turn down the offer with no repercussions, but personally, I'm really proud to see you step up to the challenge." She squeezed my shoulder and left the room.

Orion put his phone back in his pocket and smiled. "How you doing? You were pretty pale when we walked in."

"Why didn't you tell me on the way over that is was good news? I thought you two might be firing me." I fanned my face. It wasn't even noon, and I was ready for a nap.

He laughed out loud. "I'm not totally convinced this
was
good news. It's going to be a ton of work, and people will criticize you every step of the way. But we have faith in you. I've got to take off, I have another meeting but grab me later and I'll introduce you around with your new title."

He left before I could ask what my official title was. In the room alone, I took a moment to look around before I left. There were a printer, coffee pots, trays of foods, and stacks of paper everywhere. With the rise of the Internet, people kept predicting that everyone would go paperless at any moment, and yet it hadn't happened. "Come on, Moo."

Moo danced on the end of his lead, excited to hear his name, and his thick tail swept across a table, knocking a box of papers onto the floor. The box landed on its side and loose paper fanned across the room. I sighed and grabbed the box off the ground. There was a black marker note on the side that indicated that the papers inside were headed for the shredder. The pages nearest my feet were target assignments for this morning's line. The printer must have been low on ink, because the words were faded.

I crouched down and gathered the papers until my eyes landed on some financial pages. I randomly flipped through the rest of the pages underneath, which included payouts, entry numbers, and a list of participants. "Bingo."

I took off my thin jacket and grabbed all the papers from the financial sheet down then wrapped the jacket around it. I clutched it to my chest and peeked out the door before racing into the hallway.

Moo pulled to greet people that extended their hands, but I pulled him closer. Nodding at a few people I recognized as I passed, I looked over my shoulder back at the door. A cleaning crew was entering the room, and I blew out a sigh of relief that no one was chasing after me.

There was probably nothing of value in the stack of papers, but I didn't want to explain why I had grabbed them.

Tiger held a hand out in front of me. "Hey, Di, let me introduce you to Esther and Georgianna."

I greeted two little blondes with Southern accents. "Nice to meet you. Did you shoot already?"

They nodded. The left blonde explained, "It didn't go so well for either of us, but Tiger offered to look over our equipment at the practice range."

They gazed up at him adoringly, and he gave me a wink then looked past me. "Florine, did you want to join us?"

A red-headed gal joined him with her bow.

I chuckled. "I'll let you go then. Good luck to all of you." I couldn't help but smile at Tiger as he headed to the practice range with the three girls.

Entering the trade show, I had to slow down. The booths were still surrounded, and even more people had bows today than yesterday. Once I made it through the booths to the top of the arena seating, I scanned the crowd. The bottom row of the seating was about ten feet higher than the arena floor, but there were portable rolling stairways at the bottom of each aisle that you could use to get to the arena floor.

More chairs were at the bottom then a row of tables that separated the row of chairs for the shooters. Scanning the archer seating area, I spotted Loggin's tall frame. Then, glancing behind the tables, I found Mary with her smooth black bob.

I started down the cement stairs but Moo hesitated. He carefully sniffed the stairs then walked his front paws down several stairs then paused and finally lifted his back paws to join the front.

"Come on, Moo. You know how to walk down stairs. Come on."

He lifted his head to stare at me, his jowls flopping side to side as he shook his head then lowered it to inspect the next few stairs. Slowly we inched our way down to the arena. Step, step, step, pause. Step, step, step, pause.

People giggled and pointed, while a few snapped pictures.

Moo was a large and clumsy dog, so I let him take his time. When we got to the base of the arena stairs, we had to step up and onto the black metal stairs that had been rolled into the arena.

I had stepped up and started down when Moo jerked me back. He was edging away from the metal stairs and sat down.

"Come on, Moo. It's okay."

People watched us, and my cheeks flamed up in embarrassment. The practice session was about to start, and people were milling about waiting to start.

A few of the pro male compounders were watching as I begged Moo to continue. He extended his front feet onto the platform at the top of the black stairs, but his rear legs refused to budge. I begged and pleaded in a whisper for him to move. He extended his front paws to the top stairs, his belly resting across the entire platform, but his back paws stayed.

"Come on. Be a big boy."

Moo responded with a dramatic moan. He wasn't in pain; it was a noise he reserved for moments when he didn't want to do what I asked him, like getting off the bed or taking a bath. I pulled a little more, and he raised his head and let loose with a long groan of displeasure.

Heads whipped around at the noise. This was not worth the embarrassment. I looked at the stands, and at least half the people were watching.

I went back over the platform and started up the cement arena stairs. "Okay, you win this time."

Moo didn't budge but looked over his shoulder at me and whined.

"I think your dog's stuck."

I leaned to the left to see a couple of the male archers were at the bottom of the metal stairs. Two of them had Andersson jerseys on, which made my embarrassment both less and more.

"He's just being a big baby."

I picked up his back feet and wrestled with the weight to get them back underneath his belly. Moo was docile and did nothing to help me as I maneuvered his feet. Then I squeezed by him and started down the stairs. I tried to pull him down.

