Page 39 of The Devil Went Down to Laughlin
“So, August Sellers was here today,” she said.
“‘Was,’” Ty repeated, not looking very happy.
“Yes,” she said. “But that’s fine, because I found out from one of the servers in the Cove Bar that he’s having a private party on one of the Laughlin River Cruise boats.”
This didn’t sound like particularly good news to Caleb. “And?”
She sent him a withering look, one which all but said out loud that he had an appalling lack of vision. “And that means he’s going to be away from the casino and in a place where it’ll be easier to see what he’s up to. In fact, Jacob said he could probably get us on board.”
Ty’s expression grew even more disapproving, if possible. “Jacob?”
Pru didn’t quite roll her eyes, but Caleb got the feeling that she wanted to. “He works at the Cove Bar…but he’s also going to be serving at the private party on the boat. When I told him that August Sellers denied my old, sick mother’s claim to her winnings at the craps table and that I needed to get in his face to get her the money she’s rightfully owed, Jacob agreed to smuggle us all onto the cruise.”
Okay, Caleb had to admit Prudence had earned some points with that flabbergasting lie. “And this guy believed you?”
“Of course,” she said, and fluttered her eyelashes at him. He didn’t think they were fake, but they were impressively long and lush. “I guess ol’ August has a reputation for being a real tight-ass. So now we can get on the boat and see what he’s up to…because we all know he’s not having this river cruise for shits and giggles, right?”
Probably not. Or rather, Caleb couldn’t think of any good reason why the casino’s general manager would suddenly want to head out on a cruise on a Tuesday night when he’d probably gone on similar cruises multiple times in the past.
“You think he might have Delia hidden on the boat?” Ty asked, and Caleb wanted to smack himself for not thinking of that first.
“Maybe,” Pru replied. “It would make a pretty good hiding place. And it would be a place where he could question her without anyone hearing them or interfering.”
Caleb didn’t want to contemplate the terrible notion of the woman he cared about being questioned by someone who might or might not be a demon. “Okay, that makes sense,” he said. “What time is the cruise?”
“The boat leaves the dock at seven,” she responded. “The crew needs to be there no later than six-thirty.”
Since it was only a little after four, that meant they still had plenty of time to kill.
Good thing, because he definitely wasn’t looking forward to setting foot on that boat. As soon as Pru had brought up the possibility of going out on the water, he’d been wracking his brains, trying to figure out the best way of dealing with what felt like an impossible situation.
He had no idea whether the solution he’d come up with would even work, but he had to try something. Otherwise, he might be less than useless once they were out on the water.
“We need to find a drugstore,” he said, and both Pru and Ty stared at him, clearly confused.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I need to buy some Dramamine,” Caleb replied.
When they met Jacob, the guy who’d agreed to smuggle them onto the boat, Caleb immediately saw that this was probably just as much about earning brownie points with a girl he thought was cute as it was about getting some kind of justice for her fictional mother. The guy looked less than thrilled to learn that her two “friends” were men only a little older than she was, but at least he didn’t try to tell them that they couldn’t come aboard.
No, he only pointed to the closet where the uniforms were kept and said they needed to put some on so they wouldn’t stand out too much. Pru had already warned Caleb and Ty about this, so they quickly switched out their T-shirts and jeans for dress pants and white shirts and bow ties.
She, on the other hand, had gone shopping in one of the casino’s stores and had come back out with a tight-fitting sheath dress and high-heeled black sandals. A couple of hairpins allowed her to pull her siren-green hair up into a twist, and when she emerged from the bathroom, she looked like an entirely different woman.
“Impressive,” Caleb said. “I guess you’ve watched a lot of James Bond movies.”
Pru stuck her tongue out at him, thereby ruining the impression of subversive elegance. “Well, when Jacob told me there’d be some high rollers from the casino in attendance along with the casino execs, I figured that was my chance to get glammed up rather than having to look like a working stiff like you two.”
A pained expression crossed Ty’s face, but he only said, “In a way, that’s good. It’ll give the three of us more opportunities to fan out on the boat and see if we can learn more about the real reason for this cruise.”
Caleb thought he’d seen a flicker of admiration in Ty’s features when Prudence appeared in her evening attire, but it was certainly gone now. No, he was all business.
Which was fine. If Ty wanted to moon over Pru Nelson, he could do it when they weren’t trying to figure out where Delia had been spirited away to.
“How are you doing?” Pru asked, and Caleb gave a stiff nod.
“I’ll survive.”
