Copyright
Copyright © Jessie Keane 2011
Jessie Keane asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 9780007349395
Ebook Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007332922
Version: 2018-02-16
Chapter 1
18 December
The instant the police were ushered into her office over the casino, Gracie Doyle knew there was trouble brewing. She was slouching in her chair, with her aching bare feet up on her desk after a long, long day. It was a cold, blustery Friday night, and in precisely a week’s time – seven days! Count ’em – it would be Christmas Day.
She was already sick of all the jingle-bells and fake bonhomie, the endless Wizard and Slade tracks being pumped out of every shopping mall’s sound system, the crazed crush of people wherever you went. Bad things happened at Christmas. For instance, her dad had died just before last Christmas Day. Fatal heart attack, right there in the middle of the casino boulevard. Boom! One minute there, the next – gone. Gracie hated Christmas.
Now she was just sitting, contemplating what she would actually do over the festive break – as usual, she’d made no real plans and also as usual she hadn’t even put up a tree in her flat – fuck that – when there was a knock on the door and two cops, one male, one female, were shown in by Brynn, the manager.
Gracie’s feet slipped from the desk as she sat bolt upright in surprise.
Cops were rarely seen inside the casino, mostly because Gracie Doyle, thirty-year-old daughter of the late Paddy Doyle, ran a very tight ship here in the centre of Manchester. Since she’d been catapulted into the driving seat following her dad’s death, she’d put lots of new security in place, even an ultra-sophisticated ‘eye in the sky’ video surveillance system that recorded every movement, every word, every bet placed, every chip handled. There had been scammers, of course; there always were. But no one had yet beaten Gracie’s system.
So what were the cops doing here?
‘Miss Doyle?’ asked the male uniformed PC.
It was funny how, after all this time, she still half expected to hear her other name, but now she used just plain Gracie Doyle. Head of Doyles. She was proud of her achievements. She’d feared she would sink without her dad at the helm, but she’d swum. Hell, she’d powered through the waters of the casino world, glad now that Dad had insisted she work her way up the ranks; she’d kicked against it sometimes, but he’d been right.
She knew the business inside out. She’d started as a slots trainee, then a dealer; then she’d graduated to box man – or box person, to use the politically correct term. Then she was a floor person, then a pit boss, a shift boss, and finally she was shadowing the casino manager – Brynn. Today she was proprietor, sole owner. The buck stopped, very firmly, with her.
Now, when she walked through the vast sliding double-doors and into reception, moved with her easy, long-legged stride down the sumptuously thick gold carpet of the boulevard of slot machines and into the casino proper, she felt like a queen – and everyone treated her as such.
Gracie loved the late-night casino world; the ping and tinkle of the slots as players, ‘comped’ with free booze and soft drinks, chanced their luck; the intense concentration of the high-stakes punters as the gold-liveried croupiers scooped up their brightly coloured plastic chips and positioned them on this number or that, then spun the roulette wheel. Their howling yells of triumph when they won; their disappointment when they lost – and usually they did lose – but always, always, they came back and tried to beat the house again.