When he lifted his right front paw I was ecstatic--until he placed it over my shoulder and started leaning into me.

"No, no, down. Moo, down."

I reached up for his right paw, and he placed his left paw on my other shoulder and pushed his chest to mine. He lifted his snout and let out a long cry that reminded me of a dying bagpipe.

I reached out for the railing, steadying myself with one hand while clutching the packet of papers with the other. He let out another whine and rested his head on his paw as my knees started to buckle under his immense, furry weight.

Mary's voice called up to me from the floor of the arena. "What are you doing?"

"Help, Mary. Take this." I tried to reach down with the jacket-wrapped stack of papers. "Please hurry."

A hand took the bundle from my arm, and I grabbed the railing as Moo continued to moan and whine his angst.

"Everyone is staring, Di." Mary sounded disapproving. "They're about to start practice."

"You think I'm doing this for fun? Help me, I'm stuck."

Moo was resting his chin on top of my head as he carried on, and all I could see was black and white fur.

A voice I didn't recognize called out. "Ma'am, you can't block the aisle way. It's against fire code."

I had dog hair in my nose and no clue how I was going to get out of this when someone came up behind me and reached around to grab Moo's chest.

Loggin's voice was loud in my ear. "You ready, Liam? One, two, three."

Moo was lifted off me, and I could see that Loggin had the front half of Moo, while Liam was carrying the back off down the stairs past me.

Moo lifted up his head and gave a long howl as thunderous applause went up all over the arena.

Every eye in the arena stands and on the shooting floor was on us.

I wanted to curl up and die but gave a little wave then joined Moo as he pranced on the floor, no worse for his little act. I followed Mary over to seats she had reserved for us.

A security guard approached with a stern face. "Next time, go through there and use the elevator." He pointed to a curtained-off entrance at the side of the shooting lanes.

Unc called out, "Nice floor show, Di. Look forward to the second act."

Liam searched out my hand. I smiled up at him, and a warm happiness settled into my chest that pushed out the last bits of embarrassment.

"I thought you were pretty adorable," he said as he slid a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

CHAPTER SIX

The whistle blew, and the male compound archers started practice. The thumps of arrows hitting the target mat added to the general buzz of people talking through the arena and trade show.

Mary sat next to Minx. I took the next seat, and Liam grabbed the aisle. He settled Moo down next to him.

Minx leaned forward to look around Mary. "Hey, Princess, pull yourself together. You're giving the Westmound Training Center a bad name."

I rolled my eyes at her for using the nickname I hated and for her comment.

She chuckled, sat back, and lifted her binoculars. Then she gave a little wave to someone.

I followed her line of sight to see Lucky smiling at her, and I gave a second eye roll, like she had any right to say anything.

"I saw that." Minx leaned across Mary. "After they're done shooting, we are all going to go hang at the bar. He told me right before this that his friends know he's getting a divorce, though no one is talking about it until it's public. So we're going to hang out as a group."

"I don't want to go hang at the bar," I whispered back.

"Yes, you do because you love me. Please. You'll come, Mary, right?"

Mary and I exchanged a look, then I sighed. "Fine, for a bit."

She squealed and leaned back in her seat.

Mary chuckled and unwrapped the stack of papers. "What is this?"

I leaned over and blocked the papers from being seen by others. "I met with Orion and Elizabeth in a room that the tournament staff uses. After they left, Moo knocked over a box of papers, and some of them looked really interesting, so I grabbed some of them. Can you put them in your backpack for us to look over later?"

She flipped through them then shoved the crumpled printouts into her backpack. "What's on them?"

I shrugged. "I didn't get a chance to see, but I know there were some with financial information and division registration."

She nodded. "Maybe we'll find something useful in there. Why did Orion and Elizabeth want to meet? You're not in trouble, are you?" She spoke softly, ready to console me if I needed it.

I had forgotten to tell her. Grabbing her arm in excitement, I shared the news. "They offered me the opportunity to work on a campaign for women in archery, and you get to help!"

I shared all the information and realized how much information I didn't have as Mary peppered me with questions about implementation of the program. It made me uneasy. Maybe they had made the wrong decision in offering me this position and opportunity.

Liam laid a hand on my arm, and I turned back to him.

"You'll do great."

My anxiety settled down. "You'll help me?"

He nodded and squeezed my arm again before turning his attention back to the archers.

Suddenly, halfway through the shooting time, the lights started to flash and a siren went off.

***

Lucky brought over my glass of water at the bar while filling in Mary and me on what had happened. "The fire alarm kept going off. They only evacuated us that one time, but it was still a huge mess."

Minx sauntered over, her hips swaying left and right, with her drink in hand. "I can't believe you were able to shoot clean with all those distractions."

He gave a smarmy smile to Minx and leaned in closer. "Only twenty Xs, well below my normal count, but good enough. It helped to have my own cheering section, sweetie."

If he shot clean, that meant every arrow was within the ten ring for the highest possible score per arrow of ten points. The X ring was half as big as the ten ring and still worth ten points, but many archers listed the X count to indicate how many of the arrows were in the center versus catching the edge of the ten ring.