I lick my lips and keep eye contact with her. “I need your help. A woman was brought in about fifteen minutes ago, coming from the Bellagio, her name is Carissa...” Shoot I haven’t gotten her last name yet, we really did do things backward. “I need you to tell me what she’s being charged with.”
Hannah frowns and runs a plump hand over her tight graying bun. “You know I can’t share information like that unless you’re her lawyer and you don’t even know her full name.”
“I am her lawyer, Her last name is just slipping my mind. Can you do me this favor please? I’ll never ask for another one from you. Please.”
She must hear the desperation in my voice and looks over her shoulder. “You’re her lawyer? You’re not lying about that?”
I shake my head. “You know I despise lying. I’m her lawyer.”
She sighs and motions for me to come around the desk to the computer in front of her. She quickly types in the information and I frown as I see Carissa’s last name for the first time, Adler. Paul’s last name was Adler as well. It’s just a coincidence, right? I blink my eyes as I do the math about her age. She said she would be turning twenty-two in three months. Paul’s daughter was born in July. Is that way she seems so familiar? She does look similar to him, but there’s no way our paths may have crossed. I don’t want to believe that I slept with Paul’s daughter.
Hannah lets me take over her mouse and I scroll through her intake file. They’ve already processed her and her arraignment will be in six hours. I frown as I see her charges. Fraud, stealing the casino’s property in the form of chips. My eyes widen at the amount of a hundred thousand dollars. What in the world? She doesn’t seem like the kind of person to do something like that.
She’s been such a sweet girl, earning her money honestly. Most who have been working in the casinos for more than a few months know most chips, besides the one dollar ones they sell as souvenirs, are tracked by serial numbers and the high-value ones are rendered worthless with their RFID technology that makes it so they can’t be cashed at any time. Along with countless other things. From their state-of-the-art security systems to their facial recognition.
I click on the security footage they have inside the system, that’s been submitted as evidence of her crime.
The video comes on screen. An older woman leaves the cage and I speed up the footage as the cage is left empty. Why didn’t they have two people working the cage while the other went on break? This had to be around just before dawn when things would be the slowest at the cage.
A moment later a woman comes in and different angles from other cameras come up. She wears a scarf over the lower half of her face and large eyeglasses over her eyes. I can tell instantly it’s not Carissa. One, she’s too tall, and two Carissa has slender curves, not round ones like this woman.
She goes over to the computer and moves the camera in the corner. What she doesn’t know is it’s a decoy to deter people from stealing. The casino uses micro camera technology all over to catch people doing all sorts of crimes. Whoever this woman is, she’s an idiot to think she could steal from a casino. They’re all run by criminals and criminals will go to extreme lengths to protect what’s theirs.
I use the controls on the keyboard to zoom in on the tag on her vest. It says Carissa, but it’s clear to me it isn’t her. I pull up the timestamp information and find it was taken at two in the morning. At that time, Carissa was asleep in my arms. If they check the elevator footage from earlier in the night they would find her with me and that she didn’t leave my room until nearly seven in the morning. They can’t say she was there when she was with me.
They have cameras everywhere. Even if she took the stairs from the thirtieth floor down to the casino floor, they would see her in the stairwells along with when she came on the floor. She was out of her uniform when she came up with me, and this person is still in theirs.
It’s clear that they were trying to frame her for the crime, but they didn’t take into account so many other things. It’s clear they aren’t any kind of heist expert. The casinos don’t even deal out cash or coins anymore. Everything is digital. If the person wanted to steal money, coming to a casino was not the way to do it.
From what I saw yesterday, the employee locker’s door only opens for employee ID badges, but perhaps someone picked one off an employee and somehow got ahold of a uniform and Carissa’s name tag.
Once I’m put into the system as her lawyer, this file should be sent to me. Perhaps if I show her this video she can tell me if she recognizes the woman. If we can provide identification as well at her trial it will help things along as well. I know that she’ll want her ban lifted without even having to talk to her. With the way she talked about the casino this morning, I could tell that it is a special place to her.
Closing out of it I turn to Hannah. “Thank you for this. It looks to me like the casino is taking things at face value and not digging deeper. If they even took a second to compare the body types they would see that hers does not match that woman’s.”
Hannah shrugs. “It’s possible that she was wearing padding to try and throw them off.”
I arch an eyebrow. “Come now, Hannah, you’re smarter than that. If she was trying to throw them off with that, why would she wear her name tag?”
Hannah looks off to the side. “I guess you have a point. But I’m not the judge.”
I check my watch. “Is there any way we could have her arraignment moved up?” I want to say that I don’t want her sitting scared in a holding cell for half the night when she must be scared to death. But I don’t want to lead on. I have feelings invested in her. I can represent her as her lawyer because our sexual relationship happened before all this shit happened. Thank god for that. If it hadn’t happened before last night then we wouldn’t be able to be together at all. If she had hired me and we hadn’t done anything we would’ve had to wait until after I’m no longer her lawyer to give in to our feelings.
I don’t think I would’ve been able to take that kind of agony.
She grimaces. “I don’t know. The schedule is pretty full, and I don’t think there’s anyone who can be moved. You’re just going to have to play the waiting game.”
I sigh. I assumed as much. I need to at least assure her that everything is going to be okay. “I would like to speak to my client, please.”
After some paperwork, making myself her representation, they brought me to a room to be able to speak with her. She doesn’t say anything to me until the officer leaves the room and then she sits forward. Tears fill her eyes. “I’m so relieved to see you. How are you here? I didn’t do what they’re saying I did. I’m not stupid. I know any chips above a hundred become valueless once they’re reported as stolen. I would never even attempt something like that. I don’t want to get on the bad side of the mob. It’s not worth it.”
I reach out and pat her hand. “Breathe, Carissa. I know you didn’t do it. At the time they said you did, you were with me. Your arraignment will be in a few hours. Once your bail is posted I can pay it and get you out. We’ll have to wait until your trial to prove your innocence, but there is footage of you going into my hotel room with me and leaving it this morning. Once they have their people looking at it closer they’ll also be able to tell that you’re not the same woman in the footage either. She’s taller and heavier than you. It was obvious to me. Right now they’re taking it at face value, because whoever it was stole and wore your name tag. They’re technically doing their jobs by taking in the most obvious suspect first, but I’m going to prove that you didn’t do it.”
She frowns and looks around. She lowers her voice. “Can you be my lawyer? Isn’t that like a conflict of interest since we slept together?”
I shake my head. We slept together before I became your lawyer, thus it is legal for me to be your lawyer, we were together before our legal relationship happened. If it had happened the other way around, then we could get in trouble.”
A sigh of relief leaves her. “I guess I should be glad we burn hot, right? I don’t think I would be able to keep my hands off you before the trial if that were the case.”
