Page 44 of The Devil Went Down to Laughlin
Including Sellers and his new lackey, Aaron Sanchez, Caleb supposed. Demons were usually pretty good at landing on their feet.
Still, he was glad to know that none of the ordinary people on the boat had been hurt. He had no idea why they’d been on the guest list, but he had a feeling they were mostly innocent bystanders.
“People rarely want to see what’s right in front of their faces,” Ty remarked. “What about August Sellers?”
Pru began typing again. “Looks like he started working at the Aquarius about three years ago.” Her eyes narrowed, and she typed a little more. “He went to UNLV and got a master’s in business administration. After he graduated — more than twenty years ago now — he worked at various casinos in Las Vegas and Reno before he got the job at the Aquarius.” She looked up from the computer, something in her expression almost defeated. “It seems like a pretty normal resume to me.”
“Well, it would,” Caleb said. “If Sellers is like Robert Hendricks, then he would have been a normal enough person before the demon took over.”
“And clearly, he hasn’t said or done anything to rouse anyone’s suspicions,” Ty added. “I’m sure the demon possessed him precisely because he was someone in a position of power here in Laughlin, a man who could come in very useful…especially if he avoided attracting any attention.”
Her fingers stilled on the keyboard, and she seemed almost restless, as if she wished she could be doing something else but wasn’t sure what.
“I could try digging some more,” she said, although she was already frowning. “Except I don’t really want to try anything like that when I don’t have access to a secure connection. I’m using my phone as a hotspot, since I obviously don’t want to be connected to the hotel’s wi-fi, but I don’t think that’s secure enough, either. The last thing I want is to set off some alarms that would let August Sellers know we’re looking into him.”
Caleb hadn’t even thought about that, but he’d be the first to admit that he wasn’t exactly a cybersecurity expert.
Whereas Pru had to delve into sensitive information all the time, and therefore she knew which precautions she needed to take.
However, a thought occurred to him.
“I can reach out to Jim Whitaker, the P.I. who helped me out during that whole Desert Paradise mess,” he said. “He was the one who figured out that Paul Reeves’ carpet cleaning business was just a front, so maybe he’ll be able to dig up something incriminating about August Sellers.”
Pru closed her laptop, looking resigned. “That’s probably a good idea. I don’t think I should be taking the risk right now. Yeah, I have a VPN installed on this computer, but it’s still not as secure as my setup at home.”
He had to believe she knew what she was talking about, so Caleb didn’t bother to try convincing her she should do some more research. There weren’t any clocks in the sitting room, but Caleb noted as he got out his phone that it was almost nine-thirty. Probably too late for a phone call, and he hoped Jim would be less inconvenienced by an email.
Typing it out on his phone felt way more laborious than sending a text, but eventually he had the thing written and then sent it. As he put his phone back in the pocket of his shorts, he said, “Okay, that’s taken care of. I doubt he’ll get back to me before tomorrow morning, though.”
“It’s fine,” Ty said. “There probably isn’t much else we can do tonight, anyway. Besides, I doubt you’ll be able to find much. Any demon given the charge of trying to subvert the river’s powers would be one with a good deal of power and self-control. He isn’t the type who would let anyone around him know he wasn’t the same person he used to be.”
And that meant they’d probably have a hard time trying to figure out exactly when the real August Sellers had disappeared and the demon currently inhabiting his body had taken over.
This just kept getting better and better.
They were all moodily silent for a moment, and then Pru sat up a little straighter, as if she’d decided there wasn’t much else they could do at the moment and they needed to focus on something that might actually be productive.
“Tomorrow we should probably do some real shopping over in Bullhead City as soon as the stores open,” Pru suggested. “The stuff we got downstairs will hold us over tonight, but if we’re going to be stuck here for a couple of days or even longer, then we’re going to need some real clothes.”
Caleb hated to waste his time on something so trivial, but he knew she was right. Driving back to Las Vegas and picking up some of their actual possessions would take far longer than just going across the river and seeing what they could find on the Arizona side of the Colorado.
A few hours ago, he wouldn’t have been so unconcerned about the prospect of crossing the river. Now, though, after getting actually dunked in the Colorado and living to tell the tale, he figured he could probably roll with whatever the river tried to throw at him.
“Let me check what’s there,” he said, and got his phone out again. Although he didn’t expect to find a Nordstrom or a Neiman Marcus or anything, he was still glad to see there was a Kohl’s. That was a few steps up from having to go to Target or Walmart.
He relayed this information to the other two, and Pru nodded. “That works. So we’ll just plan to be up early so we can be there as soon as they open at nine.” She stopped there, expression turning worried. “I should probably call Linda, though.”
Linda Dunne, Delia’s mother. Under other circumstances, Caleb might have said there was no reason to let Delia’s family know what was going on, not when no one on this fun little expedition to Laughlin even had a clear idea as to how to even find her, but the two women ran a business together, and Linda needed to know that her daughter wouldn’t be available to honor any appointments she might have tomorrow…or the next couple of days.
He really hated not knowing how long all this could drag out.
“You don’t think it’s too late to call?” he asked.
“Maybe a little, but since this is kind of an emergency, I don’t think she’ll mind.”
Caleb couldn’t really argue with that. Or at least, he hoped Linda would recognize the need to get in touch with her tonight, but at the same time also understand that this was just about making sure Delia’s clients were taken care of, and not because Linda’s daughter was in any immediate danger.
That they knew of, anyway. However, Caleb tried to tell himself that she must have been taken because August Sellers thought she was valuable in some way. Hurting her would be counterproductive.
