“Cory!” A shout came from across the street.
She shaded her eyes and turned to see Allie and-what the hell was she doing with Hunter? And why were they here, now? She released her hold on the door with a groan and met them as they crossed the street to her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked them.
“Trying to find Daddy. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
Cory clamped her lips shut.
Hunter gave an apologetic nod. “You did tell me yesterday you had reason to believe this would be a good place to look for someone who might know his whereabouts.”
“And did you bring Allie, or did Allie bring you?”
Allie’s face immediately flushed with guilt. “I brought him, okay? I admit it, I told him about you seeing Daddy yesterday.”
Cory bit back a curse as she shot a glance at the detective. To his credit, he looked as uncomfortable as Allie did right now. Tossing her curls back over her shoulder, Cory considered her younger sister again. Apparently, their father hadn’t managed to teach the girl honor.
“Think whatever you want of me, but I want Daddy safe. I’ll use whatever means necessary.”
Cocking her head, Cory raised her brow at her sister before nodding at Hunter. “So he’s just a means to find Papa.”
The detective flushed, and Cory experienced a momentary pang at the thought that maybe he’d developed a thing for Allie. “Not so fun to have the tables turned on you, is it, Detective?”
He squinted through the bright sun at her. “Do you know where your father is, or don’t you?”
“I don’t.” She folded her arms in emphasis.
Hunter folded his arms as if she’d challenged him. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you and Iris grew up sharing a bedroom. You’re so much alike it’s scary.”
“Iris!” Allie gasped behind him.
Cory and Hunter both turned, but Allie was rooting in her pants pockets. She finally came up with a cell phone then lifted her head to confront their scrutiny. “I need to call her. I told her I’d pick Edgar up at two.” She stepped into the shade of the building where she could see her phone’s screen better.
This left Cory brewing in the hot sun, still watching Hunter.
And Hunter watching her. “Allie thinks you’re still keeping secrets,” he said, low voiced.
“I’m not going to spill my life to her the first day we meet.” Cory pushed her heavy hair off her neck. “Would you?”
“Fair enough. So what brings you to Fremont Street?”
“Is that a personal or professional question, Detective?” Instinctively, her defenses came up.
“We’ll keep it personal, for now.” He smiled a lazy grin that somehow made his whole demeanor more approachable.
Maybe Allie was on to something, Cory thought.
“Just think of me as a friend of the family.”
Family was precisely what she was already having too many problems with. “I was planning to meet someone, but if you and Allie are going to rope me into some crazy matinee quest for Cosmo-”
Hunter seemed to have stopped listening but looked past her to the Four Queens entrance. “I thought you said Cosmo met his poker playing buddies at the Golden Gate.”
“He does, but he’s much more likely to meet them at three in the morning than at three in the afternoon.” Cory became conscious of perspiration beading on her forehead as Hunter’s narrowed gaze honed in on her.
“So is he sleeping here?”
Her patience snapped. “Why won’t you believe me? I don’t know where Papa is. Why don’t you go ask Iris? You say there are jewels involved. She’s the jeweler.” Cory raked her loose curls back with a frustrated growl.
Allie stepped back to them. “We could ask Iris, except…”
“Except what?” Cory snapped.
Allie pursed her lips as if she really didn’t want to tell either of them. “Except I can’t get a hold of her. You don’t suppose anything’s wrong, do you?”
Mickey moved with the throng of tourists walking along the Strip toward the afternoon’s first pirate show at Treasure Island. He hated these kinds of drops, but as the errand boy, he didn’t get a say in how he delivered the goods. He’d hand over the imitation stones then tail whoever made the pickup from him. He hoped to track down the mastermind of this theft, a man now ordering the deaths of everyone involved.
His phone vibrated in his jeans pocket. Cursing under his breath, he checked the number.
It was Hunter. Mickey stepped out of the line of foot traffic and put the phone to his ear. “This better be important.”
“Allie Fortune thinks Iris and Edgar have disappeared.”
This stopped him in his tracks. “Disappeared? Why would she think that?”
“Allie was supposed to pick up Edgar this afternoon, but now there’s no sign of Iris. She’s not at Lying Eyes, she’s not at her apartment, she hasn’t answered her cell or returned any message.”
Mickey bit back another curse. He’d been so sure he’d read Iris right, but had she fooled him? Even now, was she skipping town with the real alexandrite? “Wait, you said Edgar’s missing, too?”
“Yeah. Is Edgar important?”
It took Mickey a moment to figure out Hunter wasn’t talking to him. Allie must still be with him.
Why would Iris take that carnivorous rabbit with her? Unless she was meeting up with Cosmo. She didn’t have a soft spot for the bunny, but the magician did.
“You there?” Hunter asked. “Did she say anything to you?”
“No. Look, I have to get back to work here, you know?”
“Fine. We’ll try to track her down. Check in later.”
“As soon as I can.” Mickey snapped the phone shut. Dammit! He’d been taken in by a common grifter and his sirenlike daughter. And here he was holding stones she’d given him, counting on them to buy him time. What if Iris didn’t want him to have any time? What if she’d set him up?
Another of his telltale headaches whispered at the back of his neck, but he did his best to ignore it as he withdrew the velvet pouch from his pocket. He looked around at the bustling tourists, all eager to get out of the late afternoon sun. No one was paying any attention to him as he opened the bag and drew one stone out.
It was green. It wasn’t a pure green, but rather a muddy olive green. But it sure as hell wasn’t red like when he’d put the stones in the bag back at Iris’s shop. The color change was more pronounced in the daylight than under the fluorescent light of the bathroom.
Maybe this would work to buy him some time. Enough that he could now find Cosmo and Iris. And when he did, he’d hand them both over to the authorities. No looking back.
Mickey dropped the stone back into the bag and cinched it tight before pocketing it. Moving back into the flow of tourists, he trudged another block until he stood mashed in like a sardine with sweaty bodies. Swimsuit tops, loud T-shirts, billed caps, yard-long tiki drinks. God love people on vacation. They’d all stopped to watch a pirate ship and a crew of scantily dressed sirens stage a mock battle in a small lagoon near the sidewalk.
Like so much of the free public entertainment along the Strip, the show was designed to lure people into this casino. Stop, watch the show, come in, cool off, use a bathroom, drop a dollar in a slot machine, buy a drink… In an interior with no windows, no clocks, one could lose all concept of time. Inside the casinos, Vegas was a never-ending party. For some, it was heaven. For others, pure hell.
Mickey scanned the faces in the crowd, searching for a likely contact. Turner’s lackeys all shared a similar vacuous look-smarter than Pebbles but not as conniving as Jock. They’d obviously learned to obey orders and never ask questions. But no one here fit that description.
The disjointed murmuring of the crowd rolled into a cheer as a pirate appeared on the tall mast near the traditional skull-and-crossbones flag. Cameras flashed and whirred as all eyes turned to the unfolding battle.