only,” rather surprised that it wasn’t locked.
“Can I help you?” A pretty girl with long, curly black hair stood in the hallway behind the door.
“My name’s Constance Allen, I’m—”
The girl thrust her hand out. “I know exactly who you are. John told us you might want to see back here. I’m Cecily Dawson. Come in.” She smiled, though Constance saw a hint of suspicion in her eyes. Hardly surprising under the circumstances.
“Is it okay if I watch the cashiers for a while?”
“Sure, follow me.” She led Constance into the large room, where all the cashiers sat along one wall facing out. Cecily beckoned to a dark-skinned man standing behind the row of cashiers, tapping something into his phone. “Darius, this is Constance Allen.”
He pocketed his phone and walked toward her. “A pleasure to meet you, Constance. John told us all about you.” His handshake was firm and authoritative. He held her gaze, and her hand, with confidence. He was almost as dangerously handsome as John.
“Is there somewhere I can sit down, out of the way?”
“No need to be out of the way.” He touched her arm, and she stifled the urge to flinch. “Come stand with me and watch the whole operation.”
“Darius manages the cashiers. He’s always on the lookout for trouble.”
“In whatever form it may arrive.” He shot her a dark gaze filled with mischief.
Constance blinked. “I don’t want to get in your way.”
“If you’re in my way, I’ll move.” His half smile contained a hint of suggestion. He was flirting with her, too? Maybe this was part of their shtick at the casino. Constance was beginning to regret coming down here. “Each cash register records a sale in our central system and all the records are checked four times a day against the takings. I watch the customers to see if anyone’s acting suspicious. It’s my job to look for cracks in the system, too, so let me know if you think we could improve upon anything.”
“Do you get a lot of suspicious activity?”
“Not so far. We have a lot of controls in place to prevent employees from getting tempted to put their hand in the till. That’s more of a problem than the customers at some casinos.”
“Are you all members of the Nissequot tribe?”
“Cecily and I are, and Brianna at the end.” He pointed to a blonde girl counting out cash at high speed. “Frank, Tessa and Marie are just hoping to marry into the tribe one day.” He grinned when Marie, a middle-aged woman in a conservative suit, turned to blow him a kiss. “But we’re one big happy family.”
His phone beeped and he checked the screen. “Our fearless leader is heading this way,” he said to the cashiers. “Look like you’re working.” He winked at her.
Constance pretended she hadn’t seen it. And now John was coming? She braced herself. The cashiers dispensed money with warm customer service and brisk efficiency. They joked and seemed to be enjoying themselves. It wasn’t like this at Creighton Waterman. Joviality was frowned upon. In fact, one junior accountant, Daniel Bono, had recently been let go for smiling too much in meetings, or at least that was the rumor.
Customers were streaming into the casino, which struck Constance as a little odd since it was a Wednesday morning. “Why are so many people here at this time of day?”
“We have tour buses pick them up in Boston, Worcester, Springfield. We’re adding more routes all the time. A lot of our customers are retirees. We run a brisk trade at the nursing homes.”
“Should the elderly be gambling with their life savings?” She felt her brow rise.
Darius’s wicked smile reappeared. “Maybe their heirs don’t think so, but it’s their money, right?”
She shook her head. “I don’t get why people want to do this.”
“It’s fun. Like buying a lottery ticket.”
“Do you gamble?”
He shook his head. “John discourages us from gambling. He thinks it’s better to put your money in the bank. As far as I know, Don Fairweather is the only gambler in the family. Have you met him?”
“I have. He seems like quite a character.”
“I heartily agree.”
John burst into the room at that moment. His piercing gaze zeroed in on her. “I was looking for you.”
“Now you’ve found me.” She tilted her chin up, proud that she managed to sound so calm. “I was just observing how the cashiers work.”
“I see you’ve met my cousin Darius. He only graduated from college two years ago and he’s turning into my right-hand man.”
Darius smiled. “I’ve learned everything from the best.”
John put his arm around Darius. “He moved here all the way from L.A. to join the tribe. We’re working on the rest of his branch of the family.”
“They’re not quite ready to move into the backwoods.” Darius shrugged. “But the way things are going, this won’t be the backwoods for long.”
John looked at Constance for a moment. “I’d like to show you around some more.”
“I think I’ve seen everything there is to see. I came through the gaming rooms and passed the slot machines on my way over here.”
“Not just the casino and hotel. The whole reservation.”
She felt herself frown. Was he trying to shunt her away from here for some reason? She’d barely had time to observe anything. Suspicion crept over her.
On the other hand, she had a feeling Nicola Moore would want her to see as much of the place as possible. “Okay.”
“Excellent. We’ll start with the museum. Darius can tell you what a passion of mine that has become.”
Darius nodded. “It’s a labor of love, all right. And thousands of hours of expert research.”
“It’s not easy to uncover history that’s been deliberately buried. Let’s go.” John gestured toward the door, and she went ahead of him, nodding and smiling to the other employees, and grateful that John hadn’t tried to take her hand or put his arm around her.
They walked back through the gaming rooms to the lobby. Retirees were busy wasting their savings in the slot machines, and a surprisingly large number of other people were hunched over the tables as well.
“I didn’t know you had a museum.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know.” He smiled mysteriously. “All of it good, of course.”
“If you’re covering up a fraud, you’re doing it very well.”
“I take pride in
