Free Unlucky by Jana DeLeon Page B

was he thinking?"
    "Royal is too self-absorbed to know anything about the locals," Mallory said. "Even if someone had warned him about me, he would have immediately dismissed it. His imagination would never stretch that far."
    Scooter pulled himself up from the floor and slid back into his seat. "That was great, Mai," he huffed, still trying to get his breath back to normal, "but you still should have let me hit him."
    Mallory grinned at her friend and shook her head. "I appreciate the desire, Scooter, and certainly have no doubts about the outcome, but you have to admit, the challenge isn't really there. It would be like shooting alligators in the game preserve."
    "I guess," Scooter admitted somewhat grudgingly. "But I'm not above an unfair advantage as long as it's mine."
    "Neither am I." She lifted one hand in the air. "It was handled the best way possible for the time being. Besides, I need you here watching Reginald. Royal wouldn't hesitate to file charges against either of us for hitting him and what we need to do can't be accomplished from jail."
    "Why is Scooter watching Reginald?" Amy asked, a confused expression on her face.
    "Because," Mallory explained, "I want to know what my uncle is up to before it comes back to bite us all in the ass."
    Amy gave her a slow nod. "Okay, while I might agree in theory, do you really think it's a good idea to have Scooter following your uncle around?" Translation:
Won't Scooter make an ever-living mess of this the way he does everything
else?
    Mallory shrugged. "He's the only one available, and Reginald will be more likely to say something important in front of Scooter than others." Translation: Reginald
thinks Scooter's an idiot and won't watch his words when he's around
.
    Amy nodded her understanding, then turned to Scooter. "So did you find out anything?"
    "Nothing to find," Scooter said. "He spent almost the entire morning back in his storeroom doing inventory. He came into the kitchen about twenty minutes ago and told me he was going to grab a bite to eat then take a shower and if I needed anything, he'd been in his office after that."
    Mallory narrowed her eyes at Scooter. "I thought you told me he was taking a shower earlier this morning."
    Scooter scratched his head and looked momentarily confused. "Yeah, I did. I mean, he did. At least, that's what he said." Scooter paused for a moment. "That's an awful lot of showering for a guy who spent his whole morning carrying around a clipboard."
    "It certainly is," Mallory agreed. "Unless he isn't really showering."
    "So what do you think he's really doing?" Amy asked.
    "I don't know," Mallory said, a million ideas running through her head. Finally she turned to Scooter. "Is there any way to hear what happens in Reginald's office? I mean, how thick are the walls?"
    Scooter shrugged. "The walls ain't all that thick, but if you're wanting to listen to Reginald take a shower, that's even easier to do."
    "How's that?" Mallory asked.
    "You see," Scooter explained, "Reginald had me put that shower in after the fact, guess he didn't think about it before, and there was no way to vent it through the floor--no room with the ducts for the air conditioning for the two levels of casino. I tried to get him to install it on an outside wall so we could vent outside the casino, but he didn't want to block his view." Scooter gave them a satisfied nod, like what he'd just said explained everything.
    Mallory absorbed his ramblings for a moment, then smiled. "So you vented the bathroom into the hall, right?"
    "Exactly."
    Amy frowned. "So anything Reginald does in the bathroom is vented into the hall? That's gross on so many levels I'm not even going to get into it."
    "It's not so bad," Scooter said. "His office is on a deadend hallway between the storage rooms." He grinned at Amy. "No one really has any reason to be back there, and the stock probably won't complain if Reginald eats beans for lunch or anything."
    "That," Amy said, "was entirely